(The first time through, I entitled this "The American Myth." But, by the time I got to the end, the inescapable conclusion, albeit not one that's universally shared, is what the title now says.)
The biggest myth in Republican politics is that private enterprise (enter and collect the prize?) is and should be free of government interference.
The truth is that, from the start, when colonists arrived with charters from the crowned heads of Europe in their pockets, enterprise has been supported by those who purport to rule and backed up by military force. The only difference between now and then is that where enterprise used to collect benefits in the form of rights--
water rights
logging rights
fishing rights
hunting rights
trapping rights
mineral rights
drilling rights
trading rights
patent rights
etc.
they now expect to be given dollars. Instead of managing public resources and assets for the general welfare, our representatives dole them out to their friends and supporters as tax cuts and contracts.
The second biggest lie is probably that American enterprise is qualified to manage resources well. In fact, the history of American industry and business is one of resource exploitation and depletion, until the cupboard is bare and then they escape into bankruptcy--SOP.
The myth of free enterprise sold as the American dream.
P.S. I suppose it could be argued that support is not interference and that enterprise, having been given dominion over all the earth, is entitled to exploit–i.e. that exploitation is right and good and, indeed, what governments are instituted to promote. But that's a theory which would have to posit, if people were being honest, that raping mother earth is not an unavoidable insult, but a positive good–what man has been created to do.
Enter Republican politicians.
Since it would not be politic to assert that rape is good, candidate Santorum merely decries that President Obama "elevates the earth over man" and supports, in effect, her resistance to being raped.
Meanwhile, the Republican Governor of Virginia is keen to exploit the opportunity presented by already penetrated women and proposes to officially subjugate women, when they insist on being freed from the hazards of pregnancy, by ordering the violation of their bodily integrity with a man-made probe,
I wouldn't call it a war, but the subjugation of women is clearly central to the Republican agenda. Just "doin' what comes naturally" is good in their book. Who knew that man was created to exploit and women were made to be raped?