So what has the government done for them?

We are driving back across the country this week to New Mexico, and a couple of nights ago we are in a little town in southwestern Virginia. I took a walk around the town and was struck by the number of small businesses that have evidently gone out of business recently (signs are still clean and fresh, storefront windows still clean, and in several cases notices posed announcing closings, all dated within the past few months).

The national news is filled with the massive Federal bailouts to Wall Street banks and auto companies, and politicians keep mouthing platitudes about helping the “average American”, but I have to ask, just what real help has the federal government given all these small stores and entrepreneurs in small towns all across the country? Not much, apparently, judging from the results. The administration will argue that helping the big Wall Street banks eventually helps small businesses, but I notice that Democrats didn’t buy the “trickle down” economic theory when Reagan Republicans tried to sell it, so I have to wonder why they think they can sell it now.

The Democratic Party has always sold itself as the champion of the little guy against big business – but it looks to me like they are straying pretty far from their roots.