This is getting quite a bit of play. Another statist writer who has taken it up is E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post, whom I regard as an utterly clueless hack who never bothers trying to understand the arguments against his big government religion. In this piece, Tom Woods annihilates Dionne.

My own reply to Dionne would be that “the people” did not abandon the minimal state, but that it was slowly undone by the machinations of grasping interest groups aided by conniving politicians.