Sunday, July 28, 2013

where are the real civil libertarians?


The two party system has created a principle schism in the American political landscape.  The limitations of this means that unless you are aiming to be marginalized, you must compromise on your principles to fit into one of these two groups.  One of the casualties of this structure is the authoritarian/libertarian axis of politics, which is orthogonal to the current alignment of political parties.  It can be seen explicitly on sites like the political compass.

One of the appeals of the Tea Party during its formative years, was an alternative that crossed political boundaries to embrace libertarian ideas.  Their core focus was making government smaller and less intrusive in our lives.  But the movement got co-opted by the far right.

I genuinely seek a government that doesn't intrude in our lives... so I thought a good test would be the recent vote against restricting the NSA from sweeping powers to spy on Americans who have done nothing.  Counting the votes from the Tea Party, this can help me decide what kind of organization it is.


Tea Party member's votes on a bill limiting the powers of the NSA:
For (27) Against (20) Abstain (1)

For: (27)
Joe Barton
Rob Bishop
Diane Black
Michael Burgess
Paul Broun
Bill Cassidy
Mike Coffman
Jeff Duncan
Blake Farenthold
Stephen Fincher
John Fleming
Louie Gohmert
Tim Huelskamp
Lynn Jenkins
Doug Lamborn
Kenny Marchant
Tim McClintock
Gary Miller
Mick Mulvaney
Rich Nugent
Steve Pearce
Ted Poe
Tom Price
Phil Roe
Dennis Ross
Steve Scalise
Joe Wilson


Against: (20)
Rodney Alexander
Michele Bachmann
Gus Bilirakis
John Carter
Ander Crenshaw
John Culberson
Trent Franks
Phil Gingrey
Vicky Hartzler
Steve King
Blaine Luetkemeyer
David McKinley
Randy Neugebauer
Steven Palazzo
Ed Royce
Pete Sessions
Adrian Smith
Lamar Smith
Tim Walberg
Lynn Westmoreland

No Vote: (1)
Howard Coble

One the one hand, these results surprised me... I had taken a more cynical view of the Tea Party in recent years, and am actually quite pleased to see that a majority of them voted for the new restrictions on the NSA's secret powers.  Compared to the 40% of republicans on whole who voted for the amendment, 56% of tea party members voted for it.  On the other hand, 55% of democrats voted for this measure, which really doesn't distinguish the Tea Party's libertarian credentials.



As a side note, Chris Christie came out strongly against the libertarian position, calling it dangerous.  In the words of Benjamin Franklin, he who trades liberty for security deserves neither.  That is a deal breaker for my support in the 2016 presidential cycle.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

George Zimmerman and Blackstone's formulation

On October 3rd, 1995, my 9th grade Geometry teacher dialed the radio in to the reading of the OJ Simpson verdict.  This was a case that captivated the nation, scratching the still fresh racial wounds centuries in the making.  Everyone had a strong opinion, and I found myself thinking that it was obvious that he was guilty.  How else did he get her blood in his car?  Why else would he run from the police?  He certainly had motive and opportunity.  When the verdict of "Not Guilty" rung through my ears, I was stunned.  How could anyone believe he was not guilty, after what had been presented?  But there were droves of people who believed he was innocent, and that I was a fool for believing him guilty with the same evidence laid out before them.

Flash forward to this past week.  The nation again found itself gripped in a trial laced with racial undertones.  George Zimmerman had undeniably shot young Trayvon Martin, a young black man he had believed to be a neighborhood thief.  But he claimed to have done it in self defense.  Again, I lined up the facts of the case, and could only conclude the verdict was correct.  If he had thrown the first punch, he was guilty as sin... if Trayvon had... then his claim of self defense was valid.  The prosecution had done very little to prove who had done that.  They should have looked for autopsy evidence that Zimmerman had struck martin with a punch, but they couldn't.  If he had made up his story on the spot, it certainly fit well with the physical evidence and witness testimony... so it seemed plausible.  When Zimmerman was set free, I was not surprised at all.  However, many across the nation rose to protest that an injustice had been done.  Injustice.

How is our justice system supposed to function here?  I think in both these trials, reasonable people could look at the body of evidence, and come to very different conclusions.  Regardless of what horrible thing has happened, we must be sure of ourselves when we reach a verdict.  We must not compound one injustice with another.  It got me thinking to Sir William Blackstone, who in 1765 stated "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer".  This is fundamental to how we must approach justice.  We convene juries that must reach a unanimous decision, because if reasonable people can disagree about the innocence of a person, then only injustice can result from an arbitrary result.  The benefit of doubt must lie with the accused.

George Zimmerman is a free man today.  It may be because he truly acted in self defense.  It may just be because the prosecution couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt otherwise.  The same could have been said for OJ Simpson.  And either result strengthens my faith in our criminal justice system.  We live under the rule of law, where personal biases of an individual are trumped by collective certainty in the outcome of a trial.  And for that, I am thankful.