Give It To Them Straight Up

Jim Henley makes a timely post (for me personally, at least) in light of a discussion we had in our office on Friday about how some libertarian opinions scare off a lot of people who might otherwise join the cause. While referencing the Hudson decision, he then points out that the drug war (well, ending it) is the big issue for libertarians:

...It’s the “realistic” so-called libertarians who show up in one or other forum to chide the movement for marginalizing itself by pursuing the “fringe issue” of drug prohibition. But realistically, drug prohibition is the whole political ballgame. It drives the aggrandizement of police power and the paring of civil liberties. It establishes precedents that generalize to other law enforcement issues. It exemplifies and undergirds the principles of the Loco Parentis state. It is everything any libertarianism worthy of the name must not only oppose, but make central. There is no area of American life where the state said more clearly, “We must be free to kill you with impunity to protect you from making bad choices.”

Amen. I refuse to water down my principles just to make the libertarian tent a little bigger. That's what the mainstream parties have been doing for years, and it's created a political system where anyone with a chance of winning stands for absolutely nothing outside of an extremely narrow band of 'safe positions'. I'd rather state my beliefs clearly and have it repel some people then welcome them in by not admitting that ending the drug war is a big deal if you care ONE BIT about civil liberties. I'd rather be on the outside looking in then sell my soul to the median voter in hopes of gaining entry to a party where unwarranted power, control, and corruption carry the day.