The conservative view is that the government should be a useful servant of the people's needs. However, you give it too much money, power, authority it becomes the worst sort of master.
Why is it that so many Conservatives don't see how their party increased the size, budget, and power of Washington. Indeed, some of their most respected leaders have grown government much larger than anything imagined by Carter, Clinton, or Obama. They don't know the truth because they get their news from [wait for it] government, i.e., movement conservatism, which is an interlocking set of doctrinal structures that stretch from think tanks & publishing groups to the blogosphere and FOX News.
Look at Reagan's slice of the Cold War. He used it as a context for globalization, i.e., he used the Soviet Threat to pull developing nations under America's protective wing. In crude terms, he used the IMF to make structural adjustment loans to countries who had valuable assets. Corruptible representatives from those countries would strategically default on those loans, than the U.S. would gain leverage over their markets (i.e., open them to foreign investment). Reagan did all over the glove, especially in South America, Africa, and the Middle East. In each case he grew Washington's size and reach. He didn't just create a Washington big enough to manage the USA; nope, he created one big enough to manage the globe. In simple terms, heincreased the Pentagon's budget so that he could stabilize the 3rd world, so that he could protect and expand necessary markets. The point remains the same: he used the Cold War to grow the size, budget, and power of Washington more than anything his democratic predecessor ever dreamed.
Jimmy Carter lamented American involvement in the Middle East. He didn't think Washington had the resources to stabilize the Muslim world. He simply didn't have that kind of faith in the power of government to control the globe for its energy resources. He launched the most ambitious alternative energy and conservation plan in order to get Washington out of the middle east. He predicted that some day the Washington investment in Petroleum (as opposed to alternatives and conservation) would lead to bankruptcy in places like Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan.
Reagan laughed at Carter. He trusted Big Government's ability to control world events. He didn't seek independence from the middle easy - nope. He convinced CONSERVATIVES that Washington could control and stabilize the middle east. He doubled down on the region, increasing American bases tenfold. And he made sure that the military investment in the middle east was severed from the cost of oil, so that the market would not send the wrong price signals, causing investments to flow into alternative fuels. Reagan convinced his loyal, obedient conservatives that Washington was competent enough to police the globe.
And then comes George W Bush. He convinced conservative voters that Washington was powerful enough to rebuild the greater middle east. Washington can't run a laundromat, yet conservatives gave it the power to change the way the muslim world lives. As if Washington was powerful and competent enough to force Islam into western modernity.
Watch what happens when the GOP re-takes Washington next January. Next stop Iran. They don't want a Washington big enough to control the 50 states, nope - they want a Washington big enough to control whole other continents.
Listen, I would love to save the world and spread utopian freedom to everyone. But I don't trust government to do such big things. I believe if you give government a concentrated lever of power, than you increase the chances that a fallible bureaucrat will misuse that power. This is why I don't want the power to exist in the first place. Because once you create a government agency - around the weapons industry - that agency begins to grow and feed only itself. It becomes a self perpetuating budget drag where parasitic special interests form and rot the taxpayers wallet from the core.
The Cold War and the War on Terrorism grew Washington's power more than anything ever imagined by the Left. Bush (and Obama, Bush junior) used the War on Terrorism to create the largest, most expensive, most secretive bureaucracy ever - the Department of Homeland Security, which is growing beyond control.
A hidden world, growing beyond control | washingtonpost.com
The problem with the original poster is that he doesn't realize that his party has expanded the power of Washington more than any in history. He needs to turn off talk radio and take university course in how the Cold War and War on Terrorism put Washington on steroids. If he cared about small government, he would puke every time Reagan's name was mentioned. He would go back to the old isolationist conservatives who opposed the big liberal world improvers, FDR and Truman.
Until the OP sees the difference between Ron Paul and Ronald Reagan, we are in terrible shape.... (because he votes)
