DWill wrote:. . . It can't be just "government is bad, gov't is the swamp," because most of government is necessary. We might not think it is, but when it leaves then we find out what we're missing. This is where the libertarian delusion comes in. In the name of liberty the libertarians claim that regulations are evil and make us less free. No society has ever tried that approach, though; there are no successful examples to point to.
I'm not sure libertarians necessarily argue that we should have no regulations, but the
minimum number which, of course, is the crux of the biscuit. The libertarian ideal state would be very much like the wild west where you have a sheriff in the town to handle the riffraff, and a federal marshal who deals with the larger territory, leaving most people to pretty much fend for themselves and thrive or perish depending on their own actions. If memory serves, the guy who described libertarianism like this was the guy who wrote that book on critical thinking that we discussed many moons ago. I can't remember his name or the title of that book, but the analogy has always stayed with me.
But DWill is right. And though I agree in spirit with some libertarian ideas, I think we have to recognize the reality of modern society, which needs regulations and laws. There is a compact between the people and the government which requires us to give up some freedoms or else return to the Hobbesian brutish state of nature. But we also need to constantly be on guard from the tyranny of government. Today's tyranny seems to come in many forms, but most particularly in the form of corporate interests that push us towards oligarchism and corporatism. I agree with Interbane and DWill that such cuts to government services must be made thoughtfully, with a scalpel and not with an axe.
I think Trump's slogan, make America great again, is a naive call to return to the 1950s when we were much less populated, much less diverse, and where minorities were cruelly marginalized. It is not a state we
can return to, nor should we want to.