Josh Marshal wrote on the Republicans reputation "for lowering taxes in exchange for giving up whatever it is the government pretends to do for us, (at a minimum) riding the brakes on the on-going transformation of American culture, and kicking ass abroad" Taxes is half the story -- they are not the least bit interested in lowering expenditures. There is an active cultural transformation they seek -- anti-individualism in the form of majority morality enshrined in law. Our overseas kicking ass is merely the score of whack-a-wasp-nests hit rather than any measure of improved safety from terrorism -- WTC'93 to WTC'01 was 8 years, do they really think 3 years of safety is worthy of praise?
My yet another message for the Democrats to get out is that we are the party that demands accountability from government. The Republicans lie when they say they're for reducing spending. What we need to demand is our enormous government spending is spent productively.
The anti-freedom tendencies of this moralizing administration is moving us into our own version of fundamentalist hell. We need to demand accountability from those who are taking the name of freedom in vain.
The goverment bureaucracy is a bureaucracy, and the spending will not measurably reduced, but we can demand that the spending benefits the people. No corporate welfare at the expense of citizen's welfare, etc...
I believe government spending will never go down.
If Democrats do believe that government can be a force for good, they've got a good opportunity to force the spending to be useful.
Some think we're in the bread-and-circuses stage of empire. I'd rather our government waste its money on bread than on Fox-news covered, Halliburton contracted, GOP foreign circuses.
We're the party for forcing the evil government to help people.
P.S. -- Oh yeah, that whole voting machine political machine too.