Government Plays Social Conservatives Like a Fiddle

November22nd
Government Plays Social Conservatives Like a Fiddle
Tom Woods

Bob Vander Plaats, a leader among social conservatives in Iowa, is unimpressed by Ron Paul's views on marriage. Why, he should support federal government involvement in marriage if he has any kind of moral compass, says Vander Plaats.

Here is precisely what I meant when I said on the Steve Deace Show, an Iowa-based radio program with a large evangelical audience, that conservatives seem to be in the habit of waiting for the Left to do something, and then, when it's gone on long enough, treating the Left's innovation as the "conservative" position. Throughout the history of Christendom marriage was removed from the purview of government. This was a matter for churches and civil society.

It was only during the French Revolution, which was not undertaken by people sympathetic to Bob Vander Plaats, that the state began to insist on being involved in marriage. This was an outrageous intrusion. Now that it's gone on for 200 years, conservatives are actually defending it, and implying only a leftist hippie would disagree.

http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/government-plays-social-conservatives-like-a-fiddle/