Day-Tripper
5-Year Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2014
- Messages
- 893
The US wasn't established as some sort of hands-off approach to small government.
The citizens of the 13 colonies of 1776 considered themselves to be Englishmen, with all the rights of Englishmen. They didn't mind the "big government" of that era, i.e taxation, but resented not having a say in the matter. "No taxation without representation" was their slogan, not simply "No taxation". Had King George III granted the citizens of Boston and New York and Philadelphia seats in the House of Commons & the House of Lords, we'd be singing God Save The Queen in 2017.
And the introduction of Social Security in 1933 and Medicare in 1965 (among many other federal programs) were genuinely popular at inception and only grew with popularity over time.
The American people love their Big Government, its space program, its interstate highways, its air traffic safety regulation, its mandatory vaccinations, its public schools, its food & medicine safety regulations, its regulation of Wall Street and banks, its armed forces, its gov't subsidies of corn, wheat, sugar and milk, etc., its federal aid to police departments, its uncorrupted court system & prisons, its border guards, its Coast Guard, its insurance of bank deposits, its dams & hydro-electric power grids, its dependable Postal Service, its US Marshals Service, FBI, Secret Service, Treasury Agents.....ad nauseum.
Not to mention ROTC scholarships, government-paid health insurance for spouses & kids while on active duty, GI Bill education benefits, GI Bill mortgage guarantees, etc.
When government-financed science developed polio vaccines nobody was crying about government getting too involved in our business.
When federal law enforcement crushes the Mafia nobody waves a Tea Party/Gadsen flag in protest.
Most of those protesting against "Big Government" inevitably benefit from it in some form or another.
The citizens of the 13 colonies of 1776 considered themselves to be Englishmen, with all the rights of Englishmen. They didn't mind the "big government" of that era, i.e taxation, but resented not having a say in the matter. "No taxation without representation" was their slogan, not simply "No taxation". Had King George III granted the citizens of Boston and New York and Philadelphia seats in the House of Commons & the House of Lords, we'd be singing God Save The Queen in 2017.
And the introduction of Social Security in 1933 and Medicare in 1965 (among many other federal programs) were genuinely popular at inception and only grew with popularity over time.
The American people love their Big Government, its space program, its interstate highways, its air traffic safety regulation, its mandatory vaccinations, its public schools, its food & medicine safety regulations, its regulation of Wall Street and banks, its armed forces, its gov't subsidies of corn, wheat, sugar and milk, etc., its federal aid to police departments, its uncorrupted court system & prisons, its border guards, its Coast Guard, its insurance of bank deposits, its dams & hydro-electric power grids, its dependable Postal Service, its US Marshals Service, FBI, Secret Service, Treasury Agents.....ad nauseum.
Not to mention ROTC scholarships, government-paid health insurance for spouses & kids while on active duty, GI Bill education benefits, GI Bill mortgage guarantees, etc.
When government-financed science developed polio vaccines nobody was crying about government getting too involved in our business.
When federal law enforcement crushes the Mafia nobody waves a Tea Party/Gadsen flag in protest.
Most of those protesting against "Big Government" inevitably benefit from it in some form or another.
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