Tea Party: Is government taking away my liberty?

Many people tell you government is the antithesis of your liberty. But is that so?

The current rhetoric of the Republicans and Tea Party is that my liberty is compromised by government which is too big. Government that gets too big compromises my liberty. The key question is, "What is liberty?" And "How does one know that government has compromised it?"

The key problem with the Tea Party and with Republican positions on liberty is this: they have no way of distinguishing what is a valid constriction on my liberty from what is not. When government sets rules about how fast we can drive is that a violation of my liberty or is that a protection of my life, which is a protection of my liberty? Or when government says I can’t put my 16 year old daughter in a tank and let her drive down the streets of my town, is that a violation of my or her liberty? Well, yes, of course it is a limitation of our liberty. But we accept and appreciate these kind of rules and restrictions because we are all trying to figure out how to live together without killing each other.

A constriction on my liberty is part of my liberty. Rules make possible an enlarged liberty. Tea Party and Republican “liberty” advocates hide this fact. Our liberties become possible precisely because we have government and rules. That is not to say that government can’t overstep the bounds of what it should legitimately limit. That is possible. But that is a different question from how we set the boundaries over the rules government may legitimately produce and enforce and those they may not. That is much more nuanced than the generic claim that government infringes on my liberty. Tea Partiers and Republicans forget that government also makes liberty possible. And it does so by protecting me from you and you from me and all of us from the Tea Party!