Thursday, May 10, 2012

Big Honking Government

The unnoticed yet powerful undercurrent moving voters along in November will be intrusive government. As many libertarians often point out with amusement or bitterness, Republicans are the supporters of Big Brother, big government, and tightly controlled liberties.

The words we hear from the GOP spokes-folk are often the opposite. Citing strong support for the likes of handgun laxness, they are wont to say, "See...Second Amendments...personal rights...freedom!" Yet in Congress, the Presidency, governorships and state legislatures, they have been all about having government direct our personal lives, tell us what to do, spy on us, and in general be paternalistic.

Obama and other Dems could benefit powerfully if voters take that difference to the polls come November. Y'all want Homeland Security/TSA in your bra and briefs? Go Republican! How about spending obscene tax dollars defending against the Soviet Union and other non-existent past threats with a bloated military budget? Go Republican! How about a national law forbidding federal benefits to gay couples? Oh, Republicans with Pres. Clinton's help already did that. How about plebiscites on civil rights of various minorities? Go Republican!

It goes on and on. Matched with the 5-4 archly conservative-to-reactionary SCOTUS, the only national safeguards for our established liberties are a Dem-controlled White House and Senate.

The GOP philosophic underpinning fascinates. A Daddy or Big Brother figure needs to be in charge. No freedom to marry for homosexual couples is obvious there. Ceding freedom to travel under the fantasy that millions of daily searches and pat downs will keep us safe has appalling widespread acceptance. Letting domestic spooks monitor our calls, emails, sites visited and more is the sort of unreasonable search-and-seizures that fomented the revolution in Colonial America, but the GOP'er blindly approve.

Come November, Americans are in for another great choice. We blundered nearly everywhere in 2010 in the midterms. The severely mistaken hope, the fantasy really, that Republicans had a better national view ruled that election.

Of course, as we have seen since at least Reagan's time, their solution is borrow and spend. Their policies cause ever-increasing income disparity. They want big government to control our personal lives, while all the while claiming they'd shrink expenditures and employees. In fact, they provably do the opposite at every chance, and a terrifying amount of their outlays enable laws and agencies to strip us of liberties.

Voters went with the fantasy of having guns and butter with several Republican administrations. Many will never learn the futility of such delusional votes. Now we have seen GOP Presidents and Congresses and a winger high court tell us whom we can marry, tell us whether we can board airplanes, and spy on us freely. Surely a majority of us can see that and are sick of it.

2 comments:

Bill Baar said...

I'd be happy if my kid found a decent job at the moment.

JMP said...

Yes, what you said about the Republicans is true. But the Democrats are no better. Obama and the Dems have not changed our pro-war policies, have not reigned in TSA or "Homeland" Security, have not shut down Gitmo, and have not only extended the Patriot Act but now, with their help and the president's signing, we have the NDAA in place. (By the way, I notice that UU's in general have been silent on how the Democrats can act so Republican.) I think it's time for people to abandon both of the Big Brother parties. Maybe that's why so many don't bother to vote at all? If I do decide to vote, it will be Libertarian.