Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Too many people in this country do not trust authorities to use their discretion, and would rather address problems through rules. This same impulse gives us sentence guidelines, which take discretion away from judges (and give it to prosecutors, but few people understand that), and zero-tolerance policies, so that six-year-olds can be suspended from school for having butter knives in their backpack.
I don't think this is necessarily a conservative impulse, but it is consistent with the conservative attacks on government over the last couple of decades and with "get tough" politicians who put more energy into campaigning than into governing.
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Dude, have you ever met a liberal who didn't think a regulation or a statute couldn't cure societal ills? Liberals LIVE for making rules.
That's not to say conservatives don't. The Rockefeller Drug Laws are an excellent example of how stupid conservatives can be.
Rules are a simple salve for an idiot who doesn't want to take the time to understand the problem. Hence, blind airline screening regs, banning smoking on San Diego beaches, etc...
The miles of endless codes, regs and caselaw - that we are so litigious and fixated on the lowest common denominator solution to any problem [passing a law] - is a testament to our lack of creativity and intelligence as a society.
