In response to Granny Doc's great diary, there is another side to this debate.
I think when we see the teabaggers, and hear some of the irrational arguments ("no government health care, keep your hands off my Medicare!") we miss that at the root there is a legitimacy to this argument-- from a progressive perspective.
Here are some examples:
Stop subsidizing corporate America and big business in ways the harm my city/town/neighborhood. Doing nothing would be better than what you're doing right now.
Wal Mart only exists because the government essentially incentivises/subsidizes almost everything they do. There is no incentive for Wal Mart to pay living wages, provide decent health care, yet there is a significant public expenditure, especially by local governments, to clear the way for land, property tax breaks, waiver of regulation. The end result is, and this is only one example, our local mom and pop stores, neighborhoods and entire communities are harmed. Essentially, we'd be better off if government (local, state, federal) DID NOTHING. "Get the government out of my life."
...more in extended...
When people scream about the government, they are half right- there IS government action that is extremely harmful to the working poor and the working class, really everyone but the upper-middle and upper classes of society.
-Stop making every new progressive initiative tied to "tax deductions for..."
If I'm working poor and I want to go to technical college to increase my skills, a tax break that I get 1 and a half years later doesn't really help me go to school. Likewise incurring a massive student loan debt. A tax break doesn't put solar panels on my home. A tax break doesn't do anything except provide yet another appearance of a government program to which I am not entitled to participate. So why would I be for it? "Get the government out of my life."
Instead: let's have a rational education and energy policy that assists all segments in our society (VOUCHERS for weatherization, FREE higher education in needed areas like nursing).
Stop allowing employers to break labor and immigration laws while I'm jobless.
All over Kansas in small towns, meat processors have essentially imported cheap labor from overseas or Central America, paying people sub-living wages and no healthcare to speak of, inundating school systems and small town trauma centers. So what good is the government? Ironically, people who see this are the most likely to for what would cure the problem-- progressive immigration reform. Instead, they are likely to protest any and all efforts, seeking to scapegoat immigrants instead of placing the blame where it belongs on Chambers of Commerce and their lobbying. Again, were Government to not grease the wheels and make it possible for this to happen, it appears people would be better off. "Get the government out of my life."
Instead: Let's have a REAL minimum wage, healthcare (see below) and allow immigrants to fully participate in our society, and not exist as second class citizens (as guest worker programs would have it).
Stop subsidizing a food system that makes healthy food more expensive. And stop making farmers beholden to people like Monsanto.
When people, especially in rural states, understand a little about how money is made in agriculture, the likely result is to rather have government do NOTHING. So we get a new livestock tracking program, ostensibly to prevent disease, but that really puts small farms at a huge disadvantage and makes it nearly impossible to sell meat locally. You have farmers being sued, backed by the government, for accidentally growing gentically engineered seed that has blown into their field. In some places, its essentially illegal to replant your seed as farmers have been doing for thousands of years. Again, it would be better if Government did NOTHING. "Get the government out of my life."
Instead: Let's have a food policy that protects locally grown and consumed agriculture, for a start.
Stop incentivising jobs being exported.
NAFTA has been a disaster. And I truly believe that Dem losses in 1994 were as much due to NAFTA as they were to health care reform efforts. How many people who are jobless or underemployed, have an understanding that their jobs disappeared overseas or to Central America, and this was due to a GOVERNMENT policy. "Get the government out of my life".
Instead: Let's have a Government that stands up for American workers (and the human rights of all workers) by requiring potential foreign competitors to meet the same labor and environmental standards as in this country.
I am not saying these are rational sentiments, or the concluding quote is not overtly simplistic. But, as "What's the Matter With Kansas" documents, this is the sentiment that has pushed people away from progressive politics and into the camp of fear, reactionism, and the modern Republican party. Because, as the healthcare debate has illustrated, the "Democratic Party" solution may be WORSE than doing nothing, or even worse than what the Republicans would have done.
Whatever you do, don't make me buy health insurance from a for-profit provider without a public option.
So now, you are going to ask me to sacrifice my liberty by requiring me to have health insurance, but you're going to do it in a way that picks my pocket, is a give-away for insurance companies, and really doesn't pay for anything short of catastrophic care on a day to day basis? If you live from paycheck to paycheck, you know what you would say to that plan???
GET THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY LIFE.