Trump's responses to the George Floyd protests shows the small government mantra was a lie

[Mike 03]

NBC
Scott Lemieux
June 8, 2020, 11:49 AM MST

Calling out the military on peaceful protesters isn't smaller government. But conservatives always just used that as a catch phrase to justify lower taxes.

Republicans like to claim the mantle of being the party of “limited government” and individual liberty. As the recent #BlackLivesMatter protests have thrown into sharp relief, however, nothing could be further from the truth. The Republican Party might want government to be “smaller” when it comes to providing essential services, but it wants the violent authority of the state to be a constant intrusion into the day-to-day lives of many Americans, particular the lives of people of color, women and/or poor people.

The op-ed that Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., widely seen as a rising star in the party, wrote last week for The New York Times is a much better reflection of what American conservatism is really about than their mantra of “small government.” A nearly fascistic call for the military to be called in to violently suppress the mostly peaceful protests spurred by the ongoing, unjustified and unjustifiable killings by police of multiple Black men and women, it has deservedly cost the opinion editor of the Times his job. (Cotton is reportedly raising big money off both the piece and the fracas.)

There is no bigger government than one that can kill its citizens at will for protesting the government killing them at will. It’s one reason the right to protest is our First Amendment.

But President Donald Trump certainly reflects the Republican spirit of that type of big government. Sure, the signature achievement of the Trump administration was an upper-class tax cut, and they nearly passed a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which they proclaimed a victory for smaller government. (Our national debt is the highest on record, and government spending as a share of GDP has not returned to the lows of the Clinton era by any stretch of the imagination.) But the tax cut does nothing to materially enhance the “liberty” of the American people, unless one counts as “freedom” the ability of Jeff Bezos’ heirs to never have to work for a living. Similarly, taking away health care from people is a net negative loss to their freedom — not least because there’s nothing “free” about extremely ill or dead.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-responses-george-floyd-protests-shows-their-small-government-ncna1227516

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. Very few so-called conservatives are for small government.

Usually what they mean is less government regulation of businesses and lower taxes on the wealthy.

Using government to keep the peons in line and controlling women's bodies is just fine and dandy to them.

[RKP5637]

2. Plus they want a strict authoritarian government and limited

civil rights for everyone but themselves.

[Throck]

3. You mean a police state?

[RKP5637]

4. Yes, in short, a selective police state. n/t