Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: GB
Do you REALLY want to live in a world where there is zero traffic enforcement?


No, and I never really suggested it. It is interesting to contemplate how people would go crazy, or not. Do people stop at red lights because of fear of being ticketed? Do they not drive 120mph on the ice because they worry about tickets?

Still, I leave room for enforcement of the laws that have a meaningful effect on public safety (arrests for people whose driving is clearly drunk, etc.)

>>Basically, I ask this question: Is it possible to be a good political conservative without being a libertarian?

It's not possible to be a good *anything* without a fundamental respect for the principles of liberty (some conservatives have such respect, as do most "libertarians".) Leave the label aside, and talk about what beliefs or principles you are referring to.

>>I'm an old-line law and order conservative

Franco had law and order. Liberty is something different, though not incompatible with lawfulness.
398 posted on 05/31/2006 1:31:44 PM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 392 | View Replies ]


To: Beelzebubba
In all honesty, I'm not a big fan of Click It Or Ticket because I believe it actually is aimed more at revenue production that safety. I just picked up on this thread, again, because to me a lot of the sentiments that are being expressed ... and I flame or criticize or disrespect no one for those sentiments, we all have our respective .02 and our own respective canoes to paddle, I've always followed the maxim to disagree without being disagreeable ... represent an extreme and IMHO unrealistic libertarianism that will never exist again, if it has ever really existed in that form.

As far as specific principles, I'd have to go back in the archives of my posts to find some of the threads I've been involved in, but there are times when I've just sat there at my computer screen shaking my head when a thread comes along about what seems to me to be a perfectly legitimate law enforcement action ... and again, law enforcement inherently involves, at times, compelling people to do that which they do not want to do, or preventing them from doing that which they want to do ... but everyone starts shrieking about jackbooted Nazi thugs infringing on people's personal freedom.

Do I believe that in some cases the state, society, the government, or whatever you want to call it or however you want to define it, should protect people from themselves? I guess you can say that I do, because I would never, ever, ever, not in this or any known solar system, favor the legalization of drugs, prostitution, etc., that a lot of extreme libertarian elements favor. It is simply not in my DNA to do that. My point is that I think I can still be a good political conservative while holding those beliefs. If I'm out of step with conservatism 2006, c'est la vie, I would hope we still have enough of a big tent to brook some disagreements and still be on the barricades together when it's gonad-cutting time, as in this November.

409 posted on 05/31/2006 1:50:00 PM PDT by GB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 398 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson