Last week, I wrote that it might be time for conservatives to start contemplating what to do after the GOP goes off the rails and, possibly, nominates Donald Trump to be their candidate for President of the United States of America. In that blog post I identified two main issues which I thought would be key to any movement going forward:
1. Rolling back and limiting the leviathan that is the Federal, State and Local government regulatory morass.
2. Restoring the rule of law.
Since that time I've done a lot of reading, and thinking about the issue and I've decided that additional focus should be placed on a 3rd issue as well.
Maggie Gallagher wrote a piece asking this question: Is the GOP Worth Saving? at National Review Online. In it she focused on the many failures of the modern GOP to stand for religious freedom in the face of so-called "equal rights" laws and ordinances.
I've realized, through articles like that, and others, that my original selective grab-bag of issues didn't go quite far enough. That's because they all addressed economic issues, but left out the core issues of freedom. And it's freedom that's the core idea that we're supposed to be working toward expanding and maintaining.
Economic freedom is important, I believe it's the key to alleviating (although not eliminating) a host of issues after all, but if you don't have the freedoms to think and act certain ways then all of the money in the world is not worth it.
But first, let's be clear. Despite the fact this won't stop the social justice warriors from casting cries of "racist!" and "Homophobe!" my way I'm not suggesting that the law should allow for blatant discrimination. Nor am I suggesting that we return to the days of "separate but equal" which, as we all know, were indeed separate, but hardly equal. Nor do I believe being a conscientious objector to other races is a viable defense for physical, or property harm. In other words, crimes are still crimes and people should not gain protections in committing them and then try to hide behind "religious liberty".
But people have the right to be odious, they have the right to be bigots, and they should have the right, under the 1st Amendment, to let people know that they are. Whether or not you feel that people who have religious objections to gay marriage are "on the wrong side of history" or not they should have the right to object. Provided they are not depriving anyone of their right to pursue life, liberty and happiness, then it's not really an issue the government should involve itself with.
In many cases the market self-corrects businesses who are ran by bigots. Right-thinking people choose to take their business elsewhere and waves of civil lawyers do the rest. The bakery in Texas that is now in hot water for refusing to make a GLBTQ couple a wedding cake went so far as to offer the prospective partners a list of competitors who would do that. In this case there wasn't an attempt to deprive anyone of anything.
All of this leads to my thought that in addition to the 2 issues above a 3rd should be added:
3. Restoration of the Bill of Rights.
It's important to note that the Bill of Rights covers the rights of private citizens, and not governmental agencies. In fact, I would argue that it's in the National Interest for the Government to act in the least discriminatory way possible. This ties back to the rule of law.
Not only is it important for economies to be free, but the so-called marketplace of ideas should be as well. Just as free markets led to people being offended by Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber so will a idea free-market lead to offense at some level. And it should. You don't have a right to not be offended, and being so often leads to the type of introspection that leads to personal growth. Despite being racist and insensitive to Asians in his Oscar's monologue, the biggest sin that Chris Rock committed is that he tried not to offend.
Good social comedy, by it's very nature, should offend. We seem to have forgotten that in the USA around about the same time we decided no one should be hurt....ever.
All this leads to is more litigation, and more legislation trying to prevent anything bad from ever happening again. That creates angry people who begin to think that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are onto something.
None of that adds a dollar to the economy or helps the poor move up the economic ladder to prosperity, it does not provide for the National defense either. In fact, it doesn't do much of anything except for transfer wealth to the lawyers who, as part of the courtesan class, funnel it to politicians in hopes of gaining favor.
On these issues the GOP has failed. Whatever replaces it next cannot.
