bush, rove, et al fuel the hatred of government in general - shrink it??

[The Straight Story]

If I didn't know any better I would say the whole last few years (since 2001) has been a ploy to destroy some core ideals - fueled by our anger/hatred towards bush and rove.

During the Clinton years one of the jobs I held was in the reloading and govt surplus field - and I spoke a lot with militia folks. Clinton and waco, okie city, et al, was fuel for their fire. But they were no fans of republicans either. It was all about big government (to some extent).

Now here we are attacking the government as much (if not more, and I can assure you it is more) as those folks did - from conspiracy theories (9/11 was all drones, aliens, et al) to federal government is too big. Too much power given to too few. Too many big agendas from the big city folk impacting the rural people (akin to - as some I have known have said - to the US telling smaller countries how to operate). What is good for San Fran may not be good for small town, USA.

So bush and rove and crew all suck. No surprise there. Big companies give lots of $$ and the little guy gets the shaft. How different is it with dems in power?

Me, I believe with dems in power we can tip the balance back (albeit slower than I like) to the common man/woman. But I can see where the little guy is coming from. To wit:

1. No smoking in bars, et al - seen as a dem idea
2. Seat belts - seen as a dem thing
3. Regulating all sorts of things from fires in backyard to regulations on garage sales - seen as a dem thing.

and on and on it goes. Dem or Rethug people are sick of govt butting their nose into things.

And with the current regime it all seems to be re-inforced. Gov't knows best, let us tap your phones, regulate your lives, etc.

The thing I keep hearing is - shrink the government and give it less power. The more power they have the more they can abuse us. Instead of democratic being an ideal to people, it is but one of two choices of power we agree to give to folks over us.

The problem is not that we are poorly communicating superior ideals (which I think ours are) but that people have come to a view that any government in power is bad and corrupt. I was born in 1965. I remember Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, bush 1, clinton, bush 2. Same shit, different day.

People are sick of the same crap. What choices do they have? If we look at 2008 we might well have a bush (jeb) versus Clinton. Nothing new there....

So, to me, it is no wonder people are sick of big government. I know I am :)

[lvx35]

1. To me the real question is who the government is.

"Me, I believe with dems in power we can tip the balance back (albeit slower than I like) to the common man/woman."

You nailed it there. The power of the state is the common will of the people, and all of its legitimate power is derived from that. I think the real fight here is against illegitate big government, (in the sense that it does not reflect the will of the people) and that's what people on both sides are railing against.