"I bet you're really 'high' and 'far out,' huh?" - stone-faced Sgt. Joe Friday, "Dragnet 1966"
Regards,
At one point, because of Covid, 75% of the federal government was sent home for as long as 6 months, to include federal law enforcement.
What changed during that time?
Did angry mobs roam the streets? Did buildings come down in waves of terror attacks?
Yes, you could FIRE 50% of the FBI, do away with the TSA and DEA in their entirety (we operated perfectly fine before these political creations existed), and NOTHING would change. The sun would go up tomorrow, you would have roughly the same amount of people use drugs, die of drugs, etc.
Here’s a retrospective and the essence in argument: https://youtu.be/0lpJ5N-82Vg
Ask yourself today considering what happened 6 January, with the censorship, illegal FISA wire taps of Trump Tower, etc. was he wrong?
You say you want freedom, liberty, small government, private markets, but so called conservatives are the first to stick a microphone up everyone’s ass (George W. Bush and the Patriot Act), write more laws and create a literal “police state” in the name of public safety. No different than the biggest liberals, just different areas where the “so called” conservative wants to have government stick their nose and spend other people’s money. Both are big government.
Much of what government does is a complete waste of time. If you entirely shut down the department of education, it wouldn’t matter.
Likewise, “so called” conservatives today are also big government, may that be the Bush’s, McCain’s, Romney’s... They just have other issues where they think big government should be a guiding hand telling people what to do, messing with people’s freedom, property, sticking their nose into what should be a family matter, defining things which are religious matters, using federal powers to mess with what is obviously 10th amendment state issues... Just say national security, defense or public safety, and no different than a litard with their equality and environmental lunacy, you’ll get many Republicans and self professed conservatives (which is not conservative at all!) on board.