Now just to show that I’m not being narrow in my view, let me offer this example. A few years back a tsunami swamped Sri Lanka. A few days later, a United States Naval Task Force sailed into harbor there and immediately began making clean water for tens of thousands of displaced people. (They did other things, too, but just imagine the ability to do that one thing for a moment…)

You can’t do that with a small government. Now if you want to suggest that we maybe shouldn’t do that sort of thing, that’s a different argument, but we are here humanitarians, despite certain recent examples to contrary, and we do have need of a large, complex, and powerful military force, and not just to kill people. So. You can do the good thing or you can shrink the government. Not both.

Personally, I think all the kvetching about the size of the government is pretty much bullshit. Our government costs less as a percentage of GDP than many other developed nations and more than a few developing nations. Given the road system, the water system, the communications system, the legal system, the educational system, the park system, the FDA, the EPA, the Conservation departments, the police departments, the licensing bureaus, the patent bureau, NASA, NOA, NEA, NEH, FAA, not to mention the above-cited military apparatus, and all the state and local agencies affiliated with those systems, and the fact that, in spite of the last 8 years we’ve suffered an administration that seemed at times willfully bent on breaking all those systems, they all work pretty much the way they’re supposed to, I think we get a bargain. Of course, anyone can find one or two examples of something screwed up that doesn’t work right—like the current SEC (which suffered huge losses in field agents as well as interference from the White House)—but I don’t think that justifies condemning the whole damn thing.

And I rather like all those services.

Now Clinton balanced the budget—no mean feat—and managed to increase certain services, so it’s not impossible to have some efficiency as well as a government large enough to do all the things many people want.

So, yes, I support tax money being spent on libraries, roads, and the amount of military spending that we really need to defend the country. There are numerous programs that should not, in my opinion, be supported by tax dollars.

I’m for wise and frugal spending of tax dollars, where an important objective won’t be accomplished in the absence of that government spending. How does that differ significantly from your attitude as a libertarian?

When the question of deficits and taxes comes up, why is the option of shrinking Government and entitlements never brought up. The solution to every problem seems to be Raise taxes on those who can afford it, and many that can’t and add to an already obscenely bloated federal Gov’t.
further enslaving people and snuffing out individual liberties like so many candles. Both parties are to blame for the mess we are in, going back to woodrow wilson, heck, even Lincoln… Why hand your executioner the axe???? As George Bernard Shaw once said, ” If you are planning to rob Peter to pay Paul, you can generally count on Paul’s support” Thanks, God Bless

I have these moments….

Actually, many years ago, Erich and I attended a study group together and he had opportunity once or twice to see me “go off” on someone who had made a particularly obtuse statement. It’s been years, but perhaps he could vouch for my ability….?

The literary license extends to eiliminating the “ums” and “huhs” and occasional incoherent sentences inevitable in any conversation, but the encounter went down pretty much as described.

I am comforted by the sort of sync of contained rage most posters feel in this. After eight years of utter assault by the worst infants our culture has to offer has left those of us at least TRYING to act like responsible adults and act on our COURAGE and not fear, I too feel sometimes at the end of the rope.

I too rattle a little when called a liberal, just because I really am NOT. I see myself as a member of the big fat middle of the bell curve, the reasonable intelligent and educated who generally proceeds pragmatically with compassion. But when the political culture gets shifted so far to the right, EVERYTHING else IS left of them, including honesty, common sense, and decency.

As I said, it probably wasn’t nearly as smooth as I wrote, so yes, a bit of literary license (as an exercise once at Clarion, Samuel Delany had us all try to transcribe a conversation verbatim just to see how it worked as dialogue—most enlightening), but I do occasionally have the ability to rant lucidly when I get into a certain groove. I should post the story of my most devlish encounter with a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses when I was 21. That was a performance.