Politics & Power Quote by William J. Clinton

Clinton frames anti-government fervor as a fad, not a philosophy. Calling it "the new rage" shrinks a sweeping ideology into a mood swing - the kind of thing that spikes on talk radio and bumper stickers, then burns out when reality shows up. It is a tactical move: if the argument is merely fashionable, it can be dismissed as performative rather than principled.

The line also works because it triangulates. Clinton doesn't defend every bureaucrat or every program; he attacks the absolutism of "all our problems" and the fantasy of "no government". That caricature is deliberate. By recasting his opponents' critique into an anarchic extreme, he makes his own position - reform government, don't abolish it - feel like the only adult option in the room.

His appeal to "evidence, history, and common sense" is classic presidential rhetoric: three-legged legitimacy, built to sound unassailable. "Evidence" nods to policy outcomes (markets need rules; infrastructure doesn't self-build). "History" invokes the long record of what happens when states fail or retreat: corruption fills the vacuum, private power becomes unaccountable power. "Common sense" is the clincher, an invitation for listeners to trust their lived experience over ideological purity.

Context matters: Clinton governed in the shadow of Reagan's anti-government revolution and amid the Gingrich-era push to shrink Washington. His intent isn't to romanticize government; it's to reclaim it as a practical instrument - imperfect, often frustrating, but necessary for any society that wants freedom to mean more than the freedom of the strong to dominate.