Good Classical Liberal Nebraska

State Senators Make Good Sense

Decades ago, I took an interest is law and read heavily about it, but I found the topic frustrating. The law has many governing processes about fair argumentation and it changes over time. My focus on governments came to have me ask, just what good is force in relationships? Realistically, government is best used against other forces, mostly against violent forces. The rest of the existence of government is about stealing money from people to give to favored political partisans.

Libertarians understand the need for limited government and are often too easily dismissed for partisan and political reasons, but most often their arguments are on target. The war on drugs is an example. Too often, in the effort to combat the abuse of drugs, important freedoms have been bulldozed.

Nebraska is an exception as rehabilitation is heavily supported, but there is still a problem. Merely possession of an item, should not be enough to make it a crime. I do not care whether it is drugs, guns, or evil porn. As long as such items remain inert, there is no reason for government to act. This is has been described as Classical Liberalism , or Libertrianism, but those words are not just. The proper word is propertarianism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propertarianism).

This is where Nebraska still has as a streak of common-sense, even on the left. Three liberal Nebraska Senators, Senators McKinney, Wayne, and Conrad have made a point of telling Nebraska’s parole board to be more lenient on those convicted of only marijuana possession (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/06/21/lawmakers-ask-nebraska-pardons-board-to-speed-up-review-of-marijuana-possession-cases/). I agree. In fact, those charged with a criminal possession of anything should be considered for some modest reduction in sentencing.

Prisons should be reserved for murders, rapists, thieves, and fraudsters. Mere possession is just not a valid crime for incarceration. Black people have largely been a victim of the failure to recognize property rights but this is in part because their ancestors were property. I suspect better information about property rights would instill better protections for people and increase their prosperity.

I still think marijuana should be legal but restricted. The problem now is those exploiting the situation for absolutely any profit they can get are infringing on the goodwill of people like me. I am adamantly opposed to cannibis/marijuana edibles being on the market unrestricted. Such items carry considerably more risk, particularly to children (https://www.healthline.com/health-news/cannabis-edibles-health-risks). Yet, no one locally has raised alarm yet. In Omaha, you do not even have to leave your house, to find offers for such edibles. This is tragic and poses a danger to public health.