what happens when liberals are disappointed in government?

Good observations from Theresa Camoriano in the Jefferson Review...

I'm not sure about Bob Hill as a leading liberal, but that certainly holds for Hawpe. I saw the same op-ed and had the same thoughts.

Two of Louisville’s leading liberals have been lamenting the failures of government this past week. Bob Hill described an abuse of power by Child Protective Services, which pursued the wrong family after an allegation of child abuse, despite proof that the family wasn’t even in Louisville when the reported child abuse took place. Nevertheless, Child Protective Services even went so far as to interrogate the children at school, without their parents’ knowledge or permission, and the school, which apparently was intimidated by Child Protective Services, complied and did not even tell the parents that the children had been interrogated. Nor did anyone tell the children that they had the right to refuse to answer questions.

David Hawpe also lamented various insider dealings that have been taking place in Kentucky government, with relatives of politically-connected people getting business from the government or selling property to the government and otherwise profiting from their connections, thus undermining the public’s trust in government. It is good that these liberal folks are recognizing the facts, but it is probably too much to hope that they will draw the right conclusions from them.

As Lord Action said long ago, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The incidents cited by Bob Hill and David Hawpe are merely the tip of the iceberg....So what’s a government-loving liberal to do?...After recognizing the serious abuses of government power all around them, would it be possible for liberals to recognize that giving government substantially more power would be very likely to make matters substantially worse? Well, I can dream, can’t I?

Of course, the same question could be asked of big-government moderates and some types of "conservatives"...