All reforms are notorious for their unintended consequences; liberal reforms are noteworthy for something that is less noted, but no less consequential. That would be the response of subsequent reform-minded liberals to the consequences, unintended or otherwise, of the initial reform.
Two laws of sorts seem to be at work here. The first, of course, is the infamous law of unintended consequences. The second might be labeled the law of generational reform.
The idea is this: If a reform produces unintended consequences of a troubling sort, succeeding generations of reformers will make use of those consequences not to undo the original reform, but rather to call for new action that requires an ever-larger federal government.
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