We have choice this November. Before we make that choice we would do well to remember the fall of 2008.

The financial markets and banking system near collapse, the federal government faced the terrible choice of throwing money at the problem in hopes of stopping the collapse or taking a “hands off” government shouldn’t interfere position.

Then the early days of 2009 with an economy shrinking so rapidly that by January millions of people had lost their jobs. And again the government having the choice of spending money to halt the shrinkage of the economy or take a wait and see approach as the unemployment rate soared to levels not seen since the Great Depression.

We can never know how bad it may have gotten if the limited government, capitalism can do no wrong crowd had carried the day.

The banking system did not collapse and the economy starting growing, albeit oh so slowly again.

Disaster was averted and second guessing began with a fury. One can only imagine the criticism that the Obama Administration and Congress would be under if the nation’s largest banks had failed and unemployment was above 20 percent.

There is widespread and legitimate anger over government spending beyond it means and the slow pace of economic recovery. Americans are seeking new solutions and more openness and honesty from government.

Fair enough, but the policy ideas offered as solutions by many within the Tea Party movement need to be questioned.

Are we ready to tell the young people of America that while Social Security and Medicare is great for your grandparents and doable for your parents, our country is just to poor for your generation to have Social Security and Medicare when you retire?

Can we say to the people of the Gulf Coast that the reason for the reckless and negligent behavior of British Petroleum's offshore oil rig operation was because of too much government oversight?

Is government regulation – you know, things like workplace safety rules, food and medicine quality assurance, environmental protections and financial institution oversight – holding this country back?

Is the reason so many people can’t find work that they have grown fat and lazy due to unemployment insurance?

Do we want a women’s right to choose to disappear?

Is the concept of the separation of church and state one of the bedrock principals of our nation, or subject to change based the Tea Party followers' religious preferences?

We can do better than hanging all our troubles on a ‘the government is the problem” philosophy.

Government policy, rules, regulation, programs, spending, all of it, will always require the oversight and scrutiny of the people. There is nothing that has been made that can’t be improved, and much that could be eliminated.

But let’s not pine for a past when government was so unobtrusive in our daily lives that rivers caught on fire due to people’s freedom to dump crap wherever they wanted, a past when children’s lives were cut short by preventable diseases because there was no public health service.

And we certainly don’t want to return to a time when women, certain ethic groups, people of different religious affiliations and gay men and lesbian women were aggressively marginalized and discriminated against.

This November we should remember how far we’ve come and how much further we need to go so that liberty, equality and prosperity are shared by all Americans.

The Republicans have embraced the Tea Party, its voice has become their voice, we would do well to listen closely to what they are saying.

The Democrats remain the big tent – open to everyone from principled Progressives to conscientious center right Blue Dogs.

There are no quick and easy solutions, but there is a choice.

Evan Robert Willig lives in Cobb, Calif.