Big governments arise because the people demand more things from them. Not elites or "socialists" but ordinary voters. Agreed. This is why Constitutional Republics are superior to the de facto Socialist Democracy we now live in and you so vigorously defend.
The people demand the stock market not crash, and Big Government is there to prop it up with easy money.
People demand mortgages as a public entitlement and Big Government is there to remove the burden of prudent lending.
People find raising children to be inconvenient and Big Govermnent happily creates the socialist indoctrination camps that now masquerade as schools.
A state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands, even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men, no great thing can really be accomplished. - JSM
Improper language usage destroys your arguments time and time again. We do not live in a "socialist democracy." We live in a quasi-welfare/capitalism which is NOT the same thing as an SD.
Hysterical rhetoric is all you have to say following your lead off whopper. None of it is true no matter how appealing the language is to the ideologues. If we had a democracy Gore would have won but since we have a representative republic (which I WILL defend with my dying breath) Bush is president. Perhaps that escaped your notice.
Your quotation shows just how false your world view is since the people of this nation have accomplished gigantic achievements in every century including this one. The recent achievement in Iraq is a historic one which will shake the foundations of tyranny across the globe. More will follow.