Fascists!
[Kathryn Jean Lopez  02/23 01:33 PM]

An e-mail (my subject line was purposely and unfairly over the top):

I believe that what Geraghty was getting at, was that this is why some people think that conservatives are totalitarian, or anti-freedom. When and where one moves is generally considered to be a personal decision, outside of the realm of politics, and hence of normal political judgements. It is also generally considered to be morally neutral, at least most of the time.

Geraghty's point obviously was that "crunchies" were trying to dictate personal decisions with no obvious moral component, and as such were acting as totalitarians. Obviously, all political philosophies try to tell people "how to live", but usually not at this micro level. People may expect this of a religious philosophy, but not a political one. And if the argument is made that there is no real divide between religious and political prescriptions... well, I'm afraid that only increases the validity of Jim's point.