Public turnaround on proper role of government

From a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll out today:

When respondents were asked whether they agreed more with the statement "Government should do more to solve problems and help meet the needs of people" or "Government is doing too many things better left to businesses and individuals," 52% agreed to the first statement and only 40% with the second (the rest agreed with both to some extent or were unsure). This is a complete flip from ten years ago, when in a poll asking the same questions, 51% of respondents preferred the second statement and 41% preferred the first.

These kind of turnarounds can and probably do happen every decade, more or less corresponding to substantial changes in who controls the presidency or Congress (and like such political changes, majority support for one side or the other often depends on changes in a small slice of the electorate). It's the natural ebb and flow of the public mood and their eventual reactions to the policies enacted in a certain period (thus, it's not surprising to see people showcase a more liberal viewpoint after six years of Republican rule). Still, it's interesting to see where people stand right now.

These results are especially interesting given that most Republicans seem to believe they lost the midterms because they "weren't conservative enough," meaning they didn't do much to decrease the size of goverment (at least not in any good ways, and actually increased it in many bad ways). I fully endorse this to be their main platform in 2008.