True...but I wish Conservatives had the ability to distinguish between a government imposing its will upon the people, and people using the government as the instrument of their own will.

The false dichotomy between "Humans as free individuals" versus "humans as wards of the State" ignores the reality of how American social welfare programs came into being. The rhetoric always clearly implies that some sinister cabal somewhere dreamed up those things with the intent to enslave us (by freeing people from the constant gnawing worry about survival?), and implemented those programs without advise and consent, simply through executive fiat.

That's nonsense, of course. Lyndon Johnson could only advocate his "Great Society", and a Congress made up of freely-elected representatives of the people passed the laws to implement them. Just because Conservatives didn't agree doesn't mean that these things aren't the proper expression of the people's will through the instrument of government.

Social welfare programs are entirely consistent with "the idea that governments exist to protect rights that are naturally inherent in humanity"...such rights as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When America's economy evolved from an agrarian one that allowed widespread self-sufficiency, to an industrial system based on nearly-universal dependency on others--employers--for survival, it was absolutely necessary to use the government to compensate for the change, to preserve those rights. Concern with social welfare exactly tracked, although lagged behind, the shift to an industrial economy.

The Great Depression was the first Great Wakeup Call. Looking at the situation today, with the rise of sovereign corporation-states and globalism that allows them to play divide-and-conquer around the world, I can't help but wonder if a second wakeup call isn't upon us.