Liberal Small Government?

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I consider myself a liberal. This is not because I am overly fond of labels, but because I land on the liberal side of arguments a majority of the time. One thing that has always bugged me about being a liberal is that people seem to assume that means I support big government. Not only is this not true in my case, it is not true in the case of many liberals. Believe it or not a great many liberals despise the idea of government involvment in our lives and this is actually why we are liberals. I know it might seem strange to hear but it is the truth. If you look at what most liberals believe the claim that we are not for big government would actually be rather self explanatory.

Smaller Military:

Most every liberal believes in shrinking the size of our military. The US spends more money on the military than the next twenty five countries combined. While some liberals approach it from a peace first perspective most of us simply feel that we don't need as large a military as we have and that we use it far to often. What could be more for small government than decreasing the size of our armed forces?

Criminal Justice Reform:

Another large part of the liberal agenda is to create real and lasting criminal justice reform. There are currently over two million people incarcerated in the US. In many liberals opinion this number is not just to high but completely unnecessary. Given the fact that nearly eighty percent of those currently incarcerated are there for non violent offenses, most liberals champion changing or abolishing drug laws along with rehabilitation which is cheaper and more effective in the first place.

Gay Marriage:

While for some reason the right refuses to acknowledge this point, gay marriage is essentially an argument about small government. Liberals not only believe gays should have the right to be married, but also believe it isn't any of the government's business on who should be allowed to marry who. Not only does gay marriage touch on the small government issue, but it also touches on the freedom of religion and the idea of the pursuit of happiness.

And More:

The above are only a few issues in which liberals are decidedly small government. I can already hear someone groaning and thinking I have no idea what I am talking about, but let's take a look at some of the things conservatives believe in.

Larger Military:

Not only does a larger military mean more spending but most republicans are more than happy to use the military when it suits their purpose. While there are a few conservatives out there that actually believe the US shouldn't even have a standing military, most of them want our military even bigger.

Patriot Act:

You will never convince me in a billion years that increasing the governments ability to snoop on it's citizens is not supporting bigger government. While they want to dress it up under the guise of patriotism and sneer at those who don't support the idea, the fact is the patriot act and all other increases of national security are acts of bigger government.

Department of Homeland Security

What speaks to supporting bigger government more than the Patriot Act? How about adding an entirely new department into government. This move didn't merely add a new cabinet position, it increased the size of government on a massive scale.

I don't know about anyone else, but it seems to me that the idea that liberal government can be small government actually works.