For the latter part of the 20th century and all of this century, Americans have railed against the “evils of big government.” Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican nominee for President, was the first national politician to carry the torch for small government. Goldwater was a vocal opponent of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, rejected the New Deal, and advocated for
Read moreThe concept of freedom is crucial to human flourishing, and is integral to the success of modern capitalist democracies. People often discuss freedom strictly in terms of what they are free “to” do. Free to ride a bike without a helmet. Free to criticize the government without fear of retribution. Free to love whomever you want. Free to shoot a
Read moreYou don’t need many rules and regulations for everyone to have maximum freedom when there are very few people in a large amount of space, such as in Wyoming today, or the American frontier of yesteryear. But when you cram increasing amounts of people into a smaller area, you get a “state of nature” which guarantees freedom only for the
Read moreThe arguments for small government are obvious and common sensical to many Americans. Henry David Thoreau (not Jefferson, as is often erroneously thought) said pithily: “That government is best which governs least.” Resistance to larger government can be traced from America’s Founding Fathers all the way through to the avatar of modern conservatism, Ronald Reagan, who famously railed against big
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