OK, so you’re coming at this from the decriminalization of drugs.
I think you could make the case that true freedom also means the freedom to do with your own body what you want to do. I always wonder why it took a Constitutional amendment to ban alcohol but a simple congressional fiat to ban other chemicals.
I am open to the idea of decriminalization of drugs from a liberty standpoint.
However, this representative broke the existing law, which he is required to uphold. We all are. If we think the law is wrong or unjust, we should fight to change it.
I question you this: Did he ever put his money where his mouth is, so to say, by submitting a bill to decriminalize drugs? Did he vote against any and all funds for drug law enforcement? If so, not only is he now a felon, but a hypocrite, too.
When Clinton stood before a crowd praising a new sexual harassment law (which I thought criminalized free speech) to get more votes from women, only to have that same law used by Paula Jones against him, I thought it was deliciously ironic. There is not a separate law for our masters and another, more draconian one for us peons. All are equal before the law.
The same could be said about many gun laws. Do you think a patriot in California should submit to a law which bans an SKS?
IMHO, Tyrannical law should (or at least can) be legitimately scoffed at. I definitely don't think any less of any individual, whether selfish or not, for ignoring arbitrary law, and I don't think we as Americans are obligated to submit to such law. Indeed, to a certain extent, I believe Americans have a duty to hold such law in open derision and defiance.
One of the central themes of the Revolution was the notion that laws have to be justifiable against a very challenging and expansive vision of individual Liberty and the rights of man, and to fall short of that dilutes Freedom itself.
What I'm trying to express is that I believe America shouldn't be a place where the "least common denominator" of Freedom is what prevails; it shouldn't be a place where vocal minorities, bullying majorities, or an arbitrary State whittles Liberty down to something minimal in nature.
Just to be clear, my vision of Liberty doesn't embrace ridiculous notions like forcing society to redefine traditional marriage, for example. But it does mean asking various subgroups of people being willing to tolerate individual behavior which they might personally dislike.
Liberty and Justice for all should be the eternal goal we strive towards.
In any event, nice conversing with you.