Big Government vs. Small Government Conservatives

Big Government & Small Government Conservatives
By Daniel G. Jennings
There is an intriguing battle taking place in today’s Republican Party, the battle is between two fascinating groups: Big Government Conservatives & Small Government Conservatives.
Basically BGCs buy into the ignorant superstition that government is all powerful and can do anything it wants while SGCs know that government is a limited and clumsy tool that often does more harm than good. Politically, SGCs are afraid of government power and want it limited while BGCs believe that government power can be used to achieve conservative ends.
Much of the base of the current Republican Party is made up of BGCs for example cultural conservatives who want to use the Federal Communications Commission to “clean up” television and radio. That is eliminate programming and content they see as offensive such as Howard Stern or the adult dramas on HBO.
The Small Government Conservative will oppose this because he knows that an FCC that can pull the plug on Howard Stern can also take Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Dobson off the air. The SGC also knows that an FCC that can shut down HBO can also cancel the Fox News Network. After all many liberals find Fox News, Rush and Dr. Dobson offensive.
The BGCs seem to have won the battle for Washington, the Cultural Conservatives want to use the power of the courts and the other branches of government to undue the social and cultural revolution of the 1960s. I.E., use government to erase thirty or forty years of history they don’t like, something that is impossible. Over at the White House “the Neo Conservatives” (Neo Imperialists would be a better term) want to use American military might to reshape the rest of the world in America’s image. The Republican Congress tries to solve the nation’s problems by throwing money at them.
Instead of shrinking government has grown and the powers and scope of law enforcement but not its effectiveness have increased. New bureaucracies and cabinet departments have appeared as the efficiency and effectiveness of government decreases.
Naturally, the BGC experiment like the liberal big government experiment before it has failed miserably, government has failed to create utopia. The Middle East is not Democratic and America hasn’t been transformed into Mayberry writ large. Instead we have an unpopular war, conflict with many other countries, an out of control national debt and an unpopular president.
The BGCs have also provoked a popular reaction, most rank and file conservatives and most average Americans are SGC’s. They have a healthy skepticism of government and fear it’s power because they know how destructive it can be. The Republican base is angry at the clowns in Washington because they are acting just like the Democrats. Some SGCs are so mad they are prepared to vote Democratic just to smite the bums in Washington.
Now with the BGCs failure clear for all to see is time for a revival of Small Government Conservativism. Some group of SGCs should get together and publish a Small Government Conservative manifesto. It’s provisions should include cut government regulations, abolish unnecessary cabinet departments such as the Education, Veteran’s Affairs and Homeland Security empires, abolish needless federal agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, FEMA, the FCC, NASA, (the success of Space Plane One and the shuttle disaster prove that private entrepreneurs can do a better job in space than bureaucrats) etc. End the war on drugs which is little more than an assault on individual liberties, abolish the income tax and the IRS. Cut the number of government agencies, perhaps combine the CIA and NSA into one spy agency. Take a hard look at government policies such as road building and zoning regulations do they do more harm than good.
Adopt a pragmatic foreign policy that says yes the United States will have no choice but to intervene in the affairs of other countries militarily and otherwise but it should be done in a limited and sensible way. For example, instead of trying to build democracy at gunpoint in Iraq, remove Saddam and replace him with a more pliable leader more in keeping with US interests.
Of course, such a policy will meet with opposition mostly from those who profit from Big Government the lobbyists, the lawyers, the bureaucrats, the politicians and the contractors. They want to keep the gravy train rolling at all costs and will fight tooth and nail to do so.
Even more bothersome is the media, the media presents government as all powerful then exposes all of its failings for the world to see. Reporters publicize the corruption and waste of government then scream for the President to use the magic wand of government to fix the nation’s problems. Even though they are well aware of the fact that the President is simply a man with a tough job to do, he is no wizard and he has no magic wand.
So how do we start the Small Government revolution? I don’t know but I suspect it’s coming and coming sooner than we expect. All it needs a leader someone like Ronald Reagan to rally the average folk and restore the real conservatism. Of course the last people to see this revolution coming will be the Big Government Conservatives who are too busy playing empire, building up the nanny state and feeding like pigs at the trough to notice the winds of change blowing around them.