The Sunshine Empire

The end of this month marks the one year blogversary of The Sunshine Empire in it’s current location. From September of 2006 to late June of 2007 I wrote TSE at sunshineempire.blogspot.com. From that point on we have posted 699 times and this marks the 700th post in this forum. During it’s entire existence we have relied on the brain trust of Duprizzle, Josh, and others to make this site what it is today. One of the biggest technical influences on this site has been my associate Billy. Billy asked one of the most fundamental political questions you could, the approach when it comes to government influence in regards to the two major American political parties. The subject is what drove me to the party I first registered with when I became of voting age, and is the most basic of what drives American politics.

Most uninformed about the American political spectrum would answer simply that Republicans believe in smaller government and Democrats believe in larger government. The answer is not simple and that particular reply is wrong. Most Republican candidates will always proclaim themselves champions of smaller government regardless of their actions, but Democrats do not argue for larger government outright. Democratic administrations are responsible for the largest non-discretionary “entitlement” programs such as Social Security and Medicare, but are also responsible for balancing the budget at long last in the late ’90′s. Republican administrations have by and large reduced taxes when they could, but are also responsible for the largest growth in government in the last 30 years. This has given rise to what our friend Biggus Rickus rightly calls, big government conservatism. George W. Bush’s administration has given us spending that would make a French socialist blush, and expanded the Medicare drug benefit by billions of dollars.

In today’s political lexicon, government regulation is looked at as a universally evil restriction on the life of Americans. But given the option of going to a restaurant that has gone through rigorous health inspections and one free of government regulations, many lose their small government principles. Yet many government regulations are social and not medical, nor economic. Many social conservatives that rue the government telling them what to do will have no issues with restrictions on the participation of gays in matters like the military and marriage. So general beliefs on government intervention in life is not a monolithic lockstep group. People’s true beliefs on when the government can step in are on a case by case basis.

As P. J. O’Rourke once wrote, “Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.” Government intervention is not an altogether good thing either. Subsidies to particular industries can fail to grow the sector and can prevent innovation. Also, too often our legislatures Democrat or Republican create laws that anticipate every bit of minutia. A happy medium is the key.