Here are excerpts from two articles, the first one is excellent as Trevor Grant Thomas takes libertarians (and other confused souls) to school regarding the role of morality in civilization. The second one is shockingly foolish — Larry Elder is usually smarter than this. Elder includes a quote from Justice Antonin Scalia, showing that even smart people can, at times, be incredibly absent minded.
Neal Boortz, Libertarianism, and Moral Government
By Trevor Thomas
While substituting for Sean Hannity recently, Neal Boortz went into another of his “libertarian” rants against “social” conservatives. Taking note of the recent flak involving Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty,” while pleading that the fate of the republic may depend upon Republicans retaking the U.S. Senate, Boortz forebodingly predicted that Republicans would fail in this task because, “they [Republicans] simply cannot resist the urge, the impulse to get into this social conservatism.”
Long known for his disdain of the “social” (I prefer “moral”) issues, like many others, Boortz masquerades as libertarian while in reality being nothing more than a liberal on the moral issues of our time.
Contrary to what self-described libertarians such as Boortz and John Stossel would have us believe, if conservatives simply shut up about issues like abortion and marriage and focus on things like debt and fiscal responsibility, there’s no guarantee when it comes to election time. It is a long-held myth, typically perpetuated by self-described liberals in the mainstream media but also by self-described libertarians, that whenever the moral issues are prominent in elections, conservatives lose. As I have noted before, Jeffrey Bell in his book The Case for Polarized Politics helps dispel this myth.
[…]
Whether liberals or libertarians care to admit it, somebody’s morality is going to govern us. Libertarians would do well to examine America’s history before ranting about the morality of today’s [Christian] conservatives. Like our founders, most conservatives today understand well that religion (especially Christianity) is an indispensible tenet of liberty.
[…]
Libertarians need to decide with whom it’s easier to live: those who share the morality of the vast majority of our founders, who gave us the greatest document for self governance ever created by men; or those who seek fundamentally to change this republic into something that conservatives and libertarians both will lament.
Here’s the excerpt from the Larry Elder piece. Justice Antonin Scalia clearly doesn’t understand the nature of homosexuality. It’s behavior, Anton, so when government enacts statutes the forces the funding and acceptance of what many people believe to be immoral behavior, guess what? Yep, religious liberty is impacted. Yo Anton, please re-read the First Amendment and learn a little about our First Freedom. The U.S. Constitution is NOT silent on the culture war. Elder’s post is titled, “The Republican ‘Agenda’ — and the Youth Vote“:
Blame the GOP, in large part, for either being confused on its approach to social issues or confused on how to talk about them. On domestic issues, the GOP should be the “federalism,” growth and empowerment party. Social issues such as gay marriage, abortion and drugs, where the U.S. Constitution is silent, are state matters to be fought at the state level — not matters addressed by the federal government.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Republican appointee and arguably the most conservative justice, said the courts lack the expertise and judgment to resolve issues like same-sex marriage, abortion and doctor-assisted suicide.
Scalia argues that such issues are state matters: “On controversial issues on stuff like homosexual rights, abortion, we debate with each other and persuade each other and vote on it either through representatives or a constitutional amendment. … Whether it’s good or bad is not my job. My job is simply to say if those things you find desirable are contained in the Constitution.”
