At the same time Gallup has released numbers that Americans believe the country’s moral outlook is bleak, another D.C. type has been taken down by sex — or, more accurately, the hypocrisy of having sex when running on moral rectitude. The Washington Examiner’s inimitable Nate Beeler has a humorous cartoon running right now:
Of course, the seemingly endless cavalcade of polticians caught in flagrante delecto isn’t the capital’s only love affair with cross-dressing politics in tones of morality. It’s almost always the moralists who will try to ruin the lives of others by claims of moral failure, right before their own lingerie-covered skeletons come tumbling out of the closet.
This is especially a concern for advocates of limited government, and it forces a tough moment to recognize that we have to defend our values through logic, rather than through the law. Many in Washington love to demand government that is just small enough to fit under the doorway of our bedrooms. Take, for instance, the Department of Justice prosecution persecution in D.C. this summer against a mainstream pornographer. Reason has the story:
So which is the bigger threat, a porn producer you don’t have to buy from or a government that can make unpopular opinions disappear? Interestingly, Gallup figures from this week show that among the many concerns people have about America heading in the wrong moral direction (you kids get off my lawn!), pornography rates right with government policies in making matters worse:
The takeaway for small-government advocates: you can turn off porn, but you can’t turn off a government that doesn’t like Americans being turned on. If we want strong moral values, the answer doesn’t come through politicians and prosecutors — it comes from parents and the community. Let’s drop the attack on free speech and focus on talking more to our kids about the values we hold.