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.
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