M.D. Harmon vs. "New Puritanism"

Re: M.D. Harmon, "New Puritans finding more ways to make others miserable," Portland Press Herald, 03/15/2013.

So, to recap: Big Government/Nanny State—bad. Government “meddling in people’s lives” cannot be tolerated. Thank you, M.D.! Get that damn government off our backs!

Unless of course we are talking about gay marriage. In that case, federal and/or state governments have every right (nay—an obligation) to affirm the “sacred institution” of marriage—“marriage” being explicitly restricted to “one man and one woman.” So, yeah…Big Government is OK there.

And then there is the matter of women with the audacity to make their own reproductive decisions. We simply can’t have that. Good thing many states have passed exceptionally restrictive abortion laws to clamp down on that sort of thing.

Oh, and there is also the matter of warrantless surveillance of law-abiding citizens. I almost forgot about that one. We need Big Government there too, so we can protect ourselves from terrorists.

Also, the Executive Branch needs the authority to assassinate—by drones, if need be—any individual, anywhere in the world, including American citizens, who might possibly be a terrorist, or even a terrorist sympathizer.

And, we can’t forget about the hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate subsides the federal government doles out to welfare queens—err—I mean “small businesses” like oil companies, Wall Street, G.E. and the like. Hmmm… Would that be an example of Big Government…? Nah, I guess those corporations need that money so they can continue creating jobs for the rest of us.

And let's not forget about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid doled out by that wretched Big Government. I mean, do Americans even like these programs? I doubt it!

I think you get my point.

The problem with the whole “Big Government” scare tactic is Harmon and his conservative cronies wholeheartedly support all of the above policies (of course, liberals support many of them, as well). Just like anti-abortion zealots’ “pro-life” position, conservatives’ “Big Government” rhetoric is another hypocritical, phantom threat designed to distract citizens from the real problems that plague society. If only Harmon was half as concerned about global warming--which, naturally, he does not think exists--as he is about cloth grocery bags.