Why are people in this day and age for small government when we in fact had a war against it and won?

Actually the argument in 1860 was not so much about the "size" of government as it was about the "purpose" and the "power" of government. Here's a hint... a small federal government (like the one in 1860) can be just as unconstitutional as the big federal government we have now.

It's an ongoing argument and far from settled.

Look at it this way. In 1860, the federal government had few ways to raise revenue and a few things to spend the revenue on. Problem was that about 80% of the revenue was raised in Southern states but the revenue was spent in the North.

When the South seceded, the money stopped flowing North.

This pissed the North off and the North determined that if the wealth was to be denied to them, the wealth must be destroyed.

It was not so much a war over state's rights or freeing slaves as it was a war over money and how the money was raised and where and how it was spent.

Over those 100+ years, the ideals of small governments and how they would be dealt with has changed. All that time passed has let us learn about past mistakes, and educated people feel like we should give a different kind of small government another go, but this time, with different ideologies.

Either that, or it's just this: There will always be people that believe in something outrageous or contradictory. Unfortunately, I doubt that in the future that there will not be a single person who is part of, or shares the same views as, today's KKK. People will always look to the past for ways to think, and sometimes they find it in the wrong places.

Actually, war was over states' rights. When people call for small government, it's for a small central government (federal) and more power to the states.

Because there is still enough of us that want individual rights that we will fight the Federal Government until it starts listening. The sad thing is that there are too many people who are getting paid by the Federal Government to keep them happy to keep giving more rights to them for very little gain.

We will always need small government and we will always need big government. Local issues are best handled by local governments and nation issues are best handled by national government. For instance I wouldn't want the national government to be responsible for garbage collection, or zoning. For issues of national importance I wouldn't want the local government in charge. I don't think states and municipalities should have the authority to set lower standards for pollutants or civil rights, for instance.

Maybe because we've seen that big government does not fix problems but creates many.

And as to your theory about the civil war, I did not learn it that way but it's creative.

The Confederates were right (minus the slave part). We lost because we had smaller guns!

Ahh, Abe Lincoln, that big government fascist.

history repeats itself until we learn

IGNORANCE. RICH PEOPLE WANT MONEY AND KEEP PEOPLE IGNORANT.

IGNORANT PEOPLE CAN'T SEE THAT...