The United States did not even want to get involved in WWII until Pearl Harbor. Government action has always seemed to Americans like a “boogieman”, one which frightens the strongest of men and makes them cower in fear.

The government got a lot done during the Cold War because the government was what was keeping us safe. The boogieman was external, a threat of nuclear annihilation from the Soviet Union. Once that threat was gone, the race began for politicians and corporations to exploit America as quickly and completely as possible.

Eisenhower thought that the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex was going to be hard to tame. Even more daunting is the Congressional-Corporate Complex. Nothing will get done unless the corporations want it to happen.

While Government now exists to serve the corporations, the frightening spectre of “Big Government” is continually used by corporations re-kindling primitive fears that somehow the government, in paying for useful things, will come along and take money from individual citizens to pay for things that benefit only others.