Don't Imitate Progressives 

It would be a shame if Conservatives used the occasion of their victory at the Supreme Court today in seeing Roe and Casey overturned if Conservatives repeated the mistake of Progressives in passing laws that do not pass constitutional muster or in nationalizing state issues. Matt Walsh tweets that the next step is a national law banning abortions. I think that would be a mistake. 

It would return us to the problem we have had for 50 years--trying to impose one morality on a diverse society. In the various states there are majorities for policies ranging from abortion on demand up until the moment of birth to banning it from the moment of conception. By the mere fact of a law being national in scope it makes it inevitable that fewer people will get the policy they want, whatever that policy happens to be! 

And since we have relied on the originalist interpretation of the Constitution to effect a momentous victory, we are ill advised to, on the very morrow of victory, set about trying to enact a policy which ignores the Constitution. Where in the Constitution is the Federal government granted the power to regulate abortion? Of course, one could torture the Commerce Clause into making it confess to granting the power to regulate abortion to the Congress, but it would be a false confession. 

 

 Citizens Talk to Each Other

I link to a National Review article about the reactions of supporters and opponents of abortion. It details some conversations between people on different sides of the issue and it made me think: now those conversations matter. 

What has been so insufferable about this judicial diktat is that it has turned us into subjects instead of citizens. It has turned us into rival mobs shouting slogans at each other. The incentives are all wrong. 

There is no incentive but to make a public spectacle showcasing each side's passionate adherence to their side's most extreme position. There is no incentive to moderate one's position or to compromise. To the extent the public is involved at all, it is only to create the impression that there will be violence and blood running in the streets if the case doesn't go their way. It is a catalyst for extremism. 

In normal politics the incentives run in the other direction. It is in one's best interests to put forward a moderate proposal. It is best to deal amicably on all issues with everyone you deal with because everyone is a potential ally on some issue. 

But the most important thing is that it is a degraded condition. To live under laws that you have no hand, no voice, in making, is the office of a subject, not a citizen. 

 Rejoin the civilized world

That is my new slogan. Some of the things that progressives push in America are just unknown outside of America in other first world countries. 

Open air drug markets/homeless camps

Voting without photo id.

Prohibit mail in voting. 

No abortion on demand up until the moment of birth (ok, it's not prohibited in North Korea or China, but I did stipulate the civilized world). 

Having to get a prescription for birth control pills, update.

Undemocratically determined laws on abortion.

Do not give education ministers SWAT teams.

Pass a basic privacy law like all the nations of Europe (Snowden interview with John Stossel). 

Do not mandate the covid vaccines for children. 

Make individuals the owners of their personal data and require interoperability of platforms in line with the European data law. 

Restrict transgendered care. 

Don't provide health insurance through employers. 

Continuing updates