The Republican Paradox

The members of the republican party (GOP) don’t like it when the government trys to interveen in the course of the so called free market. They preach their theory of small government which shall only have one weapon of intervention when things „are not looking so good“ – tax cuts, their holy grail (see here how tax cuts failed under Bush). Otherwise, so the rebublicans state, government is growing to big and is deciding for you which health care you get and how you shall provide for your family and so on. They summarize it under one big scary word: SOCIALISM!

So, government is meant to be small and doesn’t have any business of regulating the market or social services for citizens, according to the GOP and their base.

Which is leading to a very interesting question: How could they be supportive of the Home Patriot Act and all other measures that have been taken by the Bush-administration to cut into personal liberties and privacy, basecally allowing the government to spy on every person in the US (and around the western world by putting the heads of EU under (lobbying-)pressure) without justification?

It seems to me that since 2001 the government was very big in controlling peoples lifes and personal freedom by taking out the „private“ of „private life“. It seeded misstrust and fear under its citizens and transfered wealth via the war (taxpayer money was given to weapon manufactorers, security firms like Blackwater/Xe, Halliburton, oil companies and on and on) to the rich.

Also, under Bush the US were robbed of its surplus, the gap between the rich and the poor has increased by a big margin and US has lost all its credit in the western world, beeing only feared and not respected as a friend anymore.

Now the republican party is screaming murder and saying that president Obama is stealing money from the next generations by pushing through the expensive stimulus plan. A plan that was not even read by the GOP but criticiced from day one.

To get to the paradox that I’m trying to outline: Republicans don’t have a problem with a government which is spying on them, controlling their lifes and (subtely) telling them how to spend their earned money, but they DO have a problem with a government that is trying to rebuild the failed market, trying to make sure that everyone has good health care (watch this if you want to know how this department has been handled in the last 8 years), trying to oversee what happens with the taxpayer money given to the banks and companies in trouble (though they have only themselfes – the banks – to blame)?

Can anyone explain that to me? Wingnuts maybe?