From Whence Cometh Gay Rights: Part 5

If you have not read parts 1 thru 4 of this topic, posted on January 30, February 3, February 11, and February 18, I encourage you to do so before reading this post.

When our nation began, our Founders knew that personal liberty would be most threatened if the centralized government had power to regulate personal conduct: interpersonal relationships, or morality—how we ought to behave around and with one another. The federal government was empowered by the constitution only to do the things that simply were not possible for a state or local government to do, such as enter treaties with foreign nations, defend the nation against foreign enemies, and oversee the interaction of states (act as the judge in disagreements between two or more states).

But, as Alexander Hamilton said, "A fondness for power is implanted, in most men, and it is natural to abuse it, when acquired." As we described in earlier segments, man is naturally self-centered and wants to arrange the world around himself to suit himself. This involves imposing his will on others when and where he has the ability to do so. Recognizing this, our Founders attempted to chain the federal politicians down with the limitations of the constitution, leaving the power to regulate morality with the states and local governments. State and local politicians could be much more easily controlled by the voters, and would be far less capable of oppressing the people. As James Madison put it,

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.

But, through creative interpretations of the 14th Amendment and the Commerce Clause of Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution, limitations on the power of the federal government were essentially shattered.

The Supreme Court opening the door to Congress to regulate private commerce—our economic pursuits—amounted to letting the whole camel into the tent. That decision, so long as it stands, allows the world’s most powerful politicians to legislate every aspect of life, for as Nobel laureate economist Friedrich August von Hayek pointed out,

To be controlled in our economic pursuits means to be controlled in everything.

This week I started trying to compile examples of the ridiculous implications of this. Where do I begin? Where would I end? Ask yourself what part of your life does the federal government not have its finger in? Every product you purchase, every investment you make, every bite you take, every hour of your day is now regulated by the federal government in some way. Every time the federal government dictates that something must be done a certain way, or a product must have certain characteristics, or an activity must be or cannot be engaged in, it is imposing some powerful politician’s morality—his or her opinion about what someone ought or ought not do—on you and me.

How can elected politicians get away with this in a democracy? At the local level, they can’t. It might only take a dozen informed voters to throw the bums out. But when the federal government acts, it can get away with murder…practically. In every situation where the federal government tells us what to do, they buy off votes with a corresponding handout. As discussed in earlier posts, this immense power allows the politicians to secure their re-election even as they become ever more heavy-handed.

The more centralized the government, the more they can use the sheer power to insulate the elected officials from accountability. The number of unelected government employees and regulators is now breathtaking. The Congress passes a law that interferes with your or my activities. The Congress explains that it is “for the children” or “for public safety” or “for the good of society” or to make things “fair.” The law has, oh, let’s say 3,000 pages, just for kicks. You would think that a law with 3,000 pages would not need to be interpreted. You would think every detail must surely be spelled out already, wouldn’t you? But according to US News and World Report, regarding just six pages of the Obamacare law, federal regulators have written 429 pages of new regulations! Why didn’t the Congress just write what the law requires and prohibits, establish the penalties, and be done with it? Because the detailed implications of a law like Obamacare are so tedious, so intrusive, so objectionable, so offensive that no Member of Congress would want his or her name on it. So they write the outline—nearly 3,000 pages, yes, but still just an outline—as something they can sell to the voters as “fair” or “just” or even fiscally necessary…and then empower unelected employees fill in the oppressive details.

The current hot button issue is Obamacare’s disregard for freedom to exercise one’s religious convictions. But this is only a symptom. The bigger issue is how the federal government now holds so much power that its standard way of doing business is to enact a sweeping new law claiming control over a whole sector of the economy, and then appointing a bunch of unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats to work within the broad framework of the law. From a recent piece by Matthew Spalding:

“It turns out that under Obamacare ... all insurance plans must cover, at no charge, abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives, sterilization, and patient education and counseling for women of reproductive age. ... This is not a one-time exception to the rule of Obamacare; it is the es­tablishment of the rule itself. One can only imagine what life will be like when the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) begins rationing health benefits to reduce Medicare spending. It is not the details in Obamacare that are the real problem but the form of governance it establishes, by which unelected experts are empowered to make the rules as they go along. What is happening has little to do with health care or even public policy and everything to do with the role of government in the most immediate and intimate matters of our lives. All is subject to government control, regulatory dictate, and administrative whim. ... It is what happens when a model of government focused on determining outcomes, despite good intentions, finally acquires the unlimited authority to reshape society to its bureaucratic blueprint.” (emphasis added)

When the lawmakers have power “to reshape society to its bureaucratic blueprint”—just another way of saying impose their moral judgments on all of us—who or what will keep the lawmakers moral? In the days of limited government, with a constitution that was enforced by judges who understood that it meant the big (federal) government had to stay out of issues of interpersonal behavior, the people could keep the lawmakers moral. But voters don’t and won’t do it when their votes can be bought and sold with an extension of unemployment benefits here, and a food stamp there, tax deduction here, and a waiver there, and a favorable regulation (one that hurts your competition more than it does you) here, and on and on and on. Less powerful local governments can’t pull that off. A big one can.

An acquaintance last week said he thought anyone who is getting welfare of any kind should not be permitted to vote until they get off such subsidies. I felt strong impulse to agree with him, but where could that line be drawn? The more I thought about it, the fewer people I could come up with who do not get some direct or indirect government subsidy. It is incredible when you think about how far the tentacles of government inducements actually extend.  

I started thinking of the most obvious welfare, like food stamps, subsidized housing and the like, followed by business subsidies, green energy, farm programs, and government schools. But the most obvious example is health care. Roughly 50% of all health care is now paid for by tax dollars. I don’t mean dollars that are merely mandated by law, I mean actual taxes paid, handled by the government, and paid out to the doctors, hospitals and other medical providers. This is before Obamacare has even started! You could argue that health care ought—uh oh, there we go, dictating morals!—to be provided to all, the cost spread among all. I disagree, but hey, that makes it my moral judgment against yours, so who gets to impose his morals on whom?

Even if it were the role of the federal government to tell us that it is immoral not to share the cost of others’ health care, what would that mean? The definition of health care is no longer treatment for accident and sickness. Obama can pontificate all he wants about “part of the American dream” being not fearing going bankrupt if you get sick. But that is just the sales pitch to get us on board. Now his real position on morality kicks in. He doesn’t just want everyone to pay for your broken arm or your cancer treatment. No, remember what he said back in 2001:

"The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of basic issues of political and economic justice in this society and to that extent as radical as people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as it has been interpreted," Obama said in the recording.

"And the Warren court interpreted it generally in the same way -- that the Constitution is a document of negative liberties, says what the states can't do to you, says what the federal government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf, and that hasn't shifted.

"And I think one of the tragedies of the civil rights movement was that the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and organizing activities on the ground that are able to bring about the coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change and in some ways we still suffer from that," he is recorded saying.

When the Supreme Court says you have a constitutional right to contraception, it only meant no government can keep you from buying it for yourself; a negative liberty, meaning government cannot stop you. When the Court says you have a right to an abortion, it only meant government cannot outlaw abortion; another negative liberty. Government cannot stop you from doing it. When government says free speech means pornographic material, that means government cannot outlaw making and distribution of such material. Negative liberties are what government cannot do or interfere with you doing.

But where are we headed? In the provisions of Obamacare we are seeing what he meant. We are seeing where a liberal who wants to shape the world into his image will go. He said the court “never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of basic issues of political and economic justice in this society” and that the court only “says what the ...government can't do to you, but it doesn't say what the ...government must do on your behalf.” Obamacare is a major effort on the part of the political organizer to use coalitions of power to bring about redistributive change...to move to a world where civil rights are not just what the government must allow you to do, but are what the government—through its power to collect tax dollars and dole them back out, or its power to mandate personal purchases—“must do on your behalf…”

The idea—the goal of liberals with power to impose their morals on the rest of us—is not merely to say we can’t stop people from acting perversely, immorally, or in violation of community standards of decency, but that we must share the costs, whatever those costs are, to enable the perversity. First it is contraception. Next it is abortion. In some areas we are hearing that completely elective, plastic surgery is now provided to public employees at taxpayer expense. Whose morality is it that says someone who believes in the sanctity of the marriage bed must provide those who do not with tools for violating it? Who gets to tell me that I must help you pay to deform your body from the shape God gave you into something that Hollywood says will get you more attention?

When we allow the federal government to legislate any “commerce” they deem appropriate, we have opened the door to this sort of thing.  When liberals like this President say they just want to be left alone to “love” as they choose to love, and that it doesn’t affect those who disagree with their choices, they are simply lying. That is just the sales pitch to get us to open the door to them.

And where are we going next? Quite frankly, this freaks me out even as I am writing it.