Liberals, why do you want a bigger government

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 09 Apr 2006 19:20

I'm just curious. What is it about big government that appeals to you, and more importantly, how do you think it betters the populace of a country?

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 09 Apr 2006 19:27

How do you expect a serious response with such a vague question? I think that the conservative / liberal dictotomy imposes an extreme oversimplification of political viewpoints. What do you mean by "bigger government"?

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 09 Apr 2006 19:40

It isn't really that vauge a question. Or, it is rather vauge, but it's vaugeness doesn't inhibit anyone from answering the question seriously.

Bigger government means more federal spending (Entitlement programs), more federal taxing (Tax increases), more interference in individual life (Abortion, gay marriage, NSA spying), and generally larger bueracracy. That is my definition anyways, feel free to state your own.

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 09 Apr 2006 19:50

BainbridgeShred wrote:More interference in individual life (Abortion, gay marriage, NSA spying)

Playing along with the liberal/conservative game, I find the three examples you chose to be quite amusing. The "liberals" don't want the government to interfere with people's ability to have an abortion or to marry the people they love. On the other hand, wasn't it the "conservatives" that started the whole unauthorized wiretap program?

Edit: Fixed quote.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 09 Apr 2006 19:59

Their is a difference between conservative and republican, and their is a difference between liberal and democrat.

shreddaily · Post by **shreddaily** » 09 Apr 2006 22:37

SOOOOOO!!!

Mike H gets to edit his muther F*ckin' posts in discussion but we can't?????

Join the revolution fizzied patrons. Over throw this tyrant!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 09 Apr 2006 22:52

If you want a quote or something fixed you can always pm a mod and they'll do it for you

I have no idea what the US situation is but in my state of Australia - Tasmania - there is a strong push to increase the size of parliement for these reasons.

A few years ago the two major parties colluded to reduce the size of parliament from 35 members to 25 (in the lowerhouse - westminster system). The aim of this was to stop the greens party from getting elected. We have a proportional representation system (hare clark system) so that the top 5 (it was 7) candidates get elected from each electorate. When they first made that change the number of greens in parliament dropped from 5 to 1. However in the next two elections after that the greens have had 4 members both times - effectively meaning that all the two major parties have lost 9 out of the 10 seats that were reduced.

Because of the reduced size of parliament it's now impossible for the opposition to have shadow ministries of the government and the government effectively has no back bench - which means it's a break down of how the westminster system is supposed to work. In fact the government can't fill all it's positions amoungst elected people so have had to employ more people to fill positions that used to be filled by politicians. So it has basically made the system less democratic while not saving any money or reducing any beuacracy.

That's why I support a return to a 35 seat parliament.

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 09 Apr 2006 23:13

Hahahaha. Either you have a very funny sense of humor Mr. O'Wheel, or your just damned dumb. I mean that sincerely also, so don't anyone come in here hating on me.

professor · Post by **professor** » 09 Apr 2006 23:39

Mods, you might as well save us some time and just lock this thread now.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 09 Apr 2006 23:51

BainbridgeShred wrote:Hahahaha. Either you have a very funny sense of humor Mr. O'Wheel, or your just damned dumb. I mean that sincerely also, so don't anyone come in here hating on me.

Explain yourself. I thought I answered your question fairly well - I'm liberal and in this circumstance I mentioned I support a bigger government. I'm not the only one - in fact the former leader of the conservative party that made the decision to reduce parliament sizes recently published an autobiography and he says in that that it was definitely a mistake and that it's only had a negative effect on the government. When people on both sides of the politics agree that a decision was a mistake I don't think you can call them "damned dumb".

Tsiangkun · Post by **Tsiangkun** » 10 Apr 2006 08:56

BainbridgeShred wrote:I'm just curious. What is it about big government that appeals to you, and more importantly, how do you think it betters the populace of a country?

Why do you assume we want a big government ?

We want a socially responsible government that fulfills the roles of government. It's possible to be both functional and efficient.

Why do conservatives only define freedom as the ability to make money without regulation or restraint ?

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 10 Apr 2006 09:43

Explain yourself. I thought I answered your question fairly well - I'm liberal and in this circumstance I mentioned I support a bigger government. I'm not the only one - in fact the former leader of the conservative party that made the decision to reduce parliament sizes recently published an autobiography and he says in that that it was definitely a mistake and that it's only had a negative effect on the government. When people on both sides of the politics agree that a decision was a mistake I don't think you can call them "damned dumb".

Jeremy, you're talking about the actual, in numbers, size of your working, elected government. What this thread was intended to be about the size of the government in general, in more broader terms. Thus government programs and such.

Why do you assume we want a big government ?

Because the vast majority of lbierals do.

We want a socially responsible government that fulfills the roles of government. It's possible to be both functional and efficient.

So do I. Doesn't everybody? What's your point?

Why do conservatives only define freedom as the ability to make money without regulation or restraint ?

Actually, conservatives don't define freedom that way, so I think you're a bit out of your leauge on this one. Not that I would know anyways, because I wouldn't exactly call myself a conservative, per say.

Oh yeah, give me my fuckign PM's back Brad. I'm long over due.

HighDemonslayer · Post by **HighDemonslayer** » 10 Apr 2006 14:17

Don't forget that neo-cons like bigger government, also.

Then again, neo-cons aren't really conservative at all.

-n

Slowsis · Post by **Slowsis** » 10 Apr 2006 14:33

HighDemonslayer wrote:Don't forget that neo-cons like bigger government, also.

Then again, neo-cons aren't really conservative at all.

-n

What are they?
Fascist?

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 10 Apr 2006 14:55

Don't forget that neo-cons like bigger government, also.

Then again, neo-cons aren't really conservative at all.

I like liberals more than neo-con's.

Neo-con's, yes, are quite literally facists.

HighDemonslayer · Post by **HighDemonslayer** » 10 Apr 2006 17:06

You know, neo-con is kind of a code word for "Jew".

And some prominent neo-cons are Jewish.

Fascist Jews....seems kind of ironic.

I wonder what makes a neo-con a fascist?

-n

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 10 Apr 2006 17:22

What're you talking about?

Iron Clad Ben · Post by **Iron Clad Ben** » 10 Apr 2006 17:23

set flame bait > carefully dance around try to collect bait without setting off trap > get flamed anyway > flame back > rpt

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 10 Apr 2006 18:29

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power."
--Benito Mussolini

BainbridgeShred · Post by **BainbridgeShred** » 10 Apr 2006 18:53

Benito got teh pwn in Afreeka

modified

Liberals, why do you want a bigger government

Liberals, why do you want a bigger government

Re: Liberals, why do you want a bigger government