Ann Coulter's CPAC Error

The Republican Party leadership is blind to the future; the party caters to its aging base while ignoring the younger generations. They are running a political deficit just as recent Republican administrations ran large budget deficits. This blindness is nicely illustrated in Ann Coulter’s recent address to CPAC. After giving a witty presentation she took some questions. The second half of the Q and A session displays contempt for the young -- and for the future of conservatism. See the video here (or below if I get the embed to work).

OK, so maybe adopting Ron Paul’s foreign policy is unrealistic. While we have our share of bungles playing world policemen, imagine if China took over that role. Imagine Burma, or Sudan...and shudder. So I am not suggesting that conservatives adopt a libertarian foreign policy. And certainly wouldn’t recommend going pro choice as some libertarians desire. The Right needs its religious faction as well. But I am greatly disturbed by this remark:

In fact, I always maintain that I’m more libertarian than most libertarians. I just wish they would stop babbling about legalization of pot. Because we have, before we get to that, we need to get to the elimination of the Agriculture Department, the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce, the EPA...

Sorry, legalizing pot is orders of magnitude more important than abolishing the Agriculture or Commerce departments. Paying a few extra tax dollars to raise excess soybeans pales in comparison to going to jail. The EPA might even be worth keeping -- for those who give a damn about the future; i.e., the young.

Does the Republican Party want to be the party of “getting government off your back?” When you are in jail or on probation, government is very much “on your back!”

Coulter somewhat realizes that marijuana legalization is part of the small government package, but she qualifies the sentiment with this zinger:

We’ve got a lot of work to do before we get to the perfect libertarian state where people can take drugs and I don’t have to pay for them when they can’t get a job.

Um, Ms. Coulter, quite a few drug users have jobs. In fact, in some industries, such as Hollywood -- you know, the last remaining industry where U.S. exports dominate the world -- marijuana smoking is endemic. Maybe they ought to lay off the scotch and take up pot smoking on Wall St. They couldn’t do any worse.

OK, it is true that some people smoke too much dope and get lazy thereby. And this population might go up a notch if pot was legalized. And a few of those lazy hippies might collect a welfare check. Well, here is an idea, and it’s straight from the Bible: deal with it.

Jesus was a hippie. He and his followers couch surfed across Judea criticizing the ungenerous rich. In between free meals bummed from leading citizens of the towns they visited, they made use of the gleaner laws, part of the welfare system of the day. They picked ears of corn from fields they did not plant. These were able-bodied men; they had access to the best healthcare in human history. Yet they collected welfare.

And this points to another lesson conservatives need to learn: welfare per se does not lead to laziness, crime, and broken families. Conditional welfare does. Expend too much effort making sure welfare recipients deserve some meager largesse, and people will get good at being poor, ill, and without family. A safety net that bounces the able back into the workforce must be generous enough to feed a few undeserving hippies. Study the Old Testament welfare system for ideas on how to do be kinder and gentler without becoming a RINO. Do so and the party might get a few more of those low income Christians needed to form a majority coalition. You cannot build a majority recruiting at the country club.