Republicans and conservatives in America usually define themselves as favoring small, “leave-me alone” government.  Republican candidates often campaign on the small government idea.  Time and time again, in speeches, in interviews, and in campaign ads, Republicans will tout this image as being for small and non-intrusive government.  It happened in the most recent election cycle.  Last year, countless GOP candidates promised limited government intervention.

It is abundantly clear that the GOP stands for small government.  At least that is what they say.  If you analyze their actions, you get quite a different picture.  What is happening around the country, at both the national level and at state levels, is that Republicans are pushing legislation that drastically increases the size of government.

For instance in Florida, Republican Governor Rick Scott has just issued an executive order that will mandate forced drug testing of public sector workers in that state at least quarterly.  Despite the Fourth Amendment protection we have in this country against unreasonable search and seizure that has generally banned blanket invasive drug testing like this, Scott signed the ridiculously expensive order anyway. The state will also pay the cost of defending his mandatory drug testing policy in court.

In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder passed a law that would essentially declare financial martial law and allow the Snyder administration to decide if your town was in a financial emergency.  If a town is in a financial emergency, a financial emergency czar will be appointed, not elected by you, sent to your town, given the power to abolish your town.   Anyone you elected locally to represent you can be dismissed.  All contracts, all unions, all rights of people who worked for that town can be dissolved on one person‘s say so if Governor Rick Snyder gives the nod.

There are so many more examples without even getting into the abortion restrictions.  The Republican Party in Wisconsin is searching though one university professor’s emails because he spoke out against Governor Scott Walker’s union busting bill.  No one can argue that is small government.  In Virginia, the attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli has demanded to search e-mails of a Virginia science professor, a professor whose research on climate issues apparently did not meet with government approval.

This is not small government.  This is not “leave-me-alone” non intrusive government.  The Republicans may have campaigned on that, but the actions are quite different.  As usual, no one in the mainstream media either notices or calls out these GOP lawmakers on the astounding discrepancy between what they say and what they do.

The Republicans certainly like small government but it seems only for large corporations.  They do not want to regulate corporations at all or have them pay taxes or follow any type of guidelines.  But, for the middle class—they seek to regulate who can get married, who can get a medical procedure, and—if you are a state employee—who you can email and what you can say.  Whether you realize this or not—the actions by the Republican Party is far closer to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union days that the dreaded “Obamacare.”  It is time for the media to call out the GOP for this obvious hypocrisy.  You can’t have it both ways.  You can’t be for small government while wanting the government to track every pregnancy or every email.  That is authoritative big government.  And that is what the GOP really wants.

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About the author

Erin Chavez
Erin Whitney-Chavez has been writing professionally since 2009. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts from St. Bonaventure University and received a Master of Arts in mental-health counseling from Argosy University. Erin Whitney-Chavez is a licensed mental health counselor and has worked in the mental-health field for more than 10 years.

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