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While making campaign calls last week, I got into a fun discussion with a gentleman who insisted that I needed to switch parties because, he said, “the big-government Democrats want socialism and Marxism, and they’re all a bunch of communists.” 
It’s a story we’ve all heard before. We’re often told it’s a battle between big-government Democrats and small-government Republicans. But if you scratch the surface, you’ll find a different story—a story of power, priorities, and who gets to wield the government’s might.
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When it comes to individual rights and limited government, establishment Republicans love to trot out their favorite Reagan quotes. “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” A noble sentiment, right? But here’s the kicker—they’re more than happy to run our lives when it suits their agenda. They’ll champion “individual rights” while simultaneously dictating what women can do with their bodies, what books our children can read, and who we can love. They’re for individual rights, except when they’re not.
Fiscally, they are seasonal small-government politicians. During Democrat-in-the-White-House season, they are very concerned about the debt and the deficit. When there’s a Republican in the Oval Office, those concerns evaporate or are paid minor lip service. In 2017, Mitch McConnell said that the tax bill under consideration in the Senate would be, at worst, revenue neutral. The Congressional Budget Office predicted that it would explode the deficit. We all know now who was right. 
The thing is, Mitch McConnell didn’t believe for a second that the Tax Cut and Jobs Act would be revenue neutral. The architects of the bill never believed that giving giant corporations and the wealthiest Americans a big tax break was going to spur capital investment when stock buybacks and shareholder dividends were available options. McConnell and friends knew the CBO was right, and they knew the bill would benefit the people they really cared about: those who could make big campaign and PAC contributions. When the deficit exploded as predicted, they said, “But look at your 401K.” When the rest of us hear those words, we know it’s time to put our hands over our wallets. 
Establishment Republicans will pontificate about the dangers of government spending until they’re blue in the face, but their actions tell a different story. They’ll pass massive tax cuts for the wealthy, inflating the deficit to astronomical levels. They’ll funnel subsidies to giant corporations, but when it comes to funding healthcare, education, or social security? Suddenly, the purse strings are tighter than a drum. They’re for fiscal responsibility, except when they’re not.
Ronald Reagan also said, “Man is not free unless government is limited.” A profound idea, but one that establishment Republicans have twisted into a paradox. They’ll cry for limited government while expanding it to suit their needs, whether it’s increasing defense budgets or imposing restrictive regulations on personal freedoms. They’ll decry “big government” in public, while privately making deals that entrench their power and the power of their corporate allies. They’re for limited government, except when they’re not.  
It’s easy to campaign on ideas like “freedom,” “individual rights,” “property rights,” and “small government,” but it’s a lot harder to actualize those goals in good faith. If they did, they’d be defending policies that aren’t popular with their base. The challenge lies in the fact that the concept of limited government doesn’t align with our current reality. The relationship isn’t simply between the government and the individual anymore—it’s a complicated triangle involving corporate power as well. The corporate vertex of the triangle is deemed too big to fail, while the acute angle the rest of us live in is too small to matter. Imagine a romantic triangle where one party always gets what they want while the other two are left fighting for scraps. In our modern context, the government must answer to the people through voting, but Corporate America never has to.
Right-wing media paints Democrats as Marxist, Socialist, or Leninist. They project their thirst for authoritarian strong-man autocracy—a notion that no true patriot would support-onto us. Unfortunately for them, their message has become tiresome and Americans across the political spectrum have grown weary of it. You can only cry wolf (or Marx, Lenin, or Soros) so many times before people wise up. I am one of those Democratic-NPLers they have struggled to fit into their mold. Like every other Democrat I know, I just want to ensure that whatever power the government does exercise serves the people, not just the privileged few.
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