VIDEO: How a true conservative debates (in case you have forgotten)
No bluster or self-aggrandizement, and a focus on limiting the power of government.
Via Chris Pandolfo at Conservative Review, Senator Mike Lee Reminds Us All What It’s Like to Watch A Conservative Debate:
At Wednesday night’s U.S. Senate debate at Brigham Young University, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah was asked about the extremely difficult and polarizing topic of religious liberties versus LGBT rights.
In the debate, against Democratic challenger Misty Snow (the first transgender nominee for a major party to run for U.S. Senate), Lee’s answer demonstrated why he has a perfect 100% Liberty Score®.
“What is the proper balance between religious liberties and the rights of lesbian gay, bisexual, transgender citizens? Are we near the balance now, and if not, what would you advocate?” Sen. Lee was asked.
The junior Senator of the Beehive State knocked it out of the park (19:28 of video):
Thank you very much for your question. This is an important issue. It is important to understand there are two different types of discrimination we see in our society. One type of discrimination, private, is when two individuals interact. Another type, public, is when government itself discriminates against its own disfavored citizens based on some characteristic disfavored by those in power.
Both are forms of discrimination and can be deadly and ugly … some of the worst things we’ve seen. But between the two, public discrimination is perhaps the most dangerous, for the simple reason that when government is disfavoring people based on their characteristics that government doesn’t like, people don’t have any choice. They can’t not interact with their government. There is a disparity in their power and ability to resist, because government, particularly the federal government, operates with overpowering force.
It’s what governments do. It’s why they exist. That’s why we got to be very careful whenever government starts to discriminate on the basis of a disfavored religious belief. I am convinced that LGBT writes and religious liberties can thrive in the same environment. The government needs to take a position of nondiscrimination. It is not going to discriminate on the basis of religious beliefs, and it will treat all citizens, regardless of race or sexual orientation, with dignity.
Notice how the focus of Sen. Lee’s answer is on the government, and the abuses that come from an overreaching and overpowered governing force. He emphasizes that the role of government is to protect the rights of all citizens, treating all human beings with the dignity they deserve.
Read the rest, and watch the video below, for some more questions and answers, in case you have forgotten how a true conservative debates.
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Comments
Typo alert: “LGBT writes”
I don’t see anything terribly “conservative” here.
“Dignity” is another one of those arbitrary and imaginative rights, an innocuous wedge which sounds harmless enough until it’s invoked to justify all sorts of outrages, and saddling somebody (or everybody) else with arbitrary obligations … particularly if the government can force you to wallow in it.
If you’re talking about limited government, you’ll have to leave out vague feel-good stuff like that. Our basic American concepts of civil rights, as outlined in the first ten Amendments, is based on specific and concrete concepts. I can’t be forced to quarter troops in my house. They can’t force me to do it if they do it with dignity; they can’t do it, period. Arbitrary search and seizure is right out, even if it’s dignified. My right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed even if the infringement is dignified. I have the right to associate with my fellow citizens, even the ones who aren’t terribly dignified and won’t treat anybody else with dignity. I can write a very undignified letter to the newspaper without risk of being jailed or fined.
This stuff is all relatively specific, and “dignity” is not the motivating factor for any of it. That is a conservative belief.
Is Misty Snow a DUDE?
“True conservatives” are losing on every battlefield. Nice sounding words and all, but the enemy says, “I don’t believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate.” So we hand them the Supreme Court so that “True conservatives” can feel all smug in their moral superiority while being losers.
Besides, if it takes Mike Lee that long to make a point then he’s already lost the debate when it actually takes place in less than 30 second soundbites and 140 characters.