D is wrong yet again. If Republican voters, unlike Republican politicians, just want government out of the way, then we wouldn't have so many of them driven to the polls by a fervent desire to get rid of legal access to abortion, to pass amendments prohibiting same-sex marriage, to maintain the prohibition regime for marijuana at great public cost, etc. etc.. They generally want to legislate their moral views just as much as anyone else, and all the "get government out of our lives" stuff is obvious hypocrisy when you look at the enormously powerful, expensive, and invasive state they allowed Bush to develop over two terms, which want to control people's lives from the personal and community level (eroding basic civil liberties), the economic sphere, and the international realm (our foreign policy is driven by "defense" spending greater than that of every other country on earth combined). Most Republican voters cheered Reagan and Bush alike as they pursued roughly the same policies, increasing the power of the state (except as a check on large corporations such as BP) and driving debt through the roof. There is no tradition of actual conservatism driving politics in this country.

Solomon, I once thought as you do. I went to a yard sale and figured out that the seller was having hard times partially because his ex-con status made it hard for him to get a decent job. I hired him to paint the back wall of my house, which wasn't quite necessary, but I felt generous and wanted to help the guy out. He brought a friend to help out. They didn't realize that I was working at my desk just inside a slightly open window, and I heard as they methodically planned to leave the window unlocked and come back later to clean me out. And the only reason they didn't was because they then overheard me calling the police to ask for advice.

If someone's already broken into your house and you then hire them to work out for you, I'd say the chances are 50-50 that you're just showing them that you're a softie and are asking to be ripped off.