Is history repeating itself? Is the GOP following the Whigs?

[Xiahou]

According to Gallup, the TEA party is slightly more likely to be white, male, religious, and gainfully employed than the national average.

CBS/NYT polling also indicates that they're better educated than the national average. There's a lot of stereotyping about the TEA party... lots of it is untrue.

Sorry if I was not clear. I believe smaller government to be a more moral choice as an expression of personal belief, reflecting my values. I did not make the claim that "smaller is better" in a general sense [few men would ;-)], nor for that matter am I asserting that only a small government is moral. For that matter, I agree with you that any organization of any size might enact good or evil. Size is not indicative of the morality OF the organization. My assertion refers to the morality of how/why/for what government is enacted -- not the morality of the government itself.

I think of it in terms of the KISS principle of design.....

"KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960.[1][2] The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complex; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided."

Smaller government would really be more the result than the intent- which is less complex government. Less complex and more open, as opposed to just "smaller" is generally desirable in any organization.

I think our federal government, as it exists today versus how it was originally constituted is a classic example of feature creep.