Freedom

There's a lot of talk these days about freedom. It is an election year after all, and all of the candidates would like to convince us that they believe in the freedom they preach about. We are, after all, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Are we though? I guess that comes down to where you fall on the spectrum of political beliefs. I'm a liberal - I make no qualms about that. There are a few things that puzzle me about the conservatives though. They're the ones that are fighting for a candidate these days.

As a student of political science, a conservative believes in personal responsibly, limited government, a free market, individual liberty, strong national defense and traditional American Values. They also believe that the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals and conservative policies generally emphasize the empowerment of the individual to solve problems.

Gee, this sounds swell you're thinking. Even I, reading that, think - this is not bad. These are all good things. After all, who doesn't believe in traditional American Values? What's wrong with a Free Market? What's wrong with empowering individuals to solve problems? Nothing - if you give them the appropriate options to solve those problems. Only offering one solution to a problem does not empower an individual.

Let's examine for a moment what the conservatives screaming at the top of their lungs are trying to do these days.

They want the Federal Government to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
They want the Federal Government out of Healthcare.
Most of them want abortions outlawed.
They believe that more guns in the hands of more people will help to lower crime.
They believe in securing our borders and preventing illegal immigration with a fence.
They believe that the Constitution does not officially sanction the separation of church and state and see no issue with God being a part of or system.
They believe in lower taxes and a smaller government, with limited power.

So...how is it that they want the government to ban same sex marriage? How is it that they want to tell women that they can't get birth control or have an abortion? How is it that they want to determine what's appropriate to watch on television or view on the internet? How is this limited government? If a conservative truly believe that the government, specifically the federal government, should not be intruding on their personal affairs, how does this sync up? I don't get it.

How can you be so passionate about freedom and yet want to decide whom I can marry, what I can watch or view or what a woman can do with her body if she's pregnant? How is that free?