Occasionally it is worth mentioning posts by the left-leaning comrades of the Tennessee blogosphere. Well, usually not, but sometimes. Especially so when one demonstrates he completely misunderstands the nature of his ideological opponents

S-Town Mike calls Charlie Tygaard, Eric Crafton, and Jim Gotto, noted conservatives in the Metro Council, hypocrites for wanting to continue to serve in other public office, because he believes they have a “hatred” for local government. He is not the first liberal to make this comment, espousing that conservatives actually hate all government.  What this actually demonstrates is a failure to listen, or blogospherically speaking, a failure to read and comprehend.

To offer the nutshell version, conservatives advocate efficient and effective government, with the belief that one cannot be efficient or effective if one is bloated and overly bureaucratized. There are many things conservatives think government should not do, which is where the line in the sand is mostly drawn between the left and the right. But no conservative I know wants no government, or hates government.  To think so would be no different than me believing every liberal were a disciple of Wesley Mouch.

We all acknowledge the need for the existence of government, but generally speaking, conservatives seem more fine tuned to its potential evils (in an effort at preemption, don’t thrown any “right to privacy” talk at me - that is the only place where liberals can make even a remotely colorable argument for limiting the power of government).  Unlike the economy, freedom is a fixed sized pie - anytime a new regulation arises, some freedom somewhere else is taken away.  The costs must always be balanced, and the burden is to always be on the government to make its case.

As a matter of fact, I’d rather see the size of the Nashville and Tennessee government grow, and do more - but only if the federal government shrunk man-for-man and dollar-for-dollar. Outside of a common currency and providing for the national defense, there is very little the national government does that cannot be done better here.