All we have is government in times like these

Conservative criticisms of the role of the federal government couldn't come at a worse time. A BP oil platform is currently spilling thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico because of lax safety standards, financial firms overstretched causing one of the biggest stock market crashes in history, health-insurance companies are dumping cancer patients, and wages/benefits are falling at record levels. These don't seem to be problems with the federal government. In fact, they seem to have come about because business has controlled the stage for too long. The BP spill is worsened by a $75 million cap on oil company cleanup liability. The financial crisis was arguably caused by the repeal of the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.

I don't think anybody can successfully argue that big business is working for America. Deregulating big business is the least effective way to reverse the trend of economic and environmental decline in America. Neither is criticizing the role of government. Though Americans are fed up with government right now, nobody is stressing the fact that people are fed up that the government is not working. This can be interpreted as a frustration at the failure of government action, rather than the intrusion of the government in peoples' lives. Big business is undoubtedly even less popular than big government right now, among even the right.

We have to remember that ultimately, a corporation can make bad decisions and go out of business. If government makes bad decisions and goes out of business, we get Somalia.