The Democrats have pursued the agenda of an ever increasing government as a “progressive” solution to America’s social problems since the New Deal. In the latest incarnation of this vision, on one side are the 1% of selfish conservatives who resist paying their “fair share” of taxes that the government could use to lift up the 99% who are “downtrodden”; on the other side are those who are “compassionate” as well as “progressive” in their belief that the state alone can provide an income floor and a reign of social justice. Only one problem with this idea, as David Horowitz and John Perzazzo show Government v. the people: the tools of big government as wielded by progressive politicians has in fact “inflicted damage on America’s poor and minorities on a scale that can hardly be imagined.” Horowitz and Perazzo use detailed argumentation to show how progressive policies in such areas as education, home ownership and affirmative action have damaged the lives of the poor almost beyond recovery and condemned many African Americans and Hispanics to permanent poverty.