Pubdate: Sun, 30 Dec 2007
Source: Pensacola News Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2007 The Pensacola News Journal
Contact:  http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1675
Author: Carl Wernicke

I'M OLDER, BUT NOT NECESSARILY WISER

In recent years, inspired by columnist Charlie Reese, I've used a 
yearend column to sample some of my political beliefs ... or 
heresies, depending on your point of view.

So here goes.

As I've gotten older, I've become more self-contradictory. Maybe that 
reflects growing confusion -- or, as I believe, an increasing 
appreciation for life's complexity.

So I am at once a small-government libertarian on individual issues, 
and a big-government activist on things like environmental regulation.

On the environment, our economic model remains flawed; it still 
doesn't factor in the full cost of waste disposal. We allow 
industries to discount the cost of their product by not requiring 
them to fully clean up, or safely dispose of, their waste stream.

They transfer the cost to us by dumping it into the nearest river or 
bay, or into the air.

Or they create products laced with toxic materials that are difficult 
to safely dispose of -- and of which we are often unaware -- and 
leave it up to us to deal with it.

They shouldn't be able to get away with it.

But my libertarian side says government has no right to prohibit 
legal adults from personal, or consensual, activities like drug use 
or prostitution (unless it endangers others, such as DUI).

The "War on Drugs" might be the most costly, destructive conflict in 
history -- and we're losing.

Keeping drugs illegal has corrupted entire nations (Colombia, Mexico 
and Afghanistan, for starters), needlessly destroys lives, shattered 
the security of our borders, corrupts police, political and judicial 
systems in the United States, spawns crime, fills our prisons with 
non-violent "offenders," wastes hundreds of billions of dollars and 
created and subsidizes the drug mafias by eliminating their 
competition and inflating the price of their goods.

Supporters of drug prohibition say that without it we'd have addicts 
and drug crime. Well, we have both -- plus a huge criminal 
infrastructure to profit off them.

End the "war" and the money we save on prisons, courts, drug 
interdiction, law enforcement and anti-drug foreign aid could go into 
education and rehab for the people who will get hooked whether drugs 
are legal or illegal.

For me, the "contradictions" in my view of government power always 
come down to this: Government's proper role is to protect us from 
each other, not from ourselves. Unfortunately, throughout history 
political power has been used to enforce the power group's vision of 
morality, economics, social mores, you name it.

The philosophical underpinning of the Constitution, and our form of 
government, was stated most plainly in the Declaration of 
Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men 
are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and 
the pursuit of Happiness."

According to the founders, governments were instituted "to secure 
these rights," which transcend the authority of government (or an 
electoral majority). But government has turned into a nanny state 
that goes beyond its mission of protecting us from each other, and 
now seeks to protect us from ourselves.

Some other views:

. Abortion is wrong. Should it be outlawed? Here my contradictions 
clash. The libertarian constitutionalist says you can't tell a woman 
what she can do with her body; the moralist says you can in this 
case, because a third party is involved.

I remain conflicted.

. Capital punishment is wrong. Being imperfect, we make mistakes, and 
innocent people end up on death row. Life in prison without parole is 
sufficient punishment for any crime, and allows judicial mistakes to 
be corrected.

. Sometimes you have to go to war, but it should be the right war. 
Afghanistan was the right war; Iraq is the wrong one.

. The founders intended the Second Amendment to preserve the right of 
Americans to bear firearms. (Check back with me when hand-held lasers arrive.)

. I remain behind the Community Maritime Park because, although not 
completely what I would do there, I haven't seen a better proposal, 
and those behind it are successful, committed people with a track 
record for working to better this community.

Finally, I think it's wrong when I ask for a Coke and bourbon and 
they give me Pepsi ... without warning me.

There ought to be a law. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake