“Small Government” is a Trojan horse. It’s a deliberately vague political slogan and lots of things fly under its protective wing.

I agree that felons should not be barred from getting trade licenses. That’s a law that hearkens back to a time (five minutes ago) when people thought all ex-cons were violent thugs covered with Nazi tattoos. It’s like believing that every person who lives in Maryland is a violent thug. I’m sure Maryland has its fair share of violent thugs, but all of them? No. Maybe 1%. Same with prison. Most are in there for something stupid they did as a kid or back when they were using drugs. Now they are older, wiser, and would make excellent plumbers, firefighters and electricians. Those laws should be modified to only exclude peoples charges that relate to the profession. Arsonists shouldn’t be fire fighters but I can’t imagine why they shouldn’t be hairdressers.

The government contractor thing is a feature, not a bug. A big company can hire lobbyists who can persuade clueless legislators that these extra requirements are ABSOLUTELY necessary. And they are correct. They are necessary to exclude competition.

But when people rattle on about “small government” in a political setting, they aren’t talking about licensing regulations. They want to cut medicaid or the SNAP program. They want to gut the EPA. They want to cut banking regulations in order to make theft on a large scale easier.

They are curiously and thunderously silent as the “war” on drugs stuffs the prisons full. Eric Garland was strangled for selling loose cigarettes. Why is that even illegal? They want to keep cutting school funding until the entire system collapses because nobody will teach 6th grade for Big Mac wages.

Somehow schools and food stamps are big government but the drug war and crowded prisons are not.

Because … Ayn Rand … or freedom … or something.