Trusting Us with Freedom

by: tim dunkin | published: 08 04, 2013

One of the very few bright spots in an otherwise dismal picture of Republican elected officials nationwide has been the Republican legislature and Governor in North Carolina. Back in 2010, the Tea Party wave swept the Republicans into power in the state General Assembly, giving that party control of both Houses for the first time since Reconstruction. In 2012, bucking the trend set by Obama’s putative re-election, the Republicans further cemented their hold on North Carolina’s government by adding seats in both Houses, and taking back the chief executive office after the scandal-ridden tenure of Democrat extremist Bev Perdue. These legislators were elected by the people of this state on the promise that they would put into effect conservative reforms that had been blocked by Perdue, but which they were now free to act upon once a friendly governor was in office.

Unlike many Republicans (notably those at the federal level), the GOP senators and representatives in Raleigh have actually kept their promises to their constituents once the opportunity to do so appeared. A whole slew of needed reforms were passed and signed into law by Gov. McCrory – voter ID and other voting reforms designed to reduce opportunities for fraud, tax cuts, public school teacher accountability measures, increased regulation of abortion clinics, reforms to entitlement programs that will help to cut fraud and wasteful spending, and more.

As you might expect, this all has angered many on the left-wing fringe enormously. While the legislature was in session (and even now that it is out), left-wing activists were bused in from all over the state to participate in so-called “Moral Monday” rallies protesting against the various laws being passed. (I will overlook, for the moment, how it can be considered “moral” to protest in favor of baby-killing, electoral fraud, and using the force of government to steal from your neighbor – supporting clear violations of the 6^th, 9^th, and 8^th commandments, respectively.) The activists, who numbered a few thousand at most, generally made a nuisance of themselves by repeatedly and purposefully getting themselves arrested, thus further costing the state taxpayers money to incarcerate them. While they did generate a lot of noise and attention outside the state, they don’t stand for what the majority of the state stood for when it elected the Republicans in the first place.

One other reform that the legislature made, however, is what I would like to use as my springboard. This involved changes to the state’s firearms laws which loosened restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. For instance, county sheriff’s departments are now required to abide by uniform rules for approving concealed carry permit applications – urban departments can’t make applicants jump through greater hoops or pay higher fees than rural departments (though keep in mind that North Carolina is a shall issue state, so even urban sheriffs couldn’t outright deny you a CCL provided you passed the background checks).

Another change to the laws – one which drove the Left bonkers – was that the list of places in which concealed carry licensees can legally carry concealed was extended. It is now legal in this state, for instance, to carry a concealed weapon in a bar or restaurant that serves alcohol. Naturally, the TV, radio, and the comments sections of the online portions of every major newspaper in the state were inundated with frenzied and dire predictions that North Carolina was going to turn into another “Wild West” with drunken gun owners shooting each other down over the slightest inebriated provocations. Never mind that the law specifically says that this extension does not apply to you if you are consuming any alcohol at all. Further ignore the fact that this “Wild West” bloodbath has not occurred in any of the other 31 states that allow concealed carry in establishments that sell alcohol. All the same, liberals just assumed – without evidence and without sound arguments – that the very act of bringing a gun into a Chili’s was going to cause this gun to force your hand to pull it out of the holster and shoot the guy at the next booth who just laughed a little too loudly for your liking. Because that’s what all gun owners would do, if you gave them even half a chance to do so.

Which brings us to the crux of the issue – conservatives and liberty lovers, including those elected under the Republican label in the North Carolina statehouse – believe that the average American is an adult who can be reasonably expect in most cases to act like an adult who doesn’t need big government looking over his shoulder 24 hours a day.

Liberals and Democrats don’t believe that.

Instead, liberals and Democrats believe that Middle America – and let’s face it, that’s who we’re largely addressing when we talk about things like “stand your ground” laws, concealed carry, and so forth – is full of yahoos who need liberals and Democrats to micromanage their lives so that they don’t upset the utopia that they’re trying to build.

This is why Democrats and other lefties hate voter ID laws. See, us yokels here in flyover country cannot be trusted to do the “right thing” and vote for liberal Democrats. Therefore, our votes have to be “corrected” by being outweighed by fraudulently cast ballots and stuffed ballot boxes in Democrat-controlled inner city precincts (you know, the kind where 110% of eligible voters cast a ballot).

Indeed, this principle that the Left doesn’t trust Middle America extends to a great number of freedom issues.

Why are small business and property owners constantly hectored by all kinds of land-use and environmental regulations? Because we aren’t smart or mature enough to voluntarily turn our properties into wetlands exclusively for the use of snail darters, that’s why.

Why do the middle and working classes need to be forced into Obamacare? Because we aren’t voluntarily “spreading the wealth around” to pay for “Cadillac” plans for everyone on welfare.

Why should business owners be forced to cater to gay weddings, even if it goes against their personal convictions? Because nobody should be allowed to be “mean” and if we left people to themselves, they might not fawn over the Left’s new favorite token minority group as much as the Left wants them to.

Who do our rights to free speech and a free press need to be curtailed by political correctness and “hate speech” regulations? Because if they weren’t then we would have free rein to say and publish things that offended the Left or made them look bad, stupid, or ridiculous.

And we can’t have that now.

I could go on, but I think the point has been made. Freedom – the ability to do what you want with yourself and your property provided you aren’t harming someone else – is something the leftist “elite” (in both parties) doesn’t trust Middle America with. They want it for themselves, and they’ve got such a hold on the Democrat-voting underclass that that group generally doesn’t want true liberty, but they’re not willing to extend liberty to the rest of us.

The nice thing about the Republicans in the North Carolina statehouse is that they are, by all apparent evidence, willing to trust the people of this state with liberty. Indeed, this is the way it is with liberty lovers in general. We want liberty to be extended to the greatest number of people in the greatest number of circumstances as possible, provided you’re not infringing on someone else’s natural and constitutional rights. We don’t want the government spying on you without a cause. We don’t want the government telling you what to do with your money and your land. We don’t want the government deciding what medical procedures you can get. We don't want the government regulating the size of soda you can buy. We want government off our backs, instead of weighing us down.

And it’s wonderful to see those rare occasions when our elected representatives – the servants of the people – actually trust we the people to use the liberty that we inherited from our forefathers

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  Dixie C.

  Yea, North Carolina. Best news in a long time.

  
  

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