It is common to hear the words anti-government tossed around these days, usually in the context of some discussion of the dysfunction of what used to be the Republican Party. Sadly, those words, while interesting, are not the right words. They are both imprecise and misleading.
What we need to recognize is that the GOP is not merely anti-government.
What they are is Anti-Governance.
That may seem like a similar term, but, in fact, it's a much different idea, with far more severe consequences.
At times we are all relatively anti-government. Regardless of the level, we see the government screw up, and we immediately take umbrage at the actions of the relatively-faceless bureaucracy. In truth, our reaction is little different than the instant WTF when we see a driver cut in or a bicyclist weave into the traffic lane. We observe something that makes no apparent sense and, at least when it comes to the government, we respond with Off with their heads!
As a momentary response, that's reasonable. With "government" we often fail to understand that there was some line of thinking behind the actions, even if that thinking was completely screwed up.
We might, for example, find ourselves being anti-government when we hear:
...The VA had a long waiting list because they couldn't manage to function
...troops are being sent into combat zones lacking the proper equipment
...a particular company sold gasoline to the military at ridiculous prices
...the toilet seat for this airplane cost $600
We've all seen those things and immediately doubted the ability of the government to operate in any reasonable fashion.
However, the GOP isn't like that. The extremists...and there are far more than just 40 or so in the House alone, don't rail at those little things. They're not interested in such matters, unless they happen to see them as something that can be turned into a partisan brawl.
If the GOP was really interested in government waste, they'd stop doing things like endless votes to repeal the ACA, or endless "investigations" into non-news items (Benghazi, the IRS, certain emails, Planned Parenthood and the like) simply because they cost a lot of money and everybody knows going in that no great conspiracy will be discovered.
Instead, the GOP is Anti-Governance!
They don't want smaller government, they want no government. They cannot abide the idea that the government, composed of individuals elected by the public, has the right to tell them, and especially their deep-pocketed donors, what they can and cannot do.
They hate the EPA, because it makes rules and (occasionally) holds companies countable.
They hate OSHA, because it protects workers...and that costs money for corporations.
They hate the NLRB, because it allows workers to unionize
They hate the idea of a minimum wage, because...how dare they!
They hate the regulation of Wall Street, because...profits and bonuses are more important.
They hate the DOE for supporting the concept that all children should be educated
They hate SNAP, because the poor don't deserve to eat...or even survive
They hate the President, because...okay, let's be honest...because he's Black
most importantly...
They hate the idea that people they don't like are allowed to vote in the first place
They would willingly disassemble the entire government so as to allow the 1% to rampage through society, making profits, selling unsafe and deadly products, raping the earth and leaving a slag-pile of destruction everywhere, and laugh as the poor and sick simply die.
If we are objective, this is the world the GOP seeks to install. When we complain that they don't offer alternatives to the policies they won't support, we need to understand that it's because they don't feel there need to be alternatives. Doing away with the ACA doesn't need to be a call for something else. It's simply a call for "nothing." And sadly, for the GOP, that's quite acceptable.