'Collectivist', 'big government', what else do you mean? Habit I've noticed of posters of the conservative persuasion on this forum is a particular tendency toward branding anyone not totally in lockstep with your own views is instantly a 'communist', 'socialist' or some other overdramatic name.

Somehow because Obama would use government power if he became President, he is instantly a 'collectivist'.

I'd like to tell you something friend, the world in general and politics in particular is a very diverse thing, in Europe for example or even in my own country we do not see government is bad but that it can be useful for solving problems, we don't elect a government with the hope that government will shrink itself into nothing and try to absolve itself of the responsibility of the mandate we gave it but handing everything away to the private sector.

I believe the more power you give the private sector the less democratic the country becomes because the elected government has less economic tools available to implement policies to the people.

Talk to an average person, they don't want their government sold away into nothingness. The anti-government trend in America is truly disturbing because what it will eventually lead to is a completely atomized society where everyone is completely alone and their is no sense of the commons. What you end up with is the 'core' of government, basically emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) and the military, things which if privatized threaten the very soul of what we are as a society or nation, and yet in America even this 'core' is not safe.

You can think as you wish, but I think government is a good thing, and I am proud to say that.