Regime change: Bigger and better?

I received an email the other day that had a number of arguments against voting for Obama. One of them was "If he gets into office with a Democratic congress, government will get bigger and bigger." I am assuming this refers to any Democratic president in office at the same time as a Democratic congress, not just Obama.

I've heard this same argument stated that same way many times. I'll admit, I don't understand all of the inner workings of government. (My high school government teacher made the subject excessively boring.) So I'm not sure how much more government would bloom from this particular scenario.

What I do know is that we want government there when we need it. If somebody is breaking into your house, you want the police to come. No, you don't just want it - you expect it. If you are putting your money into the bank, you want it to be federally insured. Right about now, you're probably relieved that the SEC has imposed a ban on short selling, and you're probably rethinking the benefits of regulating the mortgage industry.

To me, this should be an issue of quality. I don't want a bloated government, but the people in power need to do the job for which they were elected. When they are making decisions that benefit their friends instead of the American people, then we aren't getting the quality we deserve. (Of course, I'm talking about oil.)

This is surely an over-simplistic view of things. My point is that it seems precarious to make decisions now based on blanket statements learned 30 years ago.

As we all know, one party never stays in power for too long. Perhaps we need to have this change to get us squarely on track to cleaner energy and transportation, and then in eight years a "Drill, Drill, Drill" campaign slogan might be met with stunned silence even by the adoring supporters in the crowd.

We can dream.