If you declare government not the solution but the problem, and then spend four decades defanging, defunding, and delegitimizing it, you cannot use the degradation of governance as proof of your theory that government is the problem.

Yet this has been the practice of the right, and a stunningly effective one.

And so anyone serious about beating back this war on government has to make a case for government, for its power to better people’s lives, that is as militant as the crusade against it.

Many Democrats have gotten into the habit of advocating for government within the intellectual framework and terms of the war on government. They suffer from an internalized libertarianism that weighs down their dreaming.

How big should government be?

Big enough, strong enough, to protect you from the biggest, strongest forces of the age which gust into your life. Big enough, strong enough, to guarantee your pursuit of happiness, dignity, security, and flourishing.

A Democratic Party that apologetically advocates for government action is milquetoast.

Don’t let the hijackers succeed by trying to negotiate within their frame.

Make your own, galvanizing frame.