Ask them to ponder the extent of the current lumbering, dysfunctional mess?
Personally, I don't know if small government is the answer...but given the increasingly dismal performance we're getting from our elected officials, I think small government might just be a very worthy political experiment.
I don't mean it as a knock against the country or democracy, but if I had to describe American politics as it exists now, I'd definitely use the word "failure" in there somewhere. And it's NOT a "thanks, Obama!" moment, either. This goes way, way beyond the current administration.
Maybe government just isn't our game.