Positive Liberty

…from Libertarian Party congressional candidate Kevin Craig. It turns out he’s not actually in favor of castrating homosexuals, as he implied earlier. But he is all in favor of letting child molesters go free:

As a radical libertarian, I believe child molestation should be “legal.” Whatever you do in your bedroom is no business of jackbooted thugs from Washington D.C. But I’m also a Christian, and as a Christian libertarian, I believe I have the right to evict a child molester if he’s renting the bedroom from me. That could well be illegal under current “anti-discrimination” statutes, which prohibit landlords from “discrimination” against tenants based on “sexual preference.”

…In a Christian libertarian Theocracy, child molestation will be unacceptable. But violence will also be an unacceptable response to child molestation, which is why it will be “legal” — that is, no government violence will be meted out against perpetrators. But segregation of child molesters and children will be acceptable, so there will be ways to accomplish this. Child molesters will be boycotted.

Where do they find these people? Does the Libertarian Party run some kind of “worst possible candidate” contest?

I believe that every adult has rights to interact freely with other consenting adults. I believe that these interactions can be of virtually any nature, and that what they do is none of my business, provided only that there is informed consent, and that no one else is involved.

I do not believe that a child can give meaningful consent to sex, and I believe that children are limited in their rights simply because they are limited in their ability to understand what they are doing.

I also believe that rapists forfeit their rights to a significant degree: It’s okay to punish rapists. It’s deserved and therefore it’s right. Indeed, under an anarcho-capitalist system, I would probably choose to pay a protection agency to make all the neighborhood rapists suffer. And, although I know not all libertarians agree, I tend to believe that this would be — by another name — a government.

I suppose that that makes me a bad libertarian in Mr. Craig’s eyes. I can live with that. Really, I can. He continues,

Let me ask you a question, Jason: How libertarian are you really? Do you believe Christians should be free to discriminate against homosexuals in their own businesses or contractual relationships? Do you believe Christians should be free to publish negative information about homosexuality which is calculated to persuade people not to tolerate homosexuals in their business or contractual relationships? Would you be willing to repeal all government laws against “discrimination” (including “discrimination” based on “sexual preference”) and grant these freedoms to Christians in exchange for the abolition of all government anti-sodomy laws?

I imagine he thinks I will say no to one or more of these questions. Actually, I’d say yes to all of them, and I’d agree to the deal offered in the last sentence. I oppose hate crimes laws, and I think that antidiscrimination laws for gays and lesbians are a mistake. We can prevent discrimination simply by convincing people that it is irrational and that it’s a bad economic decision. As recent events have demonstrated, this argument is winning out in corporate America. It’s winning because it makes good economic sense not to discriminate, a fact I have noted in the past. I think, then, that in a perfectly free country, where there are no government-arranged incentives to discriminate, my ideas would win out against Mr. Craig’s, and that if faced with the question in a free market, most people will decide that it does not pay to hate homosexuals — or indeed to hate anyone who doesn’t actually harm them. Hating homosexuals, I should note, is just what Kevin Craig thinks that we all should do.

And of course I think he has a perfect right to think this. I am a libertarian, after all. He even — bless his heart — has the right to run for Congress.

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