Government being what it is, it will screw things up. It concentrates power, and wherever power is concentrated, there you will find greed, ego, corruption, and waste.
Therefore, Government being what it is, the more it gets involved, the more it will screw things up.
On the other hand, individuals being what they are, the less Government gets involved, the more individuals will screw things up.
So that's a bitch of a tradeoff, really. Or is it? The bottom line appears to be, there will be screwups no matter what.
So really, my choice is, do I pay taxes to a Government that is bound to spend my tax dollars poorly, or do I keep that money to spend wisely or poorly as I see fit? Do I dream of a government that regulates my life in impractical and sometimes wrongful ways, or do I dream of a Government that butts out, and lets me screw up my own life according to my own needs and desires?
In reality, of course, I dream of some balance of the two extremes. But I'm biased in favor of Less Government.
This probably my main problem with Bush. He's kind of an asshat when it comes to the core conservative principle of Small Government. If that were the only issue facing me today, I'd be pretty upset with the President we've got right now. However, since there are Ten Thousand Other Things that also demand my attention and concern, and since Government will never be Small enough to satisfy me, I'm willing to put that particular issue on the back burner. It's not going away, and I figure things like the "War on Terror" are more important right now.
Besides, even if there was no war on, it's not like the Democrats are going to give me a smaller Government than Bush has. As bad as Bush is about Government Bloat, the Democrats make it a campaign promise to be even worse. I'd rather have a solid wartime president who doesn't quite "get it" about Small Government, than a pacifist asshat president who flat-out promises me Big Government.
For all you liberals out there, please note the other side of the Big Government coin: Whenever you support a new Government program, you're giving the opposition faction even more authority over your life, the next time they're in power. And given the rantings over at Democratic Underground on any day ending in "Y", it looks like you can't even trust most of your own party to not abuse the authority you apparently are so desperate to give them.
