Saturday, August 10, 2013

An idea for the Tea Party

The GOP is the party of no, as president Obama claimed, and no "No!" has been louder than that of Tea Party evangelists. It is their way or no way, you have religion, or you are a traitor to the cause that must be rooted out. Etcetera and so on.

One of their beliefs is that government should be smaller. Another is that Americans should have more personal freedom. The trouble is, their path to making government smaller is to cut at it stupidly with broad brush-clearing strokes. This is akin to cutting down a forest without regard to where you are standing in relation to where the trees are falling. You  might get a field or you might get hit over the head by a falling tree. These two outcomes are not equally desirable, except maybe from the point of view of the trees.

Here is an idea that both cuts government and increases personal freedom and which would have political allies on the left and the right. Here it is, decriminalize non-violent drug use and make the law retro-actively apply. Then, follow this up with targeted cost-cutting to eliminate everything drug-chasing from government. That would accomplish both goals and it would put a halt to unnecessarily oppressive and expensive laws.

What's wrong with that approach?

"Nothing!", sez I.

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Foot Quotes

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

Charles Darwin