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The further to the left policies go, the greater central power is required to implement and enforce those policies.

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This is a favorite argument among small-government conservatives, but the federal government has spent more and gotten more power under Republicans in the last few decades than Democrats. Surely the GOP isn't tending towards socialism? Surely they aren't planning mass murder and genocide?

Again, when you try to place the blame for this misuse of power on leftist ideology because it supposedly needs big government to work, I think you are subscribing to a narrow view of Marxism (though a generally accurate one as it has been implemented so far) and indeed of lesser forms of socialism and even so-called 'liberal' policies here in the states. There are numerous ideological forms of socialism or syndicalism (yes, I mean anarchists) that advocate social welfare but on a much more local scale. And, again, the myth of bloated social programs coming from the so-called 'left' in America (the left is not represented in either political party IMHO) is off base as well. Welfare accounts for a tiny percentage of government spending. We dump far more money into pork-barrel giveaways and wildly impropable defense scenarios.

'Big' government is something to be concerned about, I agree. But it is not solely a product of the left. It is a product of nationalism in general; modern states that implement large-scale economic policies, be they socialist or capitalist, must be 'strong states' (meaning big and centralized) in order to function.

This is why anarchists like myself think the nation-state has been a spectacular failure in many ways. (There, the secret is out).

NT