You don't have to go as far as those three... the current administration, their supporters in the media and the AGW crowd are plenty proof of this mentality.
The assumption here is that the average person is stupid or childlike or both, and needs to be told what to do by someone in authority - or forced into doing something - ostensibly for his own good. As if, when given the freedom to make his own decisions - how to spend his money, run his business, choose a health-care or retirement plan, etc. he will be incapable of doing so. Thus the Nanny-Statism we have today.
I liked something Glenn Beck said recently about Libertarianism - he said that people get hung up on the whole legalizing drugs thing, but what they don't realize is that, while libertarians would say someone is free to waste his life getting messed up on drugs, the REST of society would be free to step over that person and say, "What a loser" without having to pay for his health-care or bail him out in any way.
I keep coming back to raising kids, because that is what I do right now, but it seems to me that whenever possible, letting people experience the natural consequences of their own actions is the most effective way to get them to make good choices. Maybe that is why the direction we've taken, especially recently, is so frustrating to watch. No one has to experience the consequences - of issuing a bad loan, of buying a house one can't afford, of racking up credit card debt, etc. etc.
People will make good decisions if they are forced to deal with the consequences of bad ones. They do not have to be lied to or forced to do so by an oppressive government. The Founding Fathers understood this. What will it take to make the average American today understand it?