Source: This piece was originally posted at The New Democrat: Prager U: Dennis Prager- How Big Should Government Be?

Dennis Prager, did a great job of over generalizing here. By suggesting that the Left, as if there is one Left, puts all their faith in big government. While the Right, again as if there is only one Right, puts all their faith in the individual and market. Which is just complete nonsense and since the New Year is still new, I’ll be nice with that. Of course there isn’t one Left and there isn’t one Right. Thats why we have terms like Center-Left, Far-Left, Center-Right and Far-Right. Because different factions on the left-wing and right-wing, believe in different things and different policies. To the point that they can sound ideologically like they’re on the other side from each other.

Both the Far-Left, where you have Democratic Socialists and people who I at least call Neo-Communists, who aren’t completely Marxist, believe in big government. And then you have Neoconservatives and Religious Conservatives, Christian and Muslim, who believe in big government as well. It’s just that the Far-Left version of big government looks different from the Far-Right. The Far-Left big government, has more to do with economic policy. Even though they’re now involved in limiting free speech that they disagree with and trying to use government to tell people what they can eat and drink. And then the Far-Right big government, has more to do with social issues and personal behavior. And using big government to control how people behave and what they can do n their own personal time.

As a Liberal who of course who is on the Center-Left, I’m more interested in the differences and similarities that Liberals have with lets say Conservative Libertarians. The Rand Paul’s of the world, when it comes to the role of government. Both sides both believe in limited government. Both sides believe in a strong, but limited national defense to protect American interests and use American power where we can make a positive difference and promote our interests. Both sides even believe in a regulatory state. Not to run business’s, but to protect consumers and workers. And even to protect American business’s from unfair and illegal foreign competition. Both sides even believe in limited government aid to the underserved to help low-income people improve their own lives.

Where Liberals and Conservative Libertarians disagree is not whether government should be limited or not, but how limited. What’s the role of the states and localities and even non-profit private sector, to help the poor. To use as an example. Where should American force be used to save people from horrible authoritarian regimes that are murdering their own people. And how should we work with our allies to deal with situations like that. How big should the regulatory state be and what exactly should it do. But it’s not as if one side puts all their faith in big government and the other side puts all their faith in the individual. When the fact is factions on both sides believe in big government and believe in individualism.