Amy Goodman reported this morning on Democracy Now that opponents to health care reform at town hall meetings have been saying "Who cares about those who don't have health care?"
The self-reliance that motivated many people in various parts of the world to immigrate to America, the self-reliance that was necessary on the frontier - and the control the Federal Government had over who got what land on the frontier - have come together a couple of hundred years later to distort the very meaning of government.
The motto "that government is best which governs the least" has to be taken IN CONTEXT. It is not a repudiation of government as such, but a word of caution least government slide from providing services that individuals cannot organize - such as roads and armies - to ensuring that the freedom of one individual does not encroach on the freedom of another.
In the early days of the republic, the need for solidarity among individuals was obvious. As individuals became less able to provide solidarity for one another, that role was shifted to government. You are not called in the middle of the night to deliver your neighbor's baby because there is a hospital equipped to do that. But when your neighbor knocks on your door because she ran out of milk, you say "too bad for you, lady."
