The American Spectator

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Remedial History

7.18.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 5 of 5)

Nothing like a discussion of abortion to get people really going. With all respect to Mr. Dooley, please realize a couple of things. The frost's arguments are more typical liberal arguments in support of abortion than the usual Libertarian arguments in support of allowing the practice. These are two very different arguments. As a more conservatively minded Libertarian myself, I can't find any arguments in support of abortion. However, the frost's terminology is correct and accurate. This doesn't make his arguments right, just the terminology. Both Dooley and Arand present valid arguments against the practice of abortion and you'll find that I myself would support the position that it is wrong and should be properly ostracized and condemned. However, this doesn't mean that it should be outlawed. Yes, abortion is immoral. But so is adultery, lying, and several other practices and actions that are still legal. As is using police power to force your ideas onto another. In fact, the act of abortion and the act of using police power to force your ideas onto another are both equally immoral, so how do we decide the best course of action? Because I do believe that forcing ones ideals onto another is of equal immorality as abortion, I realize that we must allow the practice to be available for moral reasons, even as we advance a position where an abortion is deemed immoral by the vast majority of people. What, I ask, is wrong with this position?

The case of 'when life begins' can be argued indefinitely using scientific ideals such as genetic identification or gross physical structure. We need to avoid using such to defend our position. We must realize that the choice of having an abortion is a serious, moral choice and should remain as such. The only acceptable answer to lowering the number of abortions in this country is through proper moral teaching. And being clear that our objection is a moral one, and we want people to be properly educated and taught, not be forced through our legislatures. Sometimes abortions are necessary, and for a variety of reasons, usually very good ones. We need to respect each other enough that we trust others to make the right decision, even when some do not.

As for Mr. Dooley's general description of Libertarians. I suggest you review the works of Thomas Jefferson and respected Libertarian thinkers. You will quickly find, as I have, that our country was founded on Libertarian ideals more than anything else. Yeah, we have our moments of arrogance and condensation. So do liberals. And so do conservatives, come to that. And everyone else. When I can't get that conservative churchgoer off my porch with a polite 'no thank you,' it starts to become annoying, even as I recognize that he is just doing what he thinks is right. There is more arrogance in that action than there is my defending my position with reasoned argument. So please, be careful when you paint we Libertarians with too broad a brush.

And the frost is correct on one point. If you agree with the death penalty for any crime, you are not 'pro-life.' Someone who is truly pro-life would be against any taking of life. That's what the word 'pro' means. Conversely, if you think any substance, statement, service, or much of anything else should be outlawed or controlled, you are not 'pro-choice.' The terms 'anti' and 'pro' abortion are far more accurate titles for the sides of this issue than the euphemistic 'pro-choice' and 'pro-life.' So, to you 'pro-life' folks out there, I ask you: What's wrong with being anti-abortion, exactly?
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

Mike Dooley needs to hang out with a wider spectrum of libertarians. There is libertarianism beyond the various lunacies of the Libertarian Party. The base political principle of limited government libertarianism is that government is instituted to protect individuals from those who would initiate force against them, or who would commit fraud against them. Abortion is not in accord with true libertarianism in that it deprives a human being (the baby in the womb) of its most basic right to life due to the so-called "choice" of the mother (and her medical accomplices) to initiate force against this fellow human being. I certainly agree that libertarians don't believe that there is a moral order to the universe. There is no morality inherent in mountains on Earth or wastelands on Mars. Morality is inherent to the human condition in which man needs to discover how best to live in accordance with his nature. Libertarians generally support the concept of natural rights, derived from an understanding of what best supports man's life as a rational being, and political principles of "classical liberalism" are applications of that understanding. Nowhere in real libertarianism can you find any justification for the murder of dependent persons, whether babies in the womb, infants, or disabled oldsters. Of course, the support of such persons would be the responsibility of family members and associations of benevolent individuals, not the state via tax theft.

Libertarians may not have "cornered the market on rationality," as we do not claim infallibility. But we at least do not try to associate non-libertarian conservatives with the American Revolution and libertarians with the French Revolution. I don't think even the wackier libertarians would be up for kangaroo courts sentencing people to the guillotine for thought crimes. And I seem to remember that the grievances of the American Revolution included most prominently taxation and the oppression of King George's swarms of officers busybodying into American life. There are still conservatives who would gladly serve as tax collectors for the welfare state (even after Reagan supply side successes), and "national greatness conservatives" want to use government for "good" ends, as opposed to the poor policies of the liberals. I would hardly think that TR can be fit into the ethos of the American Revolution. Oh, and let's not forget Madison (foremost writer of our Constitution) and his dislike for "sumptuary laws," the victimless crimes of his day. When conservatives start proposing laws beyond the operation of national defense, police, and courts, they become merely another interest group dedicated to imposing force and theft on their fellow men. I note how many conservatives on the American Spectator blog support John McCain for President, and suggest Mitt Romney for Veep. While I can understand some stretch to support the lesser of evils, this is certainly too far for me. And I doubt that should a President McCain actually be elected (unlikely as that may be), that even conservatives will end up being very happy with the Nixon II outcome. Even his judicial appointments are likely to really disappoint. Some rationality as to long-term effects of a McCain/Romney administration might well be in order here. I see conservatives reacting to their emotional dislike for Hussein Obama, rather than coolly considering the real effects of the alternative on the long-run prospects for a more limited state, and for an eventual protection of the right to life for babies in the womb.
-- Stephen Zierak
Kansas City, Missouri

GOOD BOOK READINGS
Re: Lisa Fabrizio's Big O Losing Big Mo:

The reason Obama and his campaign are collapsing might be found in the Bible's Gospel of Matthew.

To describe the consequences of those who build their lives on Christ Jesus versus those who don't, that gospel records Jesus speaking of the parable of the two foundations. One was built on a rock by a wise man. The other was built on sand by a fool.

When the rains fell, floods came and winds blew, the wise man's house stood. No surprise, though, the foolish man's did not. Jesus' words recorded in the Book of Matthew, in Chap. 7, say, "and it [the foolish man's house] fell, and great was its fall."

Perhaps Obama's supporters, devotees and news-media shills, as well as other Americans, experience now the rude awakening that, undeniably and in his totality, Obama is the house built on sand -- and that they are or might be the foolish man ifthey continue to support and promote him?
-- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, West Virginia

Lisa Fabrizio replies:
"By their fruits you will know them..." (Matthew 7:16)

ON TOUR
Re: Ryan L. Cole's Vietnam Syndrome:

Perhaps my memory (old as I am), is failing me, but I do not recall Kerry serving a full tour in Vietnam. Certainly not enough no where near enough to call extensive. Many of us served at least one year, some much more. Slanted ? Maybe.
-- Msgt Paul L. Chappelle

Letter to the Editor

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