“Any power you give the state to enforce morals will be retained even when those not of your morals are in charge. This is the part that most SoCons seem to ‘gloss over’ when being overly self-righteous with the power of law. “
You’re right. I’m convinced. We should have no laws at all. Murder laws, toss them. Rape? toss them. Child predator laws? What for? Those laws are not about money, just arbitrary moral values that mean nothing.
Consider this. We have such laws defined, murder, rape, child predator, and even DUI, codified so that society has a clearly defined right and wrong for the purposes of correcting those issues.
It would be unfair to punish a person for a wrong act that wasn’t clearly defined. That is why DUI usually has a BAC. It is not left strictly to some judge’s personal opinion, but a scientifically determined point of impairment.
As I said, we are not going to wait for the DUI guy to hurt someone. If you are DUI, you are already a threat to me. I have no obligation to wait for actual harm, when reason says you are easily a threat.
Don’t like it? Tough. You will never win that argument with society.
Codified law is the only fair means of having ANY law. Otherwise it is nothing but arbitrary Wild West style justice. And without law, what is the means of restraining the worst among us? Just arbitrarily kill them when they cross an undefined line?
As for
“Any power you give the state to enforce morals will be retained even when those not of your morals are in charge.”
That boils down to Regan’s “Freedom is only one generation from extinction.” speech.
Simply put, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Both against the government, and those who would use the word freedom to make themselves a threat to others.