This notion of limited Government, just what does it mean?

[ThomWV]

There is an eternal Republican call for limited Government; it rolls off their lips quicker than spittle at the drooler's ball. I just read where Jim Dement(ed) has called it the linch-pin on which the Party's future hangs. So just what limits do they want? What limit do they intend for the Executive - both White House and the executive agencies - for instance? Would they limit the President's ability to go to war. And how about the Congress? What limits are appropriate to the Congress, the people's voice? And finally the Court - how should the court be limited, what portion of the law should they ignore?

I just wish someone would pin them down on this. Tell us just what it is they want to do away with, what function of Government they wish to strangle, which chapter and verse (Article and Section) of the Constitution they would have erased. Let them tell us that and see how they fare in the sea of public opinion.

[bluethruandthru]

1. They hate everything about "gubmint" (except the military) until they need it!

They are the first to bitch about snowy roads not getting plowed or their social security check being late, or how their public school isn't giving their child the special attention he or she deserves or whatever!

They hate the idea of government because they've been told to hate it by saint Ronnie and all the other R's since that time...but they don't really know why.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. The answer you'll never get...

...unless someone gets very lucky:

The only legitimate function of the State is to provide our getaway car with a police escort.

Oh, and blowing shit up.

[ladjf]

13. Damn. You summed it up very efficiently. nt

[baldguy]

3. It means that if I'm rich, I can steal from you & shit on your property.

But don't you try to stop me! I'll get the govt to keep you from doing that.

[ladjf]

14. Another good post. nt

[Lyric]

4. For Republicans? Little to no regulations on business and guns, and LOTS of regulations

on gender, sexuality, medical procedures, and all of the MOST private, personal areas of your life.

They're the kind of people who scream bloody murder about a gun registry, but who absolutely drool over the idea of the police maintaining a "DNA bank", or health insurance companies using your DNA to decide what your premium should be. These are the people who raise unholy hell at the idea of the government regulating how much pollution a factory can belch out into the air, but who are fully supportive of the government regulating the wombs of women and the sex lives of gay people.

They want SUPER privacy for THEMSELVES, and absolutely NO privacy for anybody else. Basically, they're childish hypocrites with the biggest freaking entitlement complex that you could ever imagine.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

6. +1

That sums it up just about as well as I've ever heard it done! :thumbsup:

[mirrera]

5. government limited to Republicans... a great quote from Jon Stewart:

Jon Stewart asks Lou Dobbs why Republican fears about big government only occur when Democrats are in power:

"Why do they always catch up to the fears during the Democratic administrations? It feels like all the people that want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans."

http://www.thedailybanter.com/tdb/2009/11/quote-of-the-week-jon-stewart-on-limited-government.html

[Waltons_Mtn]

7. Limited Government is just a battle cry.

Limited government means: dismantle any and all social programs in this county. That's all you here about. Privatize this or dismantle that. They have no intention to actually limit government. It is simply code words for "stop giving my tax dollars to those lazy welfare people"

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

15. One thing I've noticed is they don't mind the nice roads they drive on and

the clean water they drink, or even the fact that with government... they have the right(freedom?) to vote!

<>

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. My understanding of the GOPbagger concept of limited government

is that government should not impose any economic regulations on private enterprise. That means there should be no government oversight of financial practices, product safety, employment practices, pollution, etc. The "free market" should control all of these issues. The function of this "limited government" is related almost entirely to defense -- the government exists mainly to fund and manage the military. What the GOPbaggers really want, when you dig down a bit, is a system in which the individual is not protected by and receives no benefits from the government.

The big, fat fallacy, of course, is that there's no such thing as a "free market," since government always control the rules of the market. Something like 80% of the federal court docket consists of commercial litigation (private businesses suing each other) -- and the court system is "the government." Take away the court system, and there is no control at all, even among businesses. They would be completely free to lie, cheat and steal from each other, with no recourse, and before long they'd all either be broke, or would resort to "self-help" (meaning a visit from a couple of guys named Guido and Vinnie, carrying baseball bats).

The limited government paradise would be one in which there are no regulations, no government benefits for anyone, and lots of guns. Welcome to Somalia.

[BzaDem]

9. They really mean limited government in the domestic sphere (with big government internationally).

In other words, start with an anarchic "free market" with no regulation, taxes, or spending, and build up from there in only limited circumstances. And then lots of international intervention to defend the free market "utopia" they would have going.

[davepc]

10. Goverment that is in your bedroom but not in the boardroom

And I'm not being flippant.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

11. It means;

'don't TAX me, bro!'
:bounce:

[MajorChode]

12. It's really code-speak for wingnuts

It means 'limited welfare', and by limited they mean none, and by welfare, they mean only the relatively small segment which goes to the people who need it most.

It's kind of like wingnut code-speak 'states' rights'. Wingnuts really could give a shit about states' rights, and it goes directly against their pro-totalitarian nature, however, when it comes to states' 'rights' to racist segregation, they were all for it.

When you hear this kind of code-speak, there is usually a racist motive not so cleverly disguised in fringe politically correct language their politicians can use without getting called out for overt racism.

[old mark]

16. They want the federal government to becoms small enough to not interfere in

big business...they want to remove all the agencies dealing with regulating business, the environment, federal inspection (such as food and safety - they HATE OSHA).They want the state governments to have the say in most of whet the federal government regulates now, such as civil rights, voting rights, union membership and workplace safety, child labor, women's rights, all gay rights and minority rights. This is because the state governments are much easier and cheaper to manipiulate, and a group of very rich RWers could in effect buy control of their state and run it as they wished with no one to say no.

They want feudalism, and would have been pretty happy if we had stayed British, provided they were the landed gentry...

They want you and I to be peasants.

mark

[billlll]

17. "drown government in a tub" Who said that?

Can't recall it. PS is he still in some agency?

Limited is code for end all Welfare so that the idle rich can get tax cuts and yet another mansion on the Rivera of france. And a larger private jet to get there every weekend.

Disgusting sociopaths.

[skypilot]

19. Grover Norquist

Douchebag.

[rampart]

20. grover norquist

"americans for prosperity" or some such rot.

the real answers to these questions can be found in david stockman's book "the triumph of politics."

[billlll]

23. skypilot and rampart, thanks

Rampart, is Stockman book RW or LW?

PS

M Friedman text used in what % of colleges? I was shocked when I heard that even ONE adopted that ultra rightwinger. .

[Bitwit1234]

18. AND don't forget the most important part of ALL

they want all the social programs and a lot more taken over by private enterprise. Say like their buddies, the corporations. That way the corportations can bleed the people dry, skip out on paying taxes, because one of the provisions of them taking over our government functions is TAX BREAKS. And of course every time they slip one of the functions to the corporations they, the republicans helping to do so, gets their own "reward". A fat check in the mail. That by now would no longer be under the federal government but run by private business. See that's what they mean by smaller government and the stupid tea bags are going along with it. And of course everything will cost ten times as much but government would be out of it.

[SmileyRose]

21. Oh that's easy

Government big enough to serve the economic predators
Government too small to protect the rest of us from the economic predators.

[AC_Mem]

22. Almost all of my family members are republican

and rant and rave about limited government, how we are spending ourselves into debt, want to privatize programs, talk about how our President is the anti-Christ, want to lower taxes, deny unemployment, repeal health care, hate immigrants, etc etc.

Let's see, my mother is on social security and medicare, my ex-husband is on welfare and state paid medical and food stamps, my brother is on social security/disability, sister works for the government, and my other brother... well, let's just say he is EXTREMELY anti-government and thats all I'm going to say about that. They ALL watch Fox news all the time, love Sarah P and hate Nancy P and Harry R.

These are the voices that fight me on my being a democrat and think I am insane.

BTW, I've worked since I was 16, never been unemployed (Thank The Creator) and have raised, on my own, two children who have college degrees - the only college graduates in 5 generations - who are also both employed and worked their way through college, and are both democrats. I am also helping to raise my two grandchildren and am teaching them about community involvement and how to be a good democrat and a good citizen.

I don't know - could I be a genetic mutation?

LOL

[DailyGrind51]

24. Limited to the DoD and corporate subsidies!

[Initech]

25. They want it limited so they can privatize everything and line their pockets.

That's essentially what it boils down to. Look at what they're doing to education with charter schools. Just one example.

[Odin2005]

26. They want the "Freedom" to dominate others. That is all that matters to them.