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It's a codephrase, like "states rights."
When a Republican says he's for "less government," he means less regulation, less social programs, less government intrusion, less of the things they don't like.
Of course, "less regulation" is subjective. If you were to ask 100 Republicans "do you think every American should be tested for illegal drugs on a weekly basis, and anyone found positive should be stripped of their citizenship?" about 90 of them would say yes. That's not intrusive, that's good law enforcement. Besides, why can't those worthless hippies drink bourbon and smoke cigarettes like patriotic Americans?
Even worse, they'd have no problem with runaway deficit spending to pay for the testing equipment.
(Don't ask me why they were so up in arms about the 100,000 cops Clinton wanted, except that Clinton wanted them so there's no way it could have been good. That's such a Republican thing.)
Similarly, they are all for building lots of prisons. That's a great use of taxpayer money, building prisons and filling 'em up. Admittedly, there are lots of people who need to be in jail (not counting the people who work for George Bush), but I think a great deal of crime is economic. A Democrat would build schools and work to create jobs so people don't have to hold up liquor stores to put food on their families. To the Republicans, that's just runaway government spending. "I went to school on the GI Bill, then started a factory that makes things only governments buy. Those kids today can just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps the same way I did."
"Less government" means "less of the things government does I don't like." Nothing more, nothing less.
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