I find myself these days often asking my liberal friends why, if they are truly liberty loving, they vote Democratic. In fact, I try to argue that if they want maximum freedom they should just become Libertarians, since the libertarian view is generally a “live and let live” approach with very few government restrictions on what people do, as long as their activities don’t harm others, are conducted between mutually consenting adults, and children are not exploited in any way. And there would be little if any in the way of foreign wars to boot. Of course, I get resistance because my liberal friends suddenly realize they’re not as “liberal” as they think, because they indeed don’t want a live and let live approach to society. They actually tend to want government interference in many aspects, which in my view runs counter to the concept of liberty. I then argue that if they don’t want to go the libertarian route, Constitutional conservatism is heavy on liberty with a limited number of societal mores, based on natural law, designed to maintain a stable society.
When you get right down to it, Democratic policies, at least the current crop of policies based on their party platform, provide a perception of liberty only with respect to sexual freedom. But when you look below the surface, you see that these liberties actually encourage irresponsible behavior, or behavior that is antithetical to maintaining a stable society based on traditional marriage. The first case is the issue of abortion. The Democratic Party platform states explicitly that a woman has a right to abortion for any reason, and that she has a right to it regardless of her ability to pay for it. Let’s think about this for a moment. On this view, the woman has a right to abort a fetus, but the fetus living inside her is afforded no rights. Moreover, this woman, who either has no desire to have a child, or refuses to take the necessary precautions to prevent pregnancy, has the right to demand that others be complicit in her taking the life of a fetus due to her irresponsible behavior. Sorry, but I don’t want my tax dollars involved in this sick trade. This isn’t liberty for those asked to pay for the abortion, and more importantly, is not liberty for the fetus.
The second manner in which liberals provide the perception of liberty is their support for gay marriage, under the banner of “marriage equality.” It has been demonstrated time and again through the ages that the optimal environment for a child is with a mother and father of the opposite sex. This is the natural order and is the design of life, as a homosexual couple cannot naturally produce offspring, modern reproductive techniques notwithstanding. Thus there is no “equality” here because a homosexual relationship is inherently not equal to a heterosexual one since it cannot produce offspring naturally (and can even cause physical harm over time). It doesn’t matter whether the intent is to produce offspring or not. What matters is the design and function of the human body and the purposes for which the human reproductive systems were fashioned, one of which is to produce offspring and continue the species. Now does this view inhibit homosexual liberty? Certainly not, as conservatives have no concern as to what mutually consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes, or what legal contracts they create amongst themselves. Even while arguing against gay marriage, conservatives believe the legality of such must be determined by the people at the state level, while not in any way violating the freedoms of those who wish to engage in homosexual behavior.
Now on just about every other issue, Democrats want to regulate or control broad aspects of people’s lives at both the federal and state levels, making unthinking people believe that because the party “has their backs” on abortion and gay marriage, that they are the party of freedom and liberty. Yet Democrats, in their own party platform, want to determine what wages people should get by promoting unions and making demands on private employers, and want to tell people what forms of energy they should or should not use by pushing “green energy” policies instead of allowing the private markets to determine the proper mix of energy sources. Democratic policies seek to regulate what food people can or cannot eat, harass cigarette and cigar smokers through regulations and taxes, brazenly attempt to deny 2nd Amendment rights to gun ownership, and even go after children for opening lemonade stands. Democrats promote class warfare against those who are successful and produce the jobs we need (with sports and entertainment stars excepted since they keep the masses constantly engaged in mindless activity), and continue to promote programs making people dependent on government instead of empowering them to become self-reliant.
Anyway, I could go on and on about the liberty sapping policies of the Democrats, but I will stop here. I just wish liberals would stop to think what the world would really look like if Democratic policies were fully implemented. I don’t think any of them would feel a sense of liberty or freedom in such a world.
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