Government is Not the Enemy
Just certain administrations.

I found Dionne's editorial in the WP Vision Check for the Democrats to be right on the money, as in ways our tax dollars can be well-spent.

Whatever message Democrats come up with, they will continue to lose ground and be untrue to what's best in their tradition if they fail to stand up for this affirmative government role in enhancing both individual liberty and self-sufficiency. The Democratic theme-meisters might usefully consult the just-published issue of the Washington Monthly, in which editor Paul Glastris and his colleagues show how active government can advance the causes of "choice and individual control" in a technological economy.

As the magazine argues, it takes a government to fight identity theft, to give parents more power over the television programming that comes into their homes, to protect individuals from hidden credit card charges, to offer employees more control over the balance between their work and family lives. The list is not exhaustive, but it is instructive. It shows that government rules and regulations, properly conceived, can tilt the scales within a competitive economy toward individual rights. Citizens should have rights within the political sphere, but consumers and employees should also have rights in the economic sphere.