I'm not sure how the deregulation of Wall Street, and the raping of Glass-Steagall, allowing a completely unregulated market to manipulate, lie and steal from hundreds of millions of Americans to the tune of a trillion dollars, can count as a ''nanny state''.
Unfettered free market capitalism is the death of all societies.  People are inherently greedy, manipulative and selfish, and given the opportunity - they will take all they can get at the expense of all others.  The last decade is the most incontrovertible evidence of that, in the history of this country.
You're also not talking apples to apples when you discuss businesses thriving in this country, and the government intervening.  Our country was built off of middle class businesses, based upon labor and production.  We are now a country of corporate interests, and our jobs are based upon service, not production.  This is paramount in this entire discussion of economics, but it's probably a much bigger conversation than appropriate for this thread.
I read an earlier post by someone I didn't respond to, talking about how tax cuts are great because rich people then get more money, and they get to use that money to invest back into the country, small businesses, job creation, etc.  Yup, that would be absolutely great in an ideal world, unfortunately this world is not ideal.  The Economist had an article last year interviewing 100 millionaires over the last decade of Bush tax cuts, asking what they did with their excess money.  Not a single one created a small business to help the economy.  They bought yachts and harbored them off shore, they invested in gold mines in Africa, one dude installed 5,000 square foot dance floors in each one of his homes, using illegal immigrant labor.
I absolutely think everyone should work for what they receive.  I don't believe in a welfare state, or that there are members of society who should just be provided for, because they cannot provide for themselves.
Now, I 100% agree with almost all of your posts so far - politicians are to blame, period.  Basically from the New Deal until now, we've had a century of politicians manipulating their constituents.  This isn't, nor has it ever been about abortion, or healthcare, or welfare, or education.  This is about a political class willing to do whatever it takes to maintain their power and their status quo.
The converse to this, is that the electorate cannot learn and cannot change the system or our representatives, if we are not basing our decisions on fact.  That is my biggest issue throughout this thread - the facts are there, the reality of what is happening is there, all you have to do is acknowledge it.