No Government is Good Government Ideology Fractures the Republican Party [View all]

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http://www.politicususa.com/government-good-government-ideology-fractures-republican-party.html

No Government is Good Government Ideology Fractures the Republican Party

By: Rmuse
Jun. 2nd, 2013



There are many Americans who lack a basic understanding of what government is except to complain it is an organization exerting control over the population, but obviously it is much more than a source of power over the people. Government is necessary to enforce policy and provide services that positively affect nearly every human activity in important ways despite conservative’s belief it is inherently evil and worthy of elimination. Over the past four-and-a-half years, Republicans have actively campaigned on, and promoted, an anti-government agenda regardless the myriad benefits to the entire population, and their goal in eliminating government is to eliminate as many of the benefits and services to the majority of people as they can. However, some Republicans who decry the federal government as too big, too expensive, and too overreaching are the first in line for federal funding if it is politically expedient, and besides hypocrisy, it shows the necessity of the government they are wont to eliminate.

Last week President Obama told graduates at Ohio State University that “You’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. You should reject these voices” and went on to say, “a government that works properly can be best-equipped to help and protect the public,” but unfortunately for many Americans, Republicans steeped in conservative ideology disagree. Republicans claim President Obama epitomizes overreaching, out of control, and over-funded government citing the Affordable Care Act, stimulus spending, automobile industry bailout, and attempts to expand education and healthcare as prime examples of bloated government, and yet government spending is at its lowest in 60 years. Some Republicans even decried giving natural disaster relief to storm-ravaged states as another example of wasteful spending only to embrace the President when their states were struck by natural weather-related disasters. Those governors who reject federal funding as wasteful for programs like expanded Medicaid and the stimulus adhere to a selfish sentiment that when their states are affected, federal funding is good if it is “only in my backyard, not anyone else’s.”

There are some things that only the federal government can accomplish and disaster relief is just one example. Republicans have latched on to the libertarian philosophy that the only good government is no government and that the individual is responsible to take care of themselves. However, they fail to recognize that the Interstate highway system, military, intelligence community, law enforcement, fire protection, border security, and air traffic control are best administered and funded by the federal government because the scope of such programs exceed what an individual or state can ever achieve. Still, a Republican strategist claimed that conservatives in the Republican party “are not arguing for a government of zero, it’s arguing for a government that acts responsibly and makes decisions about priorities” that are typically aid to the rich, and made a ridiculously erroneous contrast to Democrats he claims “want to just increase everything” in spite of the lowest spending in decades and a leaner government than any Republican over the past 50 years. Some Republicans, though, are having second thoughts on their entire “no government is good government” sentiment and rifts are forming between Republicans within the same states.

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Republicans are going to have to concede their philosophy that no government is good government is detrimental to this nation and its people, and recognize President Obama is right that “government that works properly can be best-equipped to help and protect the public.” The public, and individual states, are ill-equipped to face the challenges of millions of uninsured Americans, repairing decrepit roads and bridges, or provide massive relief operations when natural disasters strike. Doubtless libertarians and small-government Republicans will be first in line for disaster relief after the devastation in Oklahoma over the past week as much as Chris Christie was after his state was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy last October. Republicans can hardly have it both ways and still legitimately claim their minimalist government policy is good for America or its people when they openly depend on so-called “big government” to step in and provide relief regardless it is for natural disasters or healthcare for the needy.