I hesitate to write this essay, because I don't let leftist #Twidiots to rent space in my head; I know that my political opinions are not popular. The truth is, I love to mix it up, and I don't really expect leftists I troll to have a come-to-Jesus moment from one of my pithy tweets. I am an equal opportunity Twitter user; I go after Trumpkins as well as leftists, but there are far more leftists and partisan Dems. This is obvious when you scan the latest trend hashtags. Almost daily you'll find personal attacks on moderate Senate Dems Manchin and Sinema, even Melania Trump (often with quasi-porn images), obsessions on the J6 uprising, eliminating the filibuster, voting reforms, red state governors, etc.
Almost any tweet I write on a contrarian theme will get at least some pushback; for the most part, Twitter filters most of these; sometimes I'll see one a month on my analytics summary page. Occasionally I'll see one or two come through. On a recent one the progressive snapped back, "Stay out of it; I was talking to a Trumpkin."
So the most recent case was probably a Comrade Berniekin repeating the Sander's trite assertion arguing the rich and powerful have bought the political opposition to his socialist program schemes. I responded, not the first time on Twitter, that if the rich and powerful go to Capitol Hill to grab their "fair share" in funding and regulation, it's because of a power grab by the political whores, and the preponderance of the State (except perhaps for defense spending) is based on progressive, not conservative policy; the proper response is for the federal government to scale back its economic interventionist policy and return to its smaller scope core competencies. (This is a paraphrase for meaning; on Twitter you don't have a lot of space to flesh out your point of view.)
The Berniekin naturally took offense and effectively snapped back, "Take your anti-government bullshit, and get lost."
I'm somewhat amused. Most of my clients since I initially worked for Oracle Consulting GEHS as a senior principal in 1998 have been in the public sector (local, county, state or federal government). If I were "anti-government", you couldn't pay me to work for these clients.
I'm a minarchist, not an anarchist. I do believe in our rightful constitutional small footprint federal government. (And my libertarian coalition anarchist partners accuse me of being a little Statist just like a woman can be a little bit pregnant.)
Arguing that a small government conservative is anti-government is like arguing someone who is critical of an obese person's diet is anti-eating. (I'm in the obese group, and I carefully watch what I eat) No, eating is a necessary requirement, but you can argue what and how much a healthy person should eat.) In a similar fashion, I can argue for a common defense and protecting individual rights. This doesn't mean a blank check on military spending or an overseas empire of nearly 800 military bases. I certainly oppose every single aspect of Biden's euphemistically named "Build Back Better", an orgy of spending and punitive anti-growth taxes. The idea that less than 300 political whores in DC know better than a vibrant free market of 332M Americans how to allocate $3.5T is beyond hubris and wishful thinking; it's denial of reality..
