Can Conservatives and Libertarians Form a Coalition to Save the Constitution? – Part IV

A Difficult Issue
One of the most contentious disputes between conservatives and libertarians is their view about what should be legal and illegal behavior.

Libertarians tend to view any action that does not directly violate the rights of another person as being permissible in a strictly legal sense. That doesn’t mean that libertarians don’t find certain behavior objectionable. It’s just that we don’t think people should be locked up for being foolish in their life choices or objectionable in their behavior.

Conservatives, on the other hand, are more likely to view certain behaviors as so damaging to society that they must be outlawed even though no individual is a direct victim in the conventional sense. Society as a group is a victim.

Libertarians would prefer that these damaging and objectionable behaviors be reduced via social pressure within civil society. However, I think many libertarians would acknowledge that there is a problem with our reasoning. Our civil society has been ineffective in reducing certain self-destructive and objectionable behaviors due to a general disintegration of our culture.

I believe that disintegration also has a lot to do with the lack of understanding and support of the founding principles of our republic something conservatives and libertarians desperately need to address. I also think that cultural Marxists, a la Antonio Gramsci, have consciously aided and abetted this cultural disintegration.

Two of the most contentious issues are the use of drugs and the oldest profession of prostitution. Now, some actions connected to these two issues are without a doubt illegal. Prostitution often involves intimidation and abuse of prostitutes, the use of minors, and outright slavery by the organized criminals that control the sex trade.

None of this is viewed as legal behavior by libertarians. Drugs are often sold to minors and drug gangs use intimidation, force, and murder to increase their market share. None of this is viewed as legal behavior by libertarians either. Probably the one area that holds the most potential for real damage to the social fabric is the drug trade.

Drugs Are Harmful--Sometimes Very Harmful

I agree with the principle that “victimless crimes” cannot be crimes because there is no victim. Certainly the use of drugs, as opposed to the sale of them, should at some point be decriminalized. However, you could possibly make the case that selling at least some types of drugs is harmful enough to society to be a national security issue and a crime similar to espionage, sabotage or treason.

Again, libertarians need to acknowledge this and have a civil discussion with conservatives about how we can reach a compromise. Conservatives, on the other hand, need to recognize the problems of trying to enforce anti-drug laws.

We experienced the same issues during the period when alcoholic beverages were illegal. Should we allow this and the general dispute over allowable behavior to be a deal-breaker with respect to the important goal of truly limited government and the restoration of the Constitution to its former exalted position in U. S. jurisprudence? I think not. Let’s agree to disagree on this one for now and focus on ways to stop the collectivists from destroying classical constitutional democratic republican government.

My next post will be on immigration, another point of contention with conservatives; then I’ll lay out the two most important ways libertarians and conservatives can cooperate to save the Constitution.