Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnR
Small Government -v- Big Government is not all Federal either. More conservative people think the states should have bigger responsibility and the Federal gov less, Progressives think the Federal Government needs more control.
Control -v- Liberty, sliding scale
The moderate middle is lacking leadership.
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The importance of the moderate middle in a sliding scale is its ability to keep the scale from sliding any further in any direction. To maintain the status quo. So it depends at what point the moderate middle asserts itself.
The scale has obviously slid in one direction, toward Federal power, for a long time. So if we assert moderation at this point, we maintain the massive power advantage the Federal Government has at this point. And granting that the mechanisms by which the central government have used and are using to gain more power are part of our status quo, moderation will keep in place those mechanisms. So we will continue sliding in that direction, perhaps at a moderate pace, although the mechanisms have allowed the pace to quicken.
Conservatives of a constitutional stripe believe the power scale should rest at that place where individuals have the most influence on where the widest scope of direct power over them is applied. They believe that place is local government. They believe moderation at that point will best maintain the "Control -v- Liberty, sliding scale" necessary for self-government.