Somehow I've missed seeing a root-cause analysis of why Libertarians, aka Republicans, hate "the government" so much. Why is the GOP view of any program benefitting the poor or the middle class, a case of "too much government," and is presented as axiomatically as a plane geometry proof where an "axiom" is something that is self-evident like square squares and round circles. The GOP "axiom" is that government and all it does and stands for is always undesirable, and probably downright evil.
Why?
I've asked libertarians what the basis of this view is and the question is met with disbelief that I would even ask such a thing. The answers are the confused incoherence of someone having to explain something they find so basic that they've really never even thought about it before. Clearly, as the core belief of right wing mythology it is expected to be accepted on faith without supporting evidence, explanation or backstory. "Freedom from government" to Conservatives is a "truth they hold to be self-evident."
Again, why? Liberals, Progressives, Democrats don't feel that way.
That, over time, human beings have found it necessary to have one form of a governing process or other speaks to the need for it. Since human beings' points of view and interests often clash, often violently, the need for rules and, ultimately, authority should be obvious or else things would quickly degenerate into conflict, confusion and chaos.
So why has government hating become the center of gravity for the Libertarian/Conservative creed?
Meet me below the fold to see what you think of what I think.
To help me better understand the Conservative mindset and put their anti-government orthodoxy into some context, I turned to Barry Goldwater's 1960 manifesto, "The Conscience of a Conservative." I had done a book report on it for a poly sci course back in the 1960s and I don't remember finding it as startling then as I do today. I was immediately struck by Sen Goldwater's breathtaking assumption that his Conservative philosophy is the only appropriate American approach to, well, everything. The first paragraph of the forward sets the tone:
This book is not written with the idea of adding to or improving on the Conservative philosophy. Or of "bringing it up to date." The ancient and tested truths that guided our Republic through its early days will do equally well for us. The challenge to Conservatives today is quite simply to demonstrate the bearing of a proven philosophy on the problems of our own time.
Right out of the gate, first paragraph of the foreword, Sen Goldwater says that everything we need to know is already known and we don't need to be looking around for improvements on "the ancient and tested truths" that worked so well for so long. What was good enough for Colonial America is just fine and dandy for us too.
However, that said, his next paragraph lets loose on those who disagree:
I find that America is fundamentally a Conservative nation. The preponderant judgment of the American people, especially of the young people, is that the radical, or Liberal, approach has not worked and is not working. They yearn for a return to Conservative principles. (my boldface)
Sen Goldwater wrote this around 1960. Note that he ran for president in 1964 on an emphatically Conservative platform and lost in an historic landslide. So the "yearning for a return to Conservative principles" did not run as deeply as he thought.
As one reads Sen Goldwater's book, it quickly becomes apparent that his views reflect his status as the son of a wealthy family which owned an upscale department store in Phoenix. As I read his thoughts on everything from "states rights" and civil rights to labor and "the welfare state," it became obvious to me that he simply never considered that people born into families with far less wealth and status than his, had to work a lot harder, had to overcome obstacles he likely couldn't imagine and maybe needed help along the way.
I would best characterize Sen Goldwater's book as confirmation bias run amok. He makes broad assumptions without evidence or citation, apparently considering his views to be common knowledge, conventional wisdom. That is why in the introduction, I referred to "The Conscience of a Conservative" as a "manifesto." He's not litigating the issues, he's presenting them "as is, take it or leave it," which should be familiar to Fox News and Right Wing media consumers.
Every page in "The Conscience of a Conservative" denigrates the government as a malevolent force sapping the vitality of the population. There is only vague and grudging consideration given to any positive contribution that government can make. It's the old "stand on your own two feet' argument that works well unless you are an amputee or not as "able" in every respect as Goldwater expects.
This brings me to the "why." My view (based on the Constitution's preamble) is that the government exists primarily to maintain order and to provide a framework for civilized humanity to pursue life's goals. I see the essential ingredient that Sen Goldwater and Conservatives miss in this regard is the government's most important function: to ensure a level playing field, to provide help to those in need and to try to protect busy, vulnerable and disadvantaged people from the depredations of life and from the greedy and unscrupulous machinations of both the lawless as well as the relentless power elites.
I believe that Sen Goldwater and his fellow Conservatives are speaking from privilege and wealth. The only force, the only institution in our culture that can control the ruthless, the greedy and the aggressive from rolling over anyone and anything in their path is the government. People in Sen Goldwater's position are well able to defend themselves against existential forces that the rest of us either try to avoid or are simply forced to submit to. As the owner of a large business, Barry Goldwater had little worry about his pay, his working conditions or job security. The same can be said of the current swarm of rich (and hoping to be rich) libertarians.
The other essential ingredient that Conservatives fail to include in their calculus is Power. In his chapter on Labor, Goldwater smolders with rage as he is clearly infuriated by Unions. In fairness he states that "in proper bounds, (unions) accomplish a positive good for the country." However, he speaks mostly of corruption among union officials and the "power (that) hurts the nation's economy by forcing on employers contract terms that encourage inefficiency." I could spend an entire diary just on Goldwater's anti-unionism, anti-civil-rights, anti-welfare state etc., but you've heard it all before, from Romney, Ryan, Walker, Koch et al. They vehemently reject any inroad into their exercise of power. They have defeated the union movement at least temporarily and they are likewise trying to put their thumbs and elbows on the scales in their own favor in just about every corner of American life you can name, up to and including buying the US Government lock, stock and barrel...and they're perilously close to pulling it off.
As I mentioned above, the only way that the rank and file citizenry have any chance of holding their own against the confluence of power now emerging among the wealthy, the powerful and the craven opportunists who serve them, is by believing in their government's ability to represent their interests, by voting based on facts and history and not on paid sound bites, talk radio or the loudest most outrageous mouth around. Otherwise, the world belongs to the rich and the powerful, who have amply demonstrated time and time again that they view the middle class as mere livestock (and they're not happy that the livestock need food and water) and they dismiss the poor as a foul and likely incurable disease.
There is now great need for a re-energized labor movement, there is the necessity for the Democratic Party to examine its soul and decide if it's going to pussyfoot with the rich and powerful or if it's going to represent working people and strive to protect their interests. These developments are now more urgent than at anytime since the Great Depression. We the People have got to take our fate back into our own hands and work to assert the proposition that "all men are created equal" in fact as well as slogan.
So the reason I believe that Conservatives are led to embrace without question the proposition that "the government is evil" as the primal truth of the universe is to serve the interests of the "alpha dogs" at the top of the heap. As we now know, sustaining that position requires a wholesale "cooking of the books," the creation of an alternate universe which reflects a "reality" congruent with the interests of the rich and powerful. As Right Wing media reveal every day, widespread deceit, shameless disinformation and pervasive confirmation bias are the coin of their realm...Fox News, Right Wing Radio, Megachurch religion and, worst of all, the corporate "lame-stream" media...allied with millionaires and billionaires, lined up as far as the eye can see and willing to spend whatever it takes to advance their interests to an extreme that few can imagine.
Let's not allow it to happen.