http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70318.html Americans’ fear of big government - partly fueled by a sharp spike among Democrats since President Barack Obama took office - almost reached a record high this year and is far greater than people’s concerns about big business and big labor, a new Gallup poll Monday shows. An overwhelming 64 percent of people surveyed said big government was the biggest threat to the country, compared to just 26 percent who said big business is their gravest concern and 8 percent who picked big labor. ... GOPers have become increasingly concerned about big government since 2006 when President George W. Bush was in office – 68 percent of Republicans said 5 years ago that big government was the biggest threat to the nation – in 2009 and 2011, this percentage crept up into the 80’s. The Gallup poll was conducted Nov. 28-Dec. 1 among 1,012 adults ages 18 and older, and has an error of margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
What is "big government," though? The article uses the term over and over, but doesn't really bother describing it. I'm afraid of big government. But I'm not afraid of Medicare payments or Social Security, which are the biggest parts of our government. Or the Department of Education or the EPA or NASA or FEMA or the Coast Guard or the post office. I doubt the majority of Americans lose sleep at night in terror of any of those things. I'm afraid of the military industrial complex, the prison system, the local cop who is rude and has too high an opinion of himself, the cop spraying mace into faces of peaceful protestors, extraordinary rendition, government interfering with a woman's right to choose, the layers of complexity endlessly being woven into our tax system by lobbyists and corrupt politicans....but I hardly think that those fears makes me a libertarian or a Republican. Saying you are "afraid of big government" in this day and age is like saying you are "afraid of sharp stuff." A sword and a dinner fork can both be sharp, but one tends to dwell more on the sword.
I guess I have mixed emotions regarding this scene. Were they actually blocking a street? [video=youtube;wuWEx6Cfn-I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I[/video]
The US government owns and operates over 300 golf courses, scores of ski and beach resorts, bowling alleys, amusement attractions... All subsidized by the taxpayer so The Senate, The House, the military, other government agency employees like NASA and DHS, and of course defense contractors can play for a fraction of what it would cost you or I. This is what "big government" means to me. So big most citizens don't even realize the absurdity of it.
thats obviously not wide enough to be a road ABM. Pretty sure it's a concrete walking path on their college campus. STOMP
It's a sidewalk between campus buildings. Meanwhile, serial killers, pedophiles and methdealers have the run of the city.
It appears to be a sidewalk. But even if it was a street, so what? It's not I-5. It's in Davis, California, a lovely town but hardly the center of the universe. Is the world going to end if a street in Davis is blocked? barfo
If the poll results were opposite - people more afraid of big business - you'd be singing a different tune. "Take me out to the ballgame," perhaps? People can boycott big business. They can't boycott government. Big business doesn't carry guns and have the power to arrest people for not giving them revenues. Big business has a strong correlation between revenues and spending. Big government empowers big business in sinister ways. Neatly, you point out lots of ways big government does fuck us over. You don't get the so-called "good" without the demonstrable bad. The people know it.
It's interesting that the 82% of Republican respondents thought big government is the biggest threat to future yet they keep endorsing candidates that espouse big Government.
It's interesting that people hate big government but that the 2 biggest parts of government (as stated earlier--Social Security and Medicare) aren't something that the government was supposed to be doing--until "progressive" Democrats (FDR and LBJ) came along and thought that Marx knew more than the Founding Fathers. At least Social Security is (kind of) paying for itself. Medicare is overrun by the entire budget of the DoD and DHS combined. Or in another term, you could fight 14 Iraq/Afghanistan wars annually for the price of one year of Medicare overruns.
True, but the rest are espousing big govt. and foisting it on us against our will. That and big govt. isn't doing much that visibly helps the citizens for the money it costs.
That's not really true, though, is it? You don't see British cops macing protesters in the face, and yet most would say they have more "big government" than we do. You don't see Canadians passing bills to whisk away their citizens to secret prisons, and yet most would say they have more "big government" than we do. You don't see the ridiculous tangle of tax code in Germany that we have, and yet most would say they have more "big government" than we do. It's pure demagoguery to act as if "big government" is binary. You act as if you either have it (and all its negatives) or you don't (and live in a libertarian utopia). That's not how things work in the real world. In the real world there are great examples all over the planet of governments doing some things well and some things badly. (There aren't, however, any examples of a true libertarian utopia this side of Somalia.) The trick is to manage effectively the things it can do well by benchmarking our government against others, and to change and/or eliminate the things it does poorly.
What would you like them to do? Begin invading privacies as to quickly root-out the bad guys? Hey, I'm not necessarily for "big government" as it relates to law enforcement. But, I sure to appreciate the sacrifices that each of these men and women make to help provide for my general safety and welfare. Scenes as seen in the video are sad to see, but it appeared that these students were somewhat egging on the officers, as well. Precedence (of preserving order) has to be set at some point, doesn't it?
The "libertarian utopia" isn't Somalia. That's anarchy or no govt. at all. Libertarians want "just enough" govt. that things don't become feudal. It isn't demogoguery to be skeptical of govt. of any size, and especially big government. It's quite American, judging from this poll, in fact.
This is just a silly and close-minded post. You either don't pay any attention to news and current events, or you're just being completely dishonest just to argue.
