E.D. Kain over at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen sums it up nicely:
Conservatives have their limited-government priorities all wrong. While libertarians and the left have focused on matters of security overreach – wiretapping, surveillance, executive powers, GITMO, etc. – the right has brushed all this off and focused instead on taxes, healthcare reform, and whether the president is an American citizen. At every turn the right is willing to strip away civil liberties with one hand, while at the same time lamenting the socialist takeover of America. The hypocrisy is tangible.
Kain may be on to something-namely that its not small government vs big government, both sides are in favor of big government-they just disagree where its efforts should be applied.