By ratifying homosexual choice as part of society's evolution, Gillespie seems prepared to deny the rest of society their equal right to affect that evolution as they see fit. If Gillespie's comments represent contemporary libertarianism, it is not difficult to see why libertarians have such a difficult time in the political marketplace.
Whitney H. Galbraith
Editor
Rights In America
Colorado Springs, CO
The first two issues of REASON to show up in my mailbox left me feeling vaguely uneasy. I now understand why: There is no reason behind REASON. With no appeal to natural law, you have lost all force of moral persuasion. Nothing is left but personal preference. If my preference is otherwise, you can only whine in the wind or else bring down on me the compelling force of the state, which appears to be against your preference (today).
Personal preference, even though espoused by the majority, is a rotten basis for public policy. Personal choices usually have consequences that impact other people, and conversely, public policy guides personal choices. When marriage is nothing more than an adult consensual relationship, nobody has the motivation to work through the difficulties necessary to make it work in tough times as well as good, and if we cannot keep our commitments to family, what motive is there to do so for work or the neighborhood or the country? Children who have not yet developed moral habits understand this far better than adults. That is why the only reliable predictor for crime in the streets in the United States today is the lack of fathers in the home. We need one man and one woman, married and committed to each other. No civilization in recorded history has survived the breakdown of traditional marriage. We will not be the first.
The whole purpose for marriage benefits in the workplace and from government is to encourage that social good, and (by implication) to deprecate the alternatives. IBM lamentably has joined Disney and AT&T in being part of the problem; Congress, for a change in this one case, is becoming part of the solution.
"Wedding Bell News" misses the point, which is that the government has no business trying to shape social policy through tax policy in the first place. The benefits accruing to heterosexual marriage through the asinine, though admittedly warm and fuzzy, actions of our government were an attempt to provide for the well-being of the family, consisting, it was thought, of a man and a woman and their offspring. If the government had been willing to allow employers to pay employees whatever they were worth, in cash, and employees to know that they were going to have to take care of themselves, this whole question of homosexual marriage would be moot, since there would be no cash value to the institution.
Heterosexuals, homosexuals, molesters of beasts of the field, onanists, and those who have found other alternatives, all have exactly the same rights, and they are listed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. All else is tinkering. What is needed is not globules of gushing goo about how they should have just as many rights and privileges as them, poured forth in order that we may stand back and exclaim "what a good boy am I!," but a determined effort to drive government out of the business of running our lives. That accomplished, those people who stole the word gay and made it into something dirty won't have to whine and whimper; there will be no profit in it.
R.L. Fenerty
Turbotville, PA
Nick Gillespie replies: Why is it that few topics arouse more ire than those relating to homosexuality or, more precisely, public policy as it relates to gays and lesbians? My editorial did not examine whether the various government subsidies to heterosexual marriage, such as tax breaks, were a good thing. Asinine wouldn't be my first choice as an adjective, but I essentially agree with R.L. Fenerty that such policies are misguided.
However, I believe Fenerty misses one of the major functions of matrimony by assuming that gays merely want to realize the "cash value to the institution." Apart from potential tax savings (or penalties, depending on the relative earnings of the people involved), marriage also serves as a public declaration of feelings -- and an acceptance of the various rights and responsibilities explicitly and implicitly spelled out in the marriage contract. If the federal government wishes to promote "responsible" behavior (as it always claims to), the Defense of Marriage Act strikes me as an odd bit of legislation.
In general, I also agree with Whitney H. Galbraith that the government should not be "free to coerce Americans into legitimizing" behavior which they find immoral and distasteful, and that citizens have "fundamental rights to conscience, privacy, association and dis- crimina[tion]." Those are reasons for advocating a minimal state -- no one should be forced into supporting something they decry (including, perhaps, heterosexual marriage). Better we have a neutral referee that allows individuals and voluntary associations the greatest latitude possible in living their lives (the limit being, of course, infringement on others' equal rights). Galbraith, however, mistakenly draws an equivalence between a private employer and the state. IBM can only set policy for its employees and perhaps its customers, both of whom can leave whenever they want. While private employers should have a much freer hand in setting policy, the government, precisely because it has a monopoly on force, must be held to a different standard -- one that rejects simple majoritarianism as a means of setting policy.
Tom Pittman accuses REASON of having "lost all force of moral persuasion" by espousing naught "but personal preference." What can I say? Perhaps the moral argument that individuals are ends in themselves doesn't move Mr. Pitt-man, whose recourse to "natural law" is opaque at best. His invocation of the "traditional marriage" certainly doesn't move me. Traditional in what sense and for what period? The institution of marriage continues to evolve over time; as Ludwig von Mises has pointed out, for instance, the idea of a marriage contract that treats men and women as equals is a relatively recent development and "a branch of the great liberal movement." Mr. Pittman's conflation of marriage with child rearing ignores the fact that many heterosexual couples cannot or choose not to have children. Apparently, his "natural law" would dissolve such "unnatural" arrangements. Finally, although tax laws make non-wage benefits relatively cheaper for employers and employee alike, businesses do not offer compensation of any kind primarily for a "social good." They do so to hold on to productive workers in a competitive marketplace.
Trade Disputes
In his review of my book Opening America's Market: U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776 ("Trade Happens," January), Ramesh Ponnuru misrepresents my views. He asserts that "Eckes attributes the election of the Republican Congress in 1994 to public anger over the North American Free Trade Agreement," and then attempts to ridicule that interpretation. Unfortunately for Ponnuru, he attacks a straw argument. Nowhere in the book do I make that simplistic claim. My interpretation is more complex: "Economic insecurity, including anxiety over globalization, job losses, and declining living standards, contributed importantly to this outcome."
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
nfl jerseys|11.16.10 @ 3:10AM|#
cfgyhn