{"id":225,"date":"2003-10-23T04:33:22","date_gmt":"2003-10-23T04:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:08:23","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:08:23","slug":"instapundit_oral_sex_and_legitimacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=225","title":{"rendered":"Instapundit, Oral Sex, and Legitimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s immensely annoying to have to write approving things about Instapundit (particularly right after you get Instalanched) – it makes me worry that people will think I’m blog-rolling and whoring for traffic (comments and emails yes<\/b>, traffic no – it costs money!!). But he blogged something near and dear to my heart today over at MSNBC<\/a>, and I think that each of you ought to go over and read it now<\/b>.
\nBack already?<\/p>\n

I know what you’re thinking. You’re a bit titillated that Glenn blogged about oral sex, and otherwise, you’re just going “Yeah, whatever<\/i>.” The commenters over at TalkLeft<\/a> sure were.<\/p>\n

Well don’t.<\/p>\n

Because this is absolutely-damn-important.<\/p>\n

I don’t care if you’re a liberal or a conservative. This issue – the increasingly dense spider web of law and administrative regulation that we find ourselves bound in – screws up your hopes.<\/p>\n

For conservatives, it’s a gimme. The State enmeshes it’s eeevil tentacles deeper and deeper into your flesh…iaaaa, C’thulu, C’thulu<\/i>…etc. By definition, conservatives (as opposed to Republicans, who are fine with regulation if it promotes Christian faith or behavior, regulates unseemly sexual behavior, or subsidizes favored businesses) are opposed to this.<\/p>\n

But liberals need to be opposed as well. They need to be opposed for a variety of critically important reasons.<\/p>\n

First, and foremost, because it makes each of us subject to the arbitrary whim of law enforcement. Remember the notion that law enforcement should be fair? Tough to do when everyone’s a lawbreaker and the officer and agents of the court can pick who they want to stop, and book, and prosecute. I said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The average speed on the 110 freeway (except during rush hour congestion) is over 80 miles per hour. The speed limit is 55; this means that the enforcing officer can select from a huge population of violators at will. Is he a racist? Then black drivers may get cited. Is she mad at her red-haired ex-husband? Red-haired drivers will get red lights in the mirror.<\/p>\n

This kind of law gives incredible unlegislated discretion and power to the enforcers, and makes the average citizen into the average lawbreaker.<\/p>\n

But our political system runs on it…<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But that’s not all. <\/p>\n

Somehow many liberals have become lost in a fog in which legislation is a meaningful substitute for action. I don’t want legislation, I want change<\/b>, and somehow I’m being handed a bill of goods by my legislators who somehow believe I can’t tell the difference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’ve always believed that one of the key problems in our system of government is that we all confuse passing laws with making changes.<\/p>\n

As anyone who’s ever managed people knows, there’s a world of difference between sending memos (or policy and procedures documents) and changing employee behavior.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Look, if you’re a liberal – and I hope that at least a couple of the people rewarding this are – when you petition the State to act on an issue, what do you want? Do you want better schools, or a thicker book of regulations and an entire bureaucratic armada to (selectively) enforce them? And in so doing, neither accomplish the goal (which is supposedly why<\/b> you want something done) and arm the opposition with another host of arguments for why liberalism is ineffective, intrusive, and immoral?<\/p>\n

And for both liberals and conservatives, because it attacks legitimacy, that critical web that ties us together into a polity. Reynolds talks about how “ the law loses prestige.<\/i>” I don’t think that’s a strong enough statement (although he’s a law professor, so maybe it means more to him than to me). Legitimacy is critical<\/a>, and sadly in short supply these days.<\/p>\n

To sum up<\/a>:<\/p>\n

So … pass a law … get a photo op … accomplish nothing. This is worse than just ineffective. It is worse because the presence of this vast body of unenforced law both breeds contempt for the law (decline in legitimacy) and creates a kind of bureaucratic leverage over each of us, as we are caught in a web of selectively enforced laws.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s immensely annoying to have to write approving things about Instapundit (particularly right after you get Instalanched) – it makes me worry that people will think I’m blog-rolling and whoring for traffic (comments and emails yes, traffic no – it costs money!!). But he blogged something near and dear to my heart today over at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}