I'm going to make a simple request

I want all the sign-waving, colonial garb-wearing, jingoistic slogan-shouting racist idiots protesting healthcare of all things to put their money where their mouths are.

Central to the whole argument -- if you can get someone to talk about it for ten seconds without resorting to non sequitur ramblings about twentieth century autocrats -- is that it is scary to think what the government could do with the power over our health. I have no problem with that sentiment. In fact, you can start just about any sentence with "It's scary to think what the government could do with..." and I'm going to be there with you.

Now, I'm going to list the things that these folks have been perfectly willing to trust the government with:

The power to determine our reproductive rights, the power to determine which relationships are valid and which are not, the power to imprison us if we disobey, the power to force us to imprison others if they disobey, the power to weigh human lives against the interests of the corporations who really run things, and... I feel like I'm forgetting something important... Oh yeah, enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over.

Am I to believe that providing an alternative to the greed-based healthcare system we currently have in the vague hopes of improving it is the final straw? That's the key piece of evidence that finally turned you against big government? Get serious. You're not fooling anyone.

I can't think of a better use for the government than pitting it against big business. It's got to be a lot more pleasant than the way it works now, with the government rescuing and supporting corporations while stifling our freedom, seizing the fruits of our labor, using us for cannon fodder, outlawing our behavior, and locking us up if we have a problem with it.

That's where your argument falls apart, assholes wearing tri-cornered hats. You can wave your "don't tread on me" flags around until you keel over from the pre-existing condition your awesome private insurance provider will drop you for, but you fail to recognize the scope of the issue.

If we're not going to dismantle the large-scale corporate model simultaneously -- and I do hate saying this -- we kind of need the state. I thought the financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent bailouts put to rest all that invisible hand nonsense. if you leave them alone, the corporations will screw you. They will screw you and me and your grandma and her dog for a dollar, total.

So go ahead and kill the government and leave the corporations intact. You watch what happens. You'll get rid of the only power that can stand between you and a real boot on your face.

Orwell was wrong, Huxley was wrong. The government is not behind your problems. It's just the tool used by those who are. I say we might as well use it to make things suck a little less while I convince you we could do without all of the above.

Please stop playing at revolution. You're doing it wrong.