It is important to remember in this context that statism exists whenever there is a government which initiates force. The degree of statism, once the government has done so, is all that is in question. Once the principle of the initiation of force has been accepted, we have granted the premise of statists of all breeds, and the rest, as you have said so eloquently, is just a matter of time.

Objectivism and the State: An Open Letter to Ayn Rand, The Rational Individualist, vol. 1, no. 10 (August 1969)