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Conservatives are fond of preaching the importance ...
The Future of Freedom Foundation ^ | September 27, 2001 | Jacob G. Hornberger

Posted on 09/28/2001 7:45:14 AM PDT by sendtoscott

Conservatives are fond of preaching the importance of taking "individual responsibility" for one's actions and beliefs. But when you ask them whether they're willing to take responsibility for the robberies and muggings that their beloved decades-long war on drugs have produced, they always and inevitably respond with, "Oh, no. We don't intend our policies to result in those things and therefore we're not responsible for them. Only robbers and muggers, with their lack of respect for liberty and private property, are responsible for their actions and beliefs."

Today, when you ask conservatives whether they're willing to take responsibility for their beloved decades-long foreign-aid program and interventionist foreign policy that have produced so much enmity, hatred, and perverse consequences for our country, their response is, not surprisingly, the same: "Oh, no. We don't intend our policies to result in those things and therefore we're not responsible for them. Only terrorists, with their lack of respect for liberty and private property, are responsible for their actions."

Question for conservatives: With respect to welfare programs, do you still feel that good intentions don't matter and that advocates of the decades-long war on poverty should take responsibility for its destructive consequences, or do you now feel that only the food-stamp mother in the grocery-store line is responsible for her actions and beliefs?


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1 posted on 09/28/2001 7:45:14 AM PDT by sendtoscott (terrorism individual responsibility)
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To: sendtoscott
Conservatives are fond of preaching the importance of taking "individual responsibility" for one's actions and beliefs

Actually, that is Libertarians.

2 posted on 09/28/2001 7:48:32 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: AppyPappy
Conservatives don't believe in individual responsibility?
3 posted on 09/28/2001 7:50:28 AM PDT by sendtoscott
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To: sendtoscott
Ummmm, so taking "individual responsibilty for one's actions and beliefs" means "taking collective responsibility for others' actions"?

What a hornberger!

4 posted on 09/28/2001 7:55:28 AM PDT by BurkeanCyclist
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To: sendtoscott,Appy
Conservatives are fond of preaching the importance of taking "individual responsibility" for one's actions and beliefs

I happen to take individual responsibility as an extremely important thing .

Appy, there's Conservative Liberatarians, hello we're not talking about parties here .

Sheesh.

Cheese.

The calls for help from your bathroom are from Hillary Clintons reflection .

5 posted on 09/28/2001 7:55:32 AM PDT by AmericanCheeseFood
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To: BurkeanCyclist
So the govt, and the liberals who push for govt programs, bear no responsibility for the result of socialist govt programs?
6 posted on 09/28/2001 8:03:21 AM PDT by sendtoscott
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To: AppyPappy
sendtoscott was quoting an enviro-wacko terrorist/Libertarian/anti-government anti-hero yesterday.
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government --Edward Abbey" -sendtoscott
He ought to be given a time-out for bringing his pro-drug drivel here, too.
7 posted on 09/28/2001 8:04:16 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: Ask Not
The problem isn't that conservatives don't take individual responsibility, it's that conservatives are constitutionally incapable of admitting they made a mistake.

The conservatives made a BIG mistake when they foisted the War onDrugs (as well as the Volstead Act) on their countrymen.

Unless and until they admit that their "war" on drugs has actually made things worse, we will continue to suffer from the erosion of our liberties to unconstitutional, immoral and unjust laws and corrupted law enforcement.

Only conservatives can end the War on Drugs.

8 posted on 09/28/2001 8:09:34 AM PDT by Hidy
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To: sendtoscott
So the Libertarians and other moral-liberals who proselytize selfishness, hedonism, do-your-own-thing-ism, self-destruction and valuelessness onto other people bear no responsibility for the result of their moral-liberal promulgation? Of course they do.
9 posted on 09/28/2001 8:10:27 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: sendtoscott
Conservatives believe that societal influences can corrupt people. We also believe that risk is a variable to crime. That is why we oppose porn, drugs and drunk driving.
10 posted on 09/28/2001 8:12:12 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: sendtoscott; Kevin Curry; Cultural Jihad; billbears; What About Bob; Allend
"But when you ask them whether they're willing to take responsibility for the robberies and muggings that their beloved decades-long war on drugs have produced,"

Another pantload of extremist fanaticism on behalf of drug legalization. Simply implying that there is an epidemic in the number "robberies and muggings" caused by the WOD doesn't make it true. Without qualified proof of such makes the claimant appear as a "Chicken Little."

"Today, when you ask conservatives whether they're willing to take responsibility for their beloved decades-long foreign-aid program and interventionist foreign policy that have produced so much enmity, hatred, and perverse consequences for our country,"

This is nothing more than a libertarian "blame game" going on by people who believe that abolishing borders would "cure" the scourge of terrorism. What foolishness!

While there have been errors in foreign affairs, to again imply that the U.S. is hated by the majority of nations without proof is a dishonest attempt at advancing a dangerous ideology of absolute selfishness.

11 posted on 09/28/2001 8:13:29 AM PDT by A2J
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To: Cultural Jihad
"Libertarians ... who proselytize selfishness, hedonism, do-your-own-thing-ism, self-destruction and valuelessness onto other people"

Buuuuzzzzz! Wrong again CJ.
12 posted on 09/28/2001 8:18:17 AM PDT by gjenkins
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To: A2J
While there have been errors in foreign affairs, to again imply that the U.S. is hated by the majority of nations without proof is a dishonest attempt at advancing a dangerous ideology of absolute selfishness.

What connection is there between a complaint about US foreign policy and "absolute selfishness"?

"We MUST protect ourselves from all the LIBERALterians who oppose the war because they just want to SMOKE POT AND VISIT HOOKERS."
-- FearForTheRepublic.com

13 posted on 09/28/2001 8:18:18 AM PDT by sendtoscott
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To: Hidy
Only conservatives can end the War on Drugs.

So true. Let the whiney moral-liberals and moral-cowards of the L.P. continue to squirm and whine. All their half-baked ideologue schemes are hereby vetoed.

For you and they to claim that the Founding Fathers fought for the inalienable right to the most degrading of pornography, sodomy, bestiality, obscenity, promiscuity, perversion, prostitution, drugs, and self-destruction is most laughable and patently false. The Declaration in no way describes inalienable rights as including "the right to an early death, the slavery to vice, and the pursuit of unneeded suffering."

One supposes the term "Banned in Boston" referred to a famous late 18th Century rock group. One supposes by listening to their whiney drivel that people have no right to decide what kind of a society they are to live in.

14 posted on 09/28/2001 8:19:29 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: Cultural Jihad
So the Libertarians and other moral-liberals who proselytize selfishness, hedonism, do-your-own-thing-ism, self-destruction and valuelessness onto other people bear no responsibility for the result of their moral-liberal promulgation? Of course they do.

Its called PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. If you don't like it, leave this country. The Taliban finds similar faults with our society, and there you should find a happy little coven of open arms and similarly-minded, incorrectly toilet-trained, nincompoops.

15 posted on 09/28/2001 8:22:02 AM PDT by That Poppins Woman
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To: Cultural Jihad
Hey, CJ.

Last night I caught an advertisment for a news show about Afghanistan. It showed footage of a barren wasteland, poor families with starving children. The voice over stated, "Afghanistan, a nation of drugs..."

When I saw and heard that, it was like I saw the future of America in a libertarian utopian world. I remembered that most nations that openly produce and consume drugs are poverty, disease-ridden 3rd, 4th, and 5th world nations that are always seeking assistance from other countries.

It was not a pretty picture, but one that I believe will come about if the drug-crazed libertarians ever gain power. If that day ever comes, I hope it's long after I'm gone.

16 posted on 09/28/2001 8:23:04 AM PDT by A2J
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: A2J
I remembered that most nations that openly produce and consume drugs are poverty, disease-ridden 3rd, 4th, and 5th world nations that are always seeking assistance from other countries.

Provide statistics and references for this generalization.

Afghanistan has grown poppies for centuries. What has driven that country into poverty and disease is corrupt leadership, continuous wars, culture and religion that is not conducive to entrepreneurial capitalism, and in fact discourages it.

Our founding fathers grew acres of hemp. Was the USA a poverty, disease-ridden 3rd, 4th, and 5th world nation after the revolution?

18 posted on 09/28/2001 8:30:55 AM PDT by That Poppins Woman
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To: A2J
Last night I caught an advertisment for a news show about Afghanistan. It showed footage of a barren wasteland, poor families with starving children. The voice over stated, "Afghanistan, a nation of drugs..."

Yeh, Afganistan was a booming mecca of a country, not unlike the U.S., until drugs came and dried it all up. Thriving cities turned into wastelands, left without a trace.

19 posted on 09/28/2001 8:32:54 AM PDT by FreeTally
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To: A2J
I remembered that most nations that openly produce and consume drugs are poverty, disease-ridden 3rd, 4th, and 5th world nations that are always seeking assistance from other countries.

Pot is California's biggest cash crop. Are they poverty and disease-ridden?
20 posted on 09/28/2001 8:34:10 AM PDT by sendtoscott
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