Well, a good starting place might be the fact that committed small-govt candidates — ones like Ron Paul who will actually vote for cuts — almost never get elect

Well, a good starting place might be the fact that committed small-govt candidates — ones like Ron Paul who will actually vote for cuts — almost never get elected into higher office. And even Rep. Paul himself argued that it was morally incumbent[0] on him to fight for earmarks for his district — which strongly suggests that even the constituency of the most smallgov federal politician has little enthusiasm for his principles. As for professed advocates of smallgovt who actually get into the Senate or even the presidency, I think you can look for yourself how that's worked out. [0] https://www.aei.org/articles/ron-paul-big-government-libertarian/ https://www.aei.org/articles/ron-paul-big-government-liberta...