Why favor smaller, less-powerful government?
So people you can’t stand whose values you detest will have less power to impose their silly opinions on you.
Take your pick from these two perspectives from Don Boudreaux in his post Laissez Faire at Cafe Hayek.
If your opinions run to the left side of the political spectrum, consider this:
If you are a modern “Progressive” and cannot abide the notion of conservatives, Christian or otherwise, having a say in who you sleep with and who you may marry, when and why you may get an abortion, what sorts of scientific research and artistic projects should be funded, what school curricula should and shouldn’t include, or when and why Uncle Sam goes on world-policing ventures, then why do you wish to expand the scope of government authority? Doing so in a society with a wide franchise, such as the U.S., inevitably invites those rubes to intrude their antediluvian superstitions and dogmas onto you and onto all that you hold dear and sacred.
If your opinions run to the right side of the political spectrum, consider this:
If you are a modern conservative, Christian or otherwise, and cannot abide the notion of “Progressives” having a say in how you school your children, what your tax rates are, what size Big Gulps you may buy, or whether or not you may fill in ditches and water puddles on your land, then why do you tolerate – or even applaud – activities such as government’s ‘war on drugs,’ Uncle Sam’s interventionist foreign policies, strict immigration restrictions, and tariffs on imports? Doing so – by creating a large and discretionary state – only encourages those obnoxious know-it-alls to use government against you and against all that you hold dear and sacred.
I can see the reactions to those two paragraphs. I bet everyone looks at the first half of one paragraph and says “yeah! right!” and looks at the first half of the other saying “wait a second, that’s over the top hyperbole!” Only difference will be which paragraph you think is a factually accurate description of reality and which is silly exaggeration.
It doesn’t matter which party holds the White House, Senate, and House today or in 8 years or even 16 years from now. More powerful, intrusive government, with increasing amounts of money to spend, and unrestrained authority to write new regulations will either now or later allow people whose values you vigorously disagree with to make decisions on how you live your life.
How to get less of whatever you detest?
Simple.
Less powerful, less intrusive government with less regulatory authority over your every breath.
Doesn’t matter which side of any issue you stand and whether you look at the House or Senate. Eventually, the other side will have power.
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