I beg people who call themselves Conservative, to deeply think about all the things they are trying to conserve. I would ask them to consider how many aspects are liberty oriented and how many only advance big and Bigger government to the determent of liberty.
Yes, we need an ordered and peaceful society. But the war on drugs is just as good an example as any. Who thinks it is a good idea that some young people will choose to be stoners or pot heads? I certainly don’t. But when we start down the road of trying to suppress drug consumption via the heavy hand of the law, and we end up with unbridled asset forfeit laws, we are shocked at how government can run amok. We are frustrated that it is so far impossible to get government to repeal this source of revenue.
Well, government is addicted to power and the money it takes to secure things that fund power grabs. In attempting to secure a better society, we enable all manner of government abuses that only destroy society.
The hard truth is that government has limits and even conservatives are tempted to use government to address failings in morality where government cannot have very much effect. Government is only power, and in the end, it only has its credible monopoly on the use of deadly force. Let us reserve the use of that power ONLY for things its is best suited for, such as protecting peaceful citizens from violent ones, so that people can be secure in their persons and property.
If a person wants to spend their day stoned, I am sorry for them, I want to help them, but I am not willing to threaten them with being shot or tasered if they will not sober up. If they get behind the wheel of a vehicle, they are committing a criminal act just as if they were driving while drunk or otherwise impaired.
Again, with all due respect, let us conserve the things that should be conserved, and shuck the aspects of “conservatism” that should not be preserved. Our goal must be to preserve liberty, not government! For too many conservatives, government has become a god and the end goal of their political lives. They would ask, “do I hate government”? My answer: only as much as George Washington or George Mason did.
Washington told us that government was a wonderful servant but a horrible master. We have a horrible master today, which is why we are are headed for and Article V convention of the States to clarify and refine the relationship between the people, the States and the federal government.
Amen!