Quote:
Originally Posted by Andaras
'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.
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Excellent points. While privatization of most things is good, there are some areas in which the government must step in to stop average people from getting screwed by greedy and powerful individuals.
It seems that most of the GOP-heads (not that every who supports McCain is a GOP head, but those who post nothing but hate and over-simplifications like "he's a appeasing communist" represent the typical GOP-state-of-mind) fail to understand that we created a government for a reason. If you strip all of its power, you have anarchy.
While pure socialism clearly does not work, neither does pure capitalism (unless you want all of our cities to be like Bangkok).
The problem with the GOP is that they want to use government power to take away our rights (right to choose your medicine, get married to whoever you want, have a private phone call, etc), while I want a government that is dedicated to preserving our rights and expanding our freedom.
While McCain represents that same old GOP freedom-repression-style of government, Obama is more likely to give our states and cities the right to make their own decisions.
And anybody who thinks Obama will pull back the troops rapidly is smoking something. He will consult his generals, and bring them out at a rate that is safe for keeping Iraq secure until they have built forces to protect their own government.