The Road to Hell is Paved with Politicians' Good Intentions

by Jim Dexter (Utah)

Excerpts of address given during Freedom Forum of the IAP National Conference, January 27, 2001, Murray, Utah.  Mr. Dexter is State Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah.

If you're familiar with Gilbert Sullivan at all -- but if not, I will tell you that this gentleman walks around, and he says I'm a genuine philanthropist, and he goes on to describe how what he does as he points out every glaring error and defect in human-kind. And he doesn't understand why they don't appreciate being told that they chew with their mouths open, or they scratch their noses, or something like that. He just doesn't understand why everyone rejects him.

The reason I bring this up is because politicians make their hay by pointing out the defects of our society. The horrors that go on, the hideously down-trodden people, that we are responsible for; and only they can save. They blame us for the problems; say we have to elect them and get them up there to do that. And its always some kind of chicken-little argument, you know, the sky is falling, or this group is being led into utter death, or this is happening to the children, or this is that or that. Whatever it is -- and they are the only ones who can save us from this.

Gun  Control

In the United Kingdom, I discovered today, the Parliament will soon debate a bill which will allow potential criminals to be locked up before they commit any offenses, based on psychological interviews. Now, you say, what?, Britain, bastion of the Magna Carta, freedom and liberty, all that good stuff? Forget about it. This is a country where there is a farmer serving a life in prison for shooting two teenagers who invaded his home. And the premeditation was that he kept a shotgun. Therefore, he intended to kill. Not to protect his home, he just intended to kill. And that is how things have gone totally and completely haywire over and over.

According to a speech that Charlton Heston gave in Oxford, gun crime has gone up 11% a year for the last six years, ever since they banned guns. The traditionally unarmed British bobby now walks around with a weapon. Things in old Britain are not the same as they were, because of these wonderful good intentions.

Miller -- the famous Miller case, the only case that has ever gone to the Supreme Court -- Miller was a moonshiner. And a couple of treasury agents, revenuers as we liked to call them, caught him with this sawed-off shotgun. That's the only thing -- they couldn't get a still, so they decided to arrest him on a sawed-off shotgun charge. Now he and his lawyers showed up to defend the case before the Supreme Court. 

Nobody went to the Supreme Court and said, "Yes, a shotgun is a legitimate military weapon. We used them to sweep the trenches." In World War I, they were commonly referred to as trench brooms. So, not knowing that the military used shotguns, the Supreme Court came down with this decision that said that the Second Amendment did not protect this particular arm. And henceforth, a lot of very bad legislation.

Then we got the National Firearms Act of 1934 following the end of Prohibition. They decided, well, this Gun Control thing could really catch on, so the National Firearms Act of 1934 was to take the machine guns away from everybody. Nobody had ever been shot with a machine gun, but they took them away. And I'm talking about the big ones. There were still Tommy guns, and we know they were used by the gangsters. But the gangsters -- and the only thing about gangsters, is they only tended to kill themselves. That was then. That was when we had gangsters with honor, before the government got involved.

Safe to Learn, Safe to Worship petition

Now this brings us to something which is called the Law of Unintended Consequences, which has been laughed at up on the [Utah Capitol] Hill. There is actually a legislator up there who has known that there is such a thing called the Law of Unintended Consequences. And he tries to remind his fellow legislators to be careful what you wish for, be careful what you pass, because it may not turn out to do exactly what you want -- in fact, it may have the opposite effect.

We have another well-intentioned law -- they have this petition going out -- the Safe to Learn, Safe to Worship. Okay. They want to make our schools as safe as Columbine, and they want to make our churches as safe as Fort Worth. Because Columbine had a "no guns in school" law, and Fort Worth had a "no guns in churches" law. That is what happens when you pass these laws. All you do is disarm the honest people -- and government won't be there to protect you. 

In fact, courts have upheld the right of government not to protect you. The Supreme Court has said the government has no obligation to come to your rescue. You cannot sue the police if you're being broken in on. You cannot sue the fire department if your house burns down. Government, which says, let us be be the guardians, will always fall through and not be there when they are supposed to.

Hate Crimes Law

Now we have another bill upon the Hill. A Hate Crimes Law -- which is going to give special status to groups -- everybody, males, females -- everybody but white males. Okay, lets put it that way -- everybody, but white heterosexual males. I'll put it that way. Okay? And that's fine, because people will know we're not including non-includers. Because, after all, we want to be inclusive. Right? 

But there you have bad intentions.  Because what it does, it lets the politicians go to every little group and say, "Hi, I'm here to protect you. They --over there -- those bad people -- they want to do bad things to you. But I'm going to protect you." And every little group is getting divided up. And you know, you're going to have a hard time deciding what group you're in pretty soon. I mean, the census was used to give the Indian's rights, or whatever. Its absolutely crazy. But they want this.

George Orwell

It strikes me how right George Orwell really was. We have 1984 -- he was off on the date -- but, look what we have now. We have Newthink -- total Newthink. Well I notice that one of the things on this invitation [to some event] -- that we want to repeal the 2nd Amendment -- where Teddy Kennedy chastises John Ashcroft for favoring the 2nd Amendment. He says John Ashcroft should be ashamed of himself for his defense of the 2nd Amendment. That is a complete and thorough outrage. But Teddy Kennedy is using Newthink. 

And we have Newspeak too. Newspeak is political correctness. Newspeak is political correctness because -- lets take one of my favorites, which is calling a handicapped person "specially-abled" -- it totally reverses the situation. Instead of taking someone from a position where you might have sympathy and want to help him, you raise him up -- often to the detriment of the handicapped person.

And then we have revision history, which is what Mr. Smith's job was. If you read "1984," Mr. Smith spent all day rewriting history. That's what he did. What was the current position on the government? We now rewrite history to support it. There's a book by a guy who is a professor, who says that nobody in America ever owned a gun. Proof is his scientific research. 

That's all crap. You know it and I know it. The liberals are flocking to it. He gets on Oprah Winfrey. He's spreading this stuff all over the place. Its amazing -- how many guns there have been in this country, and still are. But this guy gets up and -- Newspeak, Newthink, revision history. No, that's not what George Washington had, that stuff was put in later by some fanatic from the NRA. We didn't have any guns.

Constitution

So we -- where we disagree, we disagree -- and where we agree, we agree very much. We have to work together to bring about a government that will obey -- and I love your Pledge to the Constitution -- that will obey the Constitution. Notice that most politicians take the oath that is patterned after the president's, which is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. 

Back in Eisenhower's era, they built a vault in the Smithsonian Institution, they hermetically sealed the Constitution inside. They lower it down every night, surrounded by troops, so that it is preserved, protected and defended. And by the way, while its locked in that vault, you don't have to pay any attention to it. That is what they do up in Congress.

Ron Paul has a bill right now, that says that every bill should have something on it that says what part of the Constitution supports it. Its not going anywhere. These people don't want to be bound down to the chains of the Constitution. So when we go forth with the zeal to correct things, and to make things right, let us do so with the understanding that government is force, government is coercion, government inevitably bungles and botches everything it tries. And tell the government to stay the heck out of the churches.

The churches do not need, by the way, a law from the government saying that you can't carry a firearm. The churches have the right to say that without government interference, just as any homeowner does. But no, the politicians always want to look like they are coming to the rescue, riding a white horse, coming with some law that will make you say, hurrah. 

On July 14, 1993 a man walked into a West Valley [City, Utah church] ward house, fired his pistol into the air, and held the congregation of some 300 captive, while he grabbed his wife and pulled her out. And there wasn't one person there who could stop it. Be careful what you wish for. Because its going to backfire. Thank you.