When Bob Dole ran for president most people thought he was nuts when he said his only real agenda was to get the govt organized and put in better shape. As such he was the last national voice that represented the old Republican ideal that govt works best when it works efficiently. Guys like Dole and Ford had nothing against what used to be called the safety net. They thought that welfare was fine just as long as it got to the people who needed it at a low cost.

The question here is how did we go from wanting a govt that works effciently to a govt so small, as Grover Nordquist has said, that it could be drown in a bathtub?

Govt wasn't the enemy to guy like Jerry Ford, it was a tool that could be used to really help people's lives. Under him there was LEAA - the Law Enforcement Assistance Act that standardized the road signs (i.e. merge left, ped xing etc) and let local police buy better communications equipment.

Jerry was a hell of a president. When I was 18 I went to the draft office and signed up. Six months later I got a letter say that President Gerald R. Ford signed an executive order indefinitely suspending the draft. No further action was required on my part, but I had to carry my draft card until I was 24. Thus I was free to have a legal ID that got me cigs and beer without ever having to have a single thought about unnecessary foreign entabglements.

Thanks Jerry.