United Liberty
Hey Ann, the War on (Some) Drugs IS a Welfare Program
Sun, 02/24/2013 - 12:16pm | posted by Stephen Littau
According to Ann Coulter, libertarians are “pussies” for wanting to end the war on (some) drugs and for agreeing with the Left on certain social issues such as gay marriage. Coulter was a guest on Stossel at the Students for Liberty Conference.
Coulter elaborated:
We’re living in a country that is 70-percent socailist, the government takes 60 percent of your money. They are taking care of your health care, of your pensions. They’re telling you who you can hire, what the regulations will be. And you want to suck up to your little liberal friends and say, ‘Oh, but we want to legalize pot.’ You know, if you were a little more manly you would tell the liberals what your position on employment discrimination is. How about that? But it’s always ‘We want to legalize pot.’
[..]
Liberals want to destroy the family so that you will have one loyalty and that is to the government.
Clearly, Ann Coulter hasn’t spent much time hanging around libertarians, going to libertarian events, or reading anything libertarians write. The war on (some) drugs is but one issue. The welfare and warfare state receives at least as much attention by libertarians as the war on (some) drugs. Libertarians have certainly been more vocal about the welfare state than the conservatives of her ilk. I suppose when we agree with her on these issues, progressives should say we are ‘sucking up’ to our conservative friends. It couldn’t be that we have our own principles (such as the non-aggression principle which neither the Left nor the Right practices) and our own reasons for having them.
And speaking of destroying families, what does she think the war on (some) drugs does to families? What about the “magnificent war” in Iraq (her words), war in Afghanistan, or war in general? I wouldn’t suppose war plays any role at all in destroying families. There are the multiple long deployments, soldiers coming home physically and/or mentally disabled, or worse, come home in a box. For all the concern about the destroying of families, one would think that Ann Coulter would want to be a little more careful about when troops are called to risk life and limb (maybe she should consider the Just War Theory). I would further argue that the military adventurisim our military is engaging in is its own kind of welfare. Most of what our military does is defend other countries rather than ours.
When respoding to a question from a young woman in the audience asking Coulter why it’s any of her business what someone else puts in his or her body Coulter responded:
It is my business when we are living in a welfare state. You get rid of the welfare state then we’ll talk about drug legalization but right now I have to pay for, it turns out down the pike, your healthcare. I have to pay your unemployment when you can’t hold a job. I have to pay for your food, for your housing…
Coulter went on to say that if not for the welfare state, she would be okay with legalizing drugs.
What does she think incarceration does? When someone is incarcerated, s/he is quite literally being housed, fed, and provided healthcare at the taxpayers’ expense. In California, it costs taxpayers $75,000 per year for each inmate. As terrible as the welfare state is (and yes, it is terrible), I cannot imagine that ending the war on (some) drugs would be any worse for taxpayers as what drug prohibition has done. The drug war costs state and federal government over $30 million per day.
If Ms. Coulter wants to talk about people not being able to hold a job she should consider what wonders a criminal record does for a person’s job prospects. All too often, the only kind of job an ex-con can get is selling illicit drugs which s/he will eventually get arrested and be incarcerated once again. For some repeat drug offenders, the thought of going back to jail or prison isn’t much of a deterrant. It’s ‘3 hots and a cot’ plus security and structure (believe it or not, there are some people who don’t know how to live outside of prison).
Far from being pussies, Ann Coulter, we libertarians have the balls to be consistent in our criticism of the welfare state. Yes, Ann, we should join hands in opposing Obamacare, the out of control welfare state, and reckless spending. Rather than providing drug users food, housing, and healthcare via incarceration, why not join with us and say that everyone should be responsible for their own lives?
With freedom comes responsibility. Is that manly enough for you?
Coulter and about 3/4ths of congress don’t get it,,America is footing the entire war on some drugs,,tax dollars pay the drug warriors and untaxed cash is sent to Mexico to pay the cartels war costs,,last time I checked we,the people were giving the cartels 3 times what the government spends fighting them.
I am no war buff but it would seem that our government is underspending if they really want to win,,why don’t we pend a few more trillion dollars and see if it changes anything.
When any bank can launder billions of dollars in drug money and all they set is a cash fine while someone with a pound of weed goes to prison the peoblem is quite obvious,,you got the money honey and you don’t do no time,,again.
Maybe it’s time for Anne Coulter to stop being an ignorant hypocrite and start being a true conservative —trying to control each and every thing that 350 million people do with their bodies is not small government!
Pragmatic libertarians (minimal-statists) and true conservatives agree that many, if not most, of society’s problems are caused by government usurping choices that could better be made by individuals themselves, and that government is just about the worst way of doing almost anything. Where libertarianism normally parts company with Coulter’s brand of fake conservatism is over moral issues. But a true conservative would have no problem with agreeing that what people do with their own bodies, and especially in the privacy of their own home, should be supremely their business and that anything else would entail ignoring the basic tenet of limited government.
Anne, if you support prohibition then you are NOT a conservative—conservative principles quite clearly are:
1) Limited, locally controlled government.
2) Individual liberty coupled with personal responsibility.
3) Free enterprise.
4) A strong national defense.
5) Fiscal responsibility.
Prohibition is actually an authoritarian war on our economy and Constitution.
It’s all about market and cost/benefit analysis. Whether any particular drug is good, bad, or otherwise is irrelevant. As long as there is demand for any mind altering substance there WILL be supply! The only affect prohibiting it has is to drive the price up while increasing the costs and profits - and where there is illegal profit to be made criminals and terrorists thrive.
We Libertarians are now and have always been RIGHTWING. Newbies to our movement, are completely ignorant of libertarian history.
Goldwater, Rohrabacher, Hayek, Friedman, Hospers, Rand. The libertarian movement in the 1950s and ’60s was totally far right. Hell, Ayn Rand was a Republican political activist for two GOP presidential campaigns.
The only people who mouth that bullshit line, that we’re “neither left nore right,” are leftwing libertarians who have infiltrated our movement and are desperately trying to disconnect us from our conservative cousins.
Ain’t gonna happen. Conservatives and libertarians have always been friens, and will always remain friends, for the simple fact that we agree with each other on 80 to 90% of the issues.
If you watch Ann Coulter’s body language, you can see her laughing when she makes statements against marijuana.
She is either lying and doesn’t know it, or more likely is lying to get a rise out of you.
Jose:
That may or may not be the case. I know that a peon such as myself will never likely convince Ann Coulter that she is wrong on the war on (some) drugs or much else for that matter. I do think her criticisms deserve to be answered because she is (sadly) influential and there are others out there who have a similar misunderstanding about priorities of libertarians. The purpose of this post is to explain why ending the war on (some) drugs ought to be a high priority. There are even some libertarian leaning individuals(who will remain nameless) who thought Gary Johnson spent too much time talking about pot (I strongly disagree). I think I made the case that the drug issue is an important one because it goes well beyond “sucking up to liberals” and has negative consequences far beyond those who participate (one thing I didn’t mention is over half of the prison population is there for drug related reasons).
Ann Coulter is an idiot. I am a liberal and would vote for a republican that wants to legalize marijuana. Not because I want to get high but can’t. Any one who has a kid in an American High School could have them find weed for them thanks to the failed prohibition policies.
The reason I would cross party lines is because the prohibition of marijuana is a symbol of hypocrisy and of a corrupt political system. Anyone who wants to take on our corrupt system AND end a law based on lies (a law the last 3 Presidents broke) will get my vote.
Ann, we are not “Puzzys” for seeing eye to eye on person freedom, you are a “cunz” for not understanding that this is a part of personal freedom.
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