ABOUT BIG GOVERNMENT

If there is one thing conservatives demand it is small government.

All of us want limited government. The alternative is Stalinism. But small government is another matter. A government can be sizeable but still operate with built-in restraints.

Government should be keeping you safe from the activities of other citizens but also from its own overreaching. We have a separation of powers to make sure that the latter happens.

There cannot be small government in a huge, complex society where big business and big labor have great economic power and where many are looking out only for themselves.

You aren't dying from the food you eat. Why? Because government is big enough to monitor the food industry.

You aren't dying from air and water contamination. Why? Because government is big enough to deal with polluters.

One thing you can be dead certain of: Everyone who wants to eat your lunch is clamoring for a government too little and puny and underfunded to keep them from doing it.

If you end up treading water because climate change has elevated the ocean levels, the reason may be that cynical lobbyists and manipulative radio talkers succeeded in restricting what the government could do about it, arguing with ideology against science all the while.

When the Republicans get into office they go for de-regulation of everything, meaning no restraints on business. And when they appoint members of Federal regulatory agencies, too often those members represent not the public interest but the interest of the businesses they are supposed to be regulating. The present economic mess was permitted to come about by regulators who wouldn't regulate.

We hear about Jefferson. But if Jefferson were here today he wouldn't be a Jeffersonian. He guessed wrong about where conditions were headed, but he wasn't for anarchy or for a society dominated by corporate interests.

Meanwhile, conservatism trades on the confusion of big government with unlimited government. Don't be fooled.