I didn't anywhere in this discussion say that I supported a bigger government. Danny seems to be closer to my perspective here. I don't truly see much of a difference between the two parties. Where I make my stand is that republicans and democrats say things that are much different from where their actions actually stand. The reverse is also true...republicans claim that the democrats say and do differently than reality would suggest and the democrats claim the same about republicans.

To respond directly to Danny for a moment...I don't think it's nearly as obvious where big and small government lie in those particular examples. Let's take taxes/economic equality for a minute. I sincerely fail to see where the republicans find themselves on a smaller government platform on this issue. I can't ever remember a single republican downsizing the tax code. I don't see any of them streamlining or decreasing the IRS's role. To be fair, I don't see the democrats doing it either. I truly don't see how "trickle down economic" polices have anything to do with smaller government. That all being said, military is the best example of "big government" First of all, more money has been spent in the last 5 years as a direct result of military actions just for Iraq and Afghanistan is close to 800 billion right now. That doesn't include other defense and military spending that is more static. If you look at the total amount of money the government spends elsewhere, the percentage is staggering. There is nothing politically that can make a larger government than the military. "Big Government" is not a catch phrase for effecting the free will of the people. Big government by your original argument is a larger, more expensive, less effective bureaucracy, which the military is the epitome of.

To address Verik...I think your view on republicans and democrats alike is incredibly simplistic and unrealistic. I agree that government programs are abused, but the ones getting abused aren't just democratic or republican. They both share their fair amount of corruption, ineptitude and general failure. The republicans aren't going to tax you as the average person any less. They are just going to spend the money on the military instead of the health care system. Both are wasting the same amount of money. Personally if I had to choose between an imperialistic army with unlimited funds or a corrupt heath care system for all, I think I know where I would choose to spend that money. Public policy based on personal values is wrong when it simply decides that a large (sometimes even the majority) of a population no longer has the right to decide what is moral for themselves. We all agree that murder is bad. We don't all agree that abortion is murder. Why should a small group of the population decide for all when the country itself is still incredibly indecisive as a majority? (source: http://www.texasinsider.org/modules....ticle&sid=2448) All empires fail and they do so for many reasons. I don't think our own demise will be because of rampant immorality, but rather economic failures. I think it is also much more likely to happen sooner rather than later.