Dealing With What's "Bad for You"

What is the role of government in protecting us from things that are "bad for you"?

Repugs like to attack liberals as "nannies" for using the government to protect Americans from bad things like poisoned food, toxic chemicals, polluted air and water, dangerous products, etc.

But Rick Santorum is now calling attention to the repug obsession with using the government to protect Americans from things repugs think are bad: birth control, women controlling their own bodies, sex for pleasure, and now pornography.

Both liberals and conservatives seek to use the government to regulate away things we don't like. The only difference is each group's list of things that are "bad for you."

See the difference between things liberal think are bad and should be regulated, and things conservatives think are bad and should be regulated?

No, it's not just that repugs want to regulate out of existence anything that helps us have sex for pleasure.

It's that liberals want to regulate bad things that individual people can't stop on their own. Specifically, liberals want to stop corporations from harming Americans without their knowledge and outside their control. In other words, liberals want to restrict the freedom and liberty of corporations in order to increase the liberty and freedom of individuals.

Conservatives are fine with corporations killing people left, right and center. It's individuals doing their own thing without hurting anyone else that conservatives can't stand and are doing everything they can to eliminate. Conservatives want to restrict the freedom and liberty of individuals in order to increase the liberty and freedom - and profits - of corporations.

Which is, of course, why conservatives always claim to be defending individual freedom and liberty - they don't want anyone to figure out that they are doing the opposite.

A far-left radical liberal came up with this simple liberal response to repug demands to control individual liberty:

I have a dramatically simpler idea.

Rick, if you're against pornography, then don't watch it.

You see how that works? Let me give you some more examples.

If you're against contraception, don't use it.

If you're against abortion, don't have one.

If you're against Moslems, don't become one.

If you're against gay marriage, don't have one.

If you're against unions, don't join one.

If you're against universal health care, just keep your distance from doctors and hospitals.

If you're against homosexuality, then feel free to limit your sexual interest to the 3 billion human beings of the opposite gender.

What I'm basically trying to say to Rick Santorum, and everyone like Rick Santorum, is this: mind your own business.

Courage,
Alan Grayson

Unfortunately for conservatives, "MYOB" doesn't work with the corporate bad behavior liberals want to stop; minding my own business won't stop carbon emissions from baking humanity right off the planet.