One frequent Republican claim is that the government is an organ of oppression, and that the people should be running their lives apart from the government. In fact, that claim is fraudulent. The Republicans are totally against people running their lives in any manner other than theirs. But there is an even more sinister aspect to their rhetoric, and that is as follows:
What they mean by people being free from government is old-boy networks, cults, corrupt small towns, cartels, monopolies, and other unofficial organs of oppression, being free from government's scrutiny as to the corruption and tyranny that they inflict on the people who have the misfortune of living under their domination. And what they mean by freedom is freedom for these entities to inflict tyranny and corruption against the people who have such a misfortune.
By "the people," they mean Texas Oil. By "the people" they mean old-boy networks that exercise totalitarian power over the people in the communities in which they operate. By "the people" they mean the KKK; they mean wife-beaters and child molesters; and of course they mean corrupt entities in priestry, law, and medicine, that inflict criminal wrongs against people who have the misfortune of having to deal with them. They want the government out of these entities, so that these entities can commit corruption against the people who have to deal with them and totalitarianism against the people who have to live under their rule.
The American founders saw the potential for abuses by government and created a government system designed to correct these abuses. But they utterly failed to see the potential for abuses by entities that are not the government. The result has been a government de-clawed, while real totalitarianism is being inflicted upon American people by unofficial entities. A major oversight led to a major wrong and one that has vitiated meaningful freedom for vast sections of American population.
For people to actually have freedom and dignity, the abuses by non-government entities must be checked as vigorously and consistently as are abuses by federal government. From the standpoint of the person at the receiving end of abuse and oppression, it does not matter who is its agent. For as long as there are unofficial entities that perpetrate corruption and tyranny, the potentials for such things in unofficial entities must be checked with the same determination as are the same in the government. And it is only then that America's promise of life and liberty and America's founding intent as the last best hope for humanity can be realized in any kind of a meaningful way.