Government Regulation


It strikes me that the very same people who want to relieve business of the burden of regulation (and public responsibility) want to tightly regulate the rights of public assembly, free speech, and public petition. Parks and squares are public places intended for public enjoyment and public assembly (planned and spontaneous). If some people had their way, we'd all be confined to "free speech zones," areas cordoned off and surrounded by cops where we can do or say whatever we want, but only because it doesn't matter.

I'm tired of people on the left, especially liberals, falling for the old big versus small government argument perimeters set out by the right. The left is even more interested in limiting state power than the right. The right is only interested in limiting government power when it comes to property rights. In so many other areas, such as policing private morals and "security," the right is eager to expand the role and size of the state. The left wants to limit the war-making powers of the state. It wants to limit police powers, to make the state accountable before the law, and it is the left, not the right, that wants to ban the state from bedrooms and living rooms.