A Common Assumption on the Left

I've noticed what I think is a common assumption on the Left: The amount of government is approximately constant. As a result, political controversies can never be about the amount of government but only about who gets to be in charge.

This explains their beliefs that deregulation goes along with fascism, that anarchism goes along with socialism, or that corporations and property rights are necessarily creatures of government. It might even explain their belief (during the Cold War) that Amerikkka was just as totalitarian as the Soviets.

This might also explain their tendency to overemphasize the importance of regulations that they don't like. To take just one example, they will assume that the Price–Anderson Act was responsible for nuclear energy even though the cost of major nuclear accidents is around ⅕¢ per kilowatt-hour.