> Bill Shatzer wrote:

>>>"Statist" still has a more precise meaning today than do most of the
>>>other labels we often use.

>>The users of that term have flung it around with such gay abandon that
>>it has lost whatever precise meaning it may once have held and now
>>serves as a general pejorative for any governmental program the speaker
>>dislikes or disagrees with.

> It has been so used here on occasion. However I'm not aware of its
> use in this manner by the likes of national politicians.

> If it has been used to that extent nationally you should have no
> trouble providing half a dozen examples of such use.

> I still maintain that the term with its dictionary meaning is more
> useful than words like liberal or conservative. Though of course it
> is possible to take a statist view on one issue and a freedom stance
> on another.