Conservatives: "We want small government." Also conservatives: "Government should ban gays and abortion and prostitution and drugs and Cardi B and..."

There's an adage "everyone wants small government...until they don't." More and more I'm finding that to be true. Neither side can claim to stand for "small government" (though should note that only the right makes it part of their identity). Both the left and the right want government intrusion for different reasons; the left tends to favor more economic regulations, the right tends to think social norms and morality should be enforced through law. I may not agree with libertarians, but at least they are honest in not wanting the government to regulate [i]anything[/i] (for better or for worse).