[acb-hsp] A Visit to Paulsville

[peter altschul]

A Visit to Paulsville
  Michael Gerson
  WASHINGTON -- Before last week's South Carolina Republican 
debate, Ron Paul supporters complained that their candidate was 
not getting the first-tier attention his polling and fundraising 
should bring.  It is true that Paul has often been overlooked and 
dismissed, as one might treat a slightly dotty uncle.  But 
perhaps some first-tier scrutiny is deserved.
  Paul was the only candidate at the debate to make news, calling 
for the repeal of laws against prostitution, cocaine and heroin.  
The freedom to use drugs, he argued, is equivalent to the freedom 
of people to "practice their religion and say their prayers." 
Liberty must be defended "across the board." "It is amazing that 
we want freedom to pick our future in a spiritual way," he said, 
"but not when it comes to our personal habits."
  This argument is strangely framed: If you tolerate 
Zoroastrianism, you must be able to buy heroin at the quickie 
mart.  But it is an authentic application of libertarianism, 
which reduces the whole of political philosophy to a single 
slogan: Do what you will -- pray or inject or turn a trick -- as 
long as no one else gets hurt.
  Even by this permissive standard, drug legalization fails.  The 
de facto decriminalization of drugs in some neighborhoods -- say, 
in Washington, D.C.  -- has encouraged widespread addiction.  
Children, freed from the care of their addicted parents, have the 
liberty to play in parks decorated by used needles.
  Addicts are liberated into lives of prostitution and 
homelessness.  Welcome to Paulsville, where people are free to 
take soul-destroying substances and debase their bodies to 
support their "personal habits." But Paul had an answer to this 
criticism.  "How many people here would use heroin if it were 
legal? I bet nobody would," he said to applause and laughter.  
Paul was claiming that good people -- people like the Republicans 
in the room -- would not abuse their freedom, unlike those others 
who don't deserve our sympathy.
  The problem, of course, is that even people in the room may 
have had sons or daughters who struggled with addiction.  Or 
maybe even have personal experience with the freedom that comes 
from alcohol and drug abuse.  One imagines they did not laugh or 
cheer.
  Libertarians often cover their views with a powdered wig of 
18th- and 19th-century philosophy.  They cite Locke, Smith and 
Mill as advocates of a peaceable kingdom -- a utopia of 
cooperation and spontaneous order.  But the reality of 
libertarianism was on display in South Carolina.  Paul concluded 
his answer by doing a jeering rendition of an addict's voice: "Oh 
yeah, I need the government to take care of me.  I don't want to 
use heroin, so I need these laws."
  Paul is not content to condemn a portion of his fellow citizens 
to self-destruction; he must mock them in their decline.  Such 
are the manners found in Paulsville.
  This is not "The Wealth of Nations" or the "Second Treatise on 
Government." It is Social Darwinism.  It is the arrogance of the 
strong.  It is contempt for the vulnerable and suffering.
  The conservative alternative to libertarianism is necessarily 
more complex.  It is the teaching of classical political 
philosophy and the Jewish and Christian traditions that true 
liberty must be appropriate to human nature.  The freedom to 
enslave oneself with drugs is the freedom of the fish to live on 
land, or the freedom of birds to inhabit the ocean -- which is to 
say, it is not freedom at all.  Responsible, self-governing 
citizens do not grow wild like blackberries.  They are cultivated 
in institutions -- families, religious communities and decent, 
orderly neighborhoods.  And government has a limited but 
important role in reinforcing social norms and expectations -- 
including laws against drugs and against the exploitation of men 
and women in the sex trade.
  It was just 12 years ago -- though it seems like a political 
lifetime -- that a Republican presidential candidate visited a 
rural drug treatment center outside Des Moines, Iowa.  Moved by 
the stories of recovering young addicts, Texas Gov.  George W.  
Bush talked of his own struggles with alcohol.  "I'm on a walk.  
And it's a never-ending walk as far as I'm concerned. ...  I want 
you to know that your life's walk is shared by a lot of other 
people, even some who wear suits."
  In determining who is a "major" candidate for president, let's 
begin here.  Those who support the legalization of heroin while 
mocking addicts are marginal.  It is difficult to be a first-tier 
candidate while holding second-rate values.
  Michael Gerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Post on 
issues that include politics, global health, development, 
religion and foreign policy.  Michael Gerson is the author of the 
book "Heroic Conservatism" and a contributor to Newsweek 
magazine.