Monday, October 27, 2008

Big government = bad?

McCain is making a lot of statements lately condemning the Democrats' desire for so-called "big government." While I agree that unnecessary bureaucracy is inefficient and wasteful and should be avoided, I'm still not quite sure why "big government" is such a horrible thing. Who else is going to control the country, if not the government? Recent events have shown that business leaders are completely incapable of suborning their own greed for the greater good. That's the JOB of the government, for crying out loud.

And aren't the Republicans the ones pushing all the wiretapping programs and the Patriot Act and all that? What is that, if not big government? (Oh, right. Those are REPUBLICAN programs that will protect us from evil people who want to destroy us. Big government is fine as long as they control it and are using it to spy on us. But as soon as we want to use government to keep people from going broke, or to make sure everyone can afford to see a doctor when they're sick--watch out! Socialism on the way!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

McCain is campaigning solely on bumper-sticker catchphrases right now, as he has no real ideas. Therefore, we see the "big government" hoodoo coming out of his campaign. I say this as a Republican who is tired of my party's floundering... not that one party is all that different from the other these days.

Kate Porter said...

True, the parties really aren't that different. I saw a bumper sticker once (many years ago) that sums it up pretty well: "Under Republicans, the rich get richer. Under Democrats, it's just the opposite."

I'm not sure I completely agree...but my disagreement is in degree, not in substance.