Beyond the tea party: What Americans really think of government

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

If there is an overarching theme of election 2010, it is the question of how big the government should be and how far it should reach into people's lives.

Americans have a more negative view of government today than they did a decade ago, or even a few years ago. Most say it focuses on the wrong things and lack confidence that it can solve big domestic problems; this general anti-Washington sentiment is helping to fuel a potential Republican takeover of Congress next month.

But ask people what they expect the government to do for themselves and their families, and a more complicated picture emerges.

A new study by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University shows that most Americans who say they want more limited government also call Social Security and Medicare "very important." They want Washington to be involved in schools and to help reduce poverty. Nearly half want the government to maintain a role in regulating health care.

The study suggests that come January, politicians in both parties will confront a challenging and sometimes contradictory reality about what Americans really think about their government. Although Republicans, and many Democrats, have tried to demonize Washington, they must contend with the fact that most major government programs remain enormously popular, including some that politicians have singled out for stiff criticism.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/09/AR2010100903308_pf.html

[Fruittree]

1. Of course people feel that way..

We have a 24 hour a day feed from the internet, radio, television, newspapers, magazines telling us how awful everything is, how the government and particularly Obama are to blame. I think things aren't great but a lot of the anti-government hysteria is driven by either a so-called news media trying to get the best ratings or by people with an agenda which is to get back in power and stop any kind of progressive legislation. It's a minor miracle the Obama administration has managed to do as much as it has in this environment.

[ixion]

2. I think the distinction is far less complicated...

The idea is this: People want a safety net and basic social infrastructure, without having Big Brother watching everything they do.

Schools and social security aren't the reason our budget is so high, the MIC and our Death Folly abroad is where the money goes.

What people what is what every human wants: To be able to live their lives as they see fit, without fear of persecution for their beliefs. But for some reason, we just can't let each other be.

[quaker bill]

3. People are for "limited government"

until you actually start limiting it. The phrase "limited government" has been marketed well as a meme as the path to the land of milk and honey. The problem is that there is no substance behind it, and never has been. Who would not love a government that did all the things I wanted it to do, nothing I did not want it to do, and better yet, did not tax me to pay for it. This is the corner conservative governance has painted us into.

This is why conservative governance consistently fails. Katrina was an exercise in an attempt at truly limited government. The Bush admin did not see it as the federal government's job to assure that places at well known massive risk were in fact evacuated. His folks sort of told the people of the danger and suggested that they handle it on their own, and more than 1000 died. This is the point where Bush's poll numbers plunged well below 50 and stayed there. People did not like the results and ran conservatives out of office.

People like the concept of limited government, but not the reality.

[bherrera]

6. Limited government is better

I believe limited government is better. We pay a price in some services, but it helps to have it limited because a powerful government tends to limit individual freedom.

I can point out one place where your government is not limited at all: you have too many people involved in military work, and you invade too much, and use your military too much. At the same time, it is shameful that you lack a basic health care service. This basic service should be basic, limited but which allows people to avoid using the emergency room for diseases like inflenza.

Other areas you can limit government is in the Patriot Act, which is a serious attack against freedom. And it makes no sense if you can declare people "enemy combatant" and put them in jail forever without a trial. This is a serious abuse. I like President Obama, but these abuses continue, and it is a shame, because you will continue to generate hate, which you already do in spades, and you will not win any of these wars your military fights (which reminds me, you have too many generals charging a lot of money to behave like donkeys, like Petraeus).

In Spain, we have such limited services. They are not very good, but it can be supplemented with private insurance one pays, which costs a lot less because the basic public service is available. And the result is we live longer and have a lower mortality of children, etc. We do need more freedom. For example, we should legalize drugs. And I don't see a need for the European Union to tell us all the time what type of tubes we should use when building a house.

[quaker bill]

19. This is not the limited government conservatives support

Conservatives are all together good in their notion of limited government with creating and using a powerful military, and desiring to know what books you are checking out of the library. Their sense of limited government still includes a massive system of commercially operated prisons, and plenty of reasons to put people in them.

The limits they support are limits on basic services to the people. It never works because people do not actually want their services limited. They can be lied into believing that they want their neighbor's benefits limited, but when the chickens come home to roost, sales of this notion plummets. When things go wrong, like Hurricane Katrina, but every bit as much with smaller problems, we want government to respond and get pretty upset if it doesn't.

Thus taxes are cut, government grows, and deficts balloon, every single time we put these people in charge. The question is not whether limited government is essentially good or bad, the question and the largest of our myths is the notion that we actually want to limit government. The truth is we actually don't want limited government, we just want low taxes.

[benny05]

4. Not a good question

If it had asked, what do you think of Congress, I could see some one words.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Where was this or any other "studies" when they passed the Patriot Act & FISA?

The most intrusive, invasive, and anti-4th amendment crap to be passed by Congress...

[UpInArms]

8. ding! ding! ding!

there it is! for all to see - these shit was rammed down the throat of everyone under the REPUBLICANS' rule - do not let them back - they are liars, crooks, thieves and the ultimate deceivers.

[Winterblues]

20. FISA was passed in 1979

However the Bush* Cabal chose to completely ignore it while proclaiming it was no longer valid because of Terrorism...The FISA Law itself probably is not all that much of a problem. It is what it has become since Bush*...

[fasttense]

7. The Tea-baggers are pushing this meme but don't actually enforce it.

They are all for the federal government forcing a 12 year old rape victim to have a child, just don't force rich white men to pay any taxes.

[Stumbler]

10. Exactly. I've never understood that

They seem to want teachers, firefighters and nurses "to make sacrifices" by accepting cuts in their salaries, but we're not even allowed to consider raising taxes on the excessively wealthy, that would be "unfairly punishing success."

They claim to want "limited government," but don't you dare cut spending for Social Security, Medicare, or the MIC. Oh, and the Patriot Act and the DHS are also the greatest things ever created, gotta keep those too.

And we need laws to force that 12-year old rape victim to carry her child to term, but these pesky hate-crime laws to protect teh gay have got to go.

They claim religion should be taught in school, provided it's the Christian religion and not Islam. And "evolution is still a theory," so that's gotta go as well.

Such outright hypocrisy and stupidity... I just don't get it.

[dmosh42]

9. People want gov't to be for the people, not corporations....

and they want honesty, instead of a bunch of crooks, as we have had for quite a while. I would say Reagan really stepped up the idea of an oligarchy of rich elitist, and leave the rest of us confused and fighting rabble.

[geckosfeet]

11. Govm't as we know it today is owned part and parcel by big corpo interests.

They own the political process and discourse. By extension, it is big corpo business that people are distrustful of - with good reason.

Having said (ranted) that, government is simply a tool to be used to help people, or to enslave them. The real question is, whose interests will/does our government ultimately serve?

[elleng]

12. The lead 'question' is b.s., proven by the story itself.

People want the govt to do the job we've given it properly, and as life and times become more complex, the 'job' becomes more complex. SO, it is b.s. that 'the overarching theme of election 2010, it is the question of how big the government should be and how far it should reach into people's lives.'

[suston96]

13. Limited government?

First of all, what is 'government'?

I define government as the body of laws under which people in a society agree to live. In our societies, we elect some of us to make those laws.

Now the population recently passed 310 million people in our American society, and we say we want less government? More people but less government. That's an idea. Think about it -

More roads and cars but fewer traffic lights, stop signs, danger signs and the rest. Oh, they are not part of government. No? How did they get there? Our elected representatives created them and placed them there.

Increases in population need increased control. If that control can be accomplished without more rules and regulations then by all means, keep the government small. Otherwise? Get those roadsigns in there because if that isn't done there will be blood on the highways and on the streets of our towns and cities.

The size and expanse of government - read body of laws - depends on the quality and degree of security and tranquility the individual society wants or needs. Downsize government if that's what is decided by the people, but be prepared to bear the consequences of inadequate control over 310 million people - and climbing..

[Gregorian]

15. God damnit! Another person gets it.

Congratulations on how your eyes are connected to your brain. So few seem to have that ability. And even if they do, they want to deny it. We are bigger. So there are more cops and more restrictions. And higher fees for everything, because "everything" is just a constant number, while we are an exponential increase. There's only so much water, yet people are building houses and creating new humans to live in them, in every corner of the country. More cars on the highway means more accidents, so we have more laws to make people behave more carefully. It kind of works. But there is one thing nobody is realizing. It's an artificial world we've made for ourselves. And it's a house of cards just waiting to fall. But I'm digressing. I'm rather upset about this. And I thank you for even being brave enough to post your thoughts about it. It's like heresy to do that.


I know the OT is about something tangential. "Big government" is partly about bad government. But what you said is crucially important, and the biggest factor in this equation.

[suston96]

17. I have been preaching that for years but it usually swooshes over people's heads.....

Thanks for the kudos.

[tclambert]

14. Doublethink, hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance are unfortunate human traits.

It always amazes me when people say they want better schools, better roads, more law enforcement . . . and lower taxes and smaller government. It's like math and logic don't exist.

[JohnWxy]

16. This shows how effective the GOP's use of the "Big Lie" is.. make a big lie & keep repeating it! M$M

helps enourmously in this by also continuously repeating it. Such as saying that most people are against HCR..

Actually when the Kaiser Family Foundation polled people on this issue, a majority said they were against HCR. But when asked more detailed questions about the changing of health insurance practices such as:

...prohibition of rescission for pre-existing conditions, or
...requiring insurance companies provide coverage of children, or
...for providing tax credits to help small businesses provide group coverage for their employess,

most people were for changing these practices as has been done in the HCR law.

Republicans have done a great job scaring the uninformed by talking about the HCR law like it's a 'boogey-man'.

[ShockediSay]

18. What about big/super corporate millionaires in charge N/T

[No Elephants]

21. Democrats need to do a better job of messaging.