It is clear that the American right, for all its howling about "big government," and the horror they affect to feel that a government might tax and spend, has no problem with big government or spending (their abhorrence of taxes seems sincere) so long as the big government initiatives the government is throwing money at are, for example, military adventures ($600 billion plus spent so far on the Iraq debacle, $200 billion plus on Afghanistan), surveillance of American citizens, or finding ways to incarcerate more people. The only government initiatives that actually seem to appall the right are those which might, in some small way, ameliorate the conditions under which the most miserable in American society live: universal health care, for example.
Over at Democratic Underground, someone calling himself walldude (the "dude" in the name makes me think it's a him) sums up the confusion some of us feel at the contradictions that define the American right.
—David