I like having political debates and discussions. I live in New York so liberal thought dominates the political conversation in this town. From all the people who I’ve talked to about politics who consider themselves liberal or progressive, I have concluded that they mean well.

It is often that I will agree with them on certain issues but, it is what we feel the role of government should be that differs and leads to disagreements. I recently had a political discussion at work. We talked about a lot of things and the conversation veered off course several times as most political discussions tend to–at least in my experience they do.

One particular topic that we touched upon was child labor laws. I don’t believe that the federal government should be passing laws making it illegal for children to work. The ultimate authority should rest with the parents and the child. 

I would not send my child to work and would prefer that they were learning at school–preferably private or home school. However, I am against the existence of child labor laws. I am generally against legislation outside of those necessary to protect life, liberty, property, etc. Being against child labor laws does not mean I intend or want to send all our kids to work at places that are going to take advantage of them.

My main point throughout the discussion was that we don’t need more laws and that passing a law does not suddenly make things so.

The fault with most modern day Democrats and Republicans is not they intend to destroy our country and all the freedoms that we cherish but, they don’t understand liberty. Both parties talk about it and when you meet a conservative or a liberal they will talk about liberty and freedom but, will not hesitate to support a law that is designed to enforce their point of view on the rest of the country–that is not liberty.

I think homosexuals should be allowed to marry. I don’t think the government should be involved in marriage at all so passing a law that allows or disallows gay marriage is ridiculous. I would be against either legislation but, I think homosexuals have the right to marriage. I also feel that if a church doesn’t want to wed a homosexual couple, they have the right not to and if they do want to wed a homosexual couple, they the right to. The government should not be involved at all.

The only thing the government needs to do is enforce contracts–in this case it is the contract of marriage. Contracts are freely written for all kinds of things without government approval so why does marriage need to be approved? Anyone capable of writing a contract should be allowed to marry any two–or more–people as long as someone is willing to do it.

Liberty is being able to do whatever you choose without violating the liberty of others. The war of political ideology would be nonexistent if we could just understand liberty. The only ideology that matters is one where you live your life as you see fit so long as you respect other people’s right to live as they choose.

That is what liberty is all about.