Small Government Kills People

When a crisis occurs in America, the subject of government preparedness always comes to the forefront of the conversation. We’ve seen it happen with the responses to natural disasters from Hurricanes Katrina to Maria to the floods in the midwest and wildfires out West. Despite these discussions, the concept of small government — as viewed by far-right conservatives — and the negative impacts of such domestic policy are routinely overlooked.

As America comes to grips with the idea that the United States is grossly unprepared to handle the current crisis, it seems that people have yet to realize that our lack of preparedness is not entirely Trump’s fault. It’s the result of the far-right small government Trump is a part of. It’s easy to blame the guy in the White House, but the bigger picture is much more nefarious.

The far-right concept of small government is more about who benefits from taxpayer dollars than it is about limiting the power of government. When Barack Obama declared he was running for president, America’s racial indifference came bubbling to the surface like the malignant festering pustule that it is; manifesting itself as the racism of old. I know what you’re thinking, but racism absolutely plays a role in this type of fiscal conservatism.

Allow me to explain.

For the last several decades, conservative extremists have been the driving force behind the Republican party. A party that decided long ago that they didn’t need the Black vote and is just fine with alienating approximately 70% of the Latino vote. By betting on the white working-class, the party realized the benefits of not quelling but amplifying the racial fears of many white voters.

More recently, the Tea Party, a far-right faction of the Republican Party, became quite disruptive in American politics. Through the promotion of their so-called fiscal conservatism, and with help from huge Libertarian lobby groups such as Americans for Prosperity (AFP) founded by David and Charles Koch, they achieved great gains in the far-right conservative consolidation of power using racial hostility as their primary tool.

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