That's how little I share in common with my coworkers!
But I digress: the real purpose of this blog post is to comment on a very recent Tucker Carlson monologue. I've already written about him, a couple of weeks ago in fact-- but now he's explicitly spelled out his world view. Behold:
"There is a clear line between Democracy and tyrrany, between self-government, and dictatorship-- and here is what that line is: that line is your conscience. They can not cross that.
Government has every right to tell you what to do: controlling the behavior of citizens is the prerogative of any organized society; it's why we have it.
That's why government can prevent you from committing murder, or rape, or from speeding or jaywalking; that's all allowed, it's legitimate. But no Democratic government can ever tell you what to think: your mind belongs to you-- it is yours, and yours alone."
Government has every right to tell you what to do: controlling the behavior of citizens is the prerogative of any organized society; it's why we have it.
That's why government can prevent you from committing murder, or rape, or from speeding or jaywalking; that's all allowed, it's legitimate. But no Democratic government can ever tell you what to think: your mind belongs to you-- it is yours, and yours alone."
Holy smokes.
I had a better grasp of Lockean civic and political theory by second grade!
If you would have shown me this text and posed to me, "Sniper, pop quiz: which cable TV news host said that?", I would have guessed "Wolf Blitzer", or maybe "Joe Scarborough". It's so silly, and so nonintellectual, and so nonsensical, that I can scarcely believe it wasn't on CNN or MSNBC.
Where to even begin?
For starters I suppose, Tucker places laws against murder, and laws against jaywalking, in the same moral category. That should set the alarm bells ringing right away. But then he goes on to "clarify": "the dividing line is your conscience, don't you see?"
"Muh feelz!"
So, the Left's "conscience" is telling them that Fox News should be forced off the air. What the heck are you complaining about Tucker?
He then declares that the role of government is to "control citizen's behaviors". You see, you're not negatively delegating your God-given right to self-defense-- you're being positively prevented from taking actions, like murdering!
Makes my head spin.
And this, my friends, is why Conservatives have done nothing but lose over the past several decades: they are "Democrat-Lite".