- Joined
- Jun 18, 2013
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- Political Leaning
- Conservative
Being thoughtful and rational means that you adjust your actions to the situation at hand, not that you do the same thing automatically every time ("small government always", "never get involved in international affairs", etc...). That's silly. God gave us a brain for a reason. Like it says in the good book, there is a season for everything under the sun. The reason that this kind of mindset seems to me to be irrational is that this formula is used in an unthinking way for every situation which comes up.
A good government, a stable one, a functional one, is not one which blindly sticks to such easy formulas, but knows when to step in in an aggressive and muscular way, and when to step back and let people, or the free market, or what have you, do its thing. Sure it requires lots of information, keeping your eyes and ears always open to what is happening, of being open to various options being proposed, of staying mentally and ideologically limber and flexible.
Well.. I would suggest that what you are describing is the difference between a conservative.. who wants a small and efficient government.
and a libertarian who wants small government at all costs.
A conservative recognizes that say the government has to be involved in environmental issues because the environment doesn;t follow state lines. We understand that an EPA is necessary for a safe environment for people to live and for business to thrive. It does not do my business any good if the mining company upriver from me poisons my cattle's drinking water.
However, we believe that EPA should only be big enough to do the job effectively and efficiently. On the other hand.. we don;t need the EPA requiring me to have methane monitors on my cows buttholes to measure the methane they produce in flatulence.
Government power can be abused and usually its abuse is on those that can least defend themselves.