TB, you can't "reverse these trends" unless you USE government power, sheer naked force in the political arena. The government and the bureaucracy will not give up its power without a struggle, and do you really think that any force capable of mounting that kind of opposition will simply step aside after it wins?

And I am NOT the fan of government power you keep on insisting I am. That is simply the mold you cast me in so none of my observations and opinions need be taken seriously. What I AM very suspicious of is private and corporate power, and any system led by them is most certainly not going to curtail government and allow the free market to reign. What they will do is simply rush into the vacuum and replace it. Isn't this precisely what you yourself assert when you criticize modern Republican politics in the Age of Bush? That they have become just like the Democrats you despise? And for the same reasons, to satisfy their constituencies?

In theory, there is nothing wrong with your libertarian principles from a moral standpoint, but they are a fantasy, just like those socialist paradises the Marxists are always droning on about. Politics is about class struggle, human conflict and cooperation, and the resolution is through compromise and negotiation (and unfortunately, sometimes violence). In a word, politics. And hopefully, democratic (with a small d) politics.

Heinlein and Rand were fools, just like Marx was. They were all great at identifying what was wrong, but totally incapable of proposing a practical program to fix it. All they could really come up with was why the other side were such evil dudes. And then they got bogged down in infantile moralistic delusions like the noble hard-working proletariat or the noble self-reliant entrepreneur. Sheeeeeeeit.