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Conservatives: How do you square limited government with wanting to impose values on others?

Conservatives love to advocate "limited government" and cry about "big government liberals," yet when it comes to social issues like abortion, gay marriage, and overall religious freedom, too many of them want to impose their own values on everyone else who may not necessarily share them.

There's something out there called the 1st Amendment and it has a clause that explicitly outlines the freedom to profess one's own religious beliefs or none at all. Courts have in turn interpreted it to mean just this.

Keep in mind, abortion is not a black and white issue. There are many shades of gray that come into play, like rape, a threat to the life and health of the mother, or incest. To claim that "God wills a rape" or something similar is just absurd.

Update:

@Ollicopter: Abortion is legal but many conservatives are attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade and there have been movements in several states across the country to severely restrict abortion or even render it illegal.

Regarding religion, the 1st Amendment has also been interpreted by the Court to mean not only the freedom to practice one's own religion but also none at all. There is the Free Exercise clause as well as the Establishment clause as they refer to religion.

On gun control, the 2nd Amendment arguably refers to the right of people in a well-regulated militia to keep and bear arms when you read closely. The Founding Fathers could not have envisioned assault rifles, and what gun control seeks to do anyway is not to ban firearms, but merely to impose sensible gun regulations, such as stricter mental health screenings, a ban on assault rifles or at least magazine clips, and also the imposition of background checks at events such as gun shows.

14 Answers

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  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Conservatives are really only supporters of limited government in areas where they want limited government, and then larger government in areas where they want larger government (albeit, the second is disguised as "family values" while the first is advertised as "limited government").

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    Abortion is legal. So saith the Supreme Court. The First Amendment protects people of faith. They are free to practice their faith. A lack of faith is not protected anywhere. The gay issue has been voted down on CA. Would you suppose a majority of voters from CA are conservatives. BS. There are no laws to prevent abortion being proposed. It is already legal.

    On the other hand we do have gun legislation being proposed when we already have two laws on the books that make gun control unconstitutional. So saith the Supreme Court. The left wants to pass the same law that has already been declared unconstitutional over again. Imposition. That kind of fits with infringe does it not? Similar.

    Leftists have laws on the books that they have declared they will not enforce. Immigration. Barrack Obama. The man who swore to uphold support and enforce the Constitution choose only to enforce the law that he likes and to sue those who would enforce them. That is criminal.

    Additional; I hate to break it to you but shall not be infringed means no requirement to keep and bear arm can exist or be named. Not even belonging to a militia. If you understand English it should not have to be explained.

  • Jack
    Lv 4
    8 years ago

    I think abortion is black and white. If me and my gf get pregnant and we feel that we are in no condition to raise a child then who the f**k is some conservative politician to tell me that I have to. The biggest issue I have with people who are against abortion is this. They care more about the fetus then the actual child. If you are unborn and you are somewhere in between 0 and 9 months old the conservatives will fight for you with a burning passion. But once you are born all they do is give you a big f**k you. Once the baby is born they don't give a $hit about you. They don't care who feeds you, who clothes you, who teaches you values, who takes care of you. Nothing. As far as I'm concerned they can all go and screw themselves and their hypocrites @ss.

  • poland
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    "very own Freedom" and "Smaller government" are in basic terms speaking factors to inspire those areas of their balloting base that are habitually incurious. In prepare, they help a central authority that's great sufficient to subsidize the products made via their friends interior the oil industry, award no-bid contracts to protection rigidity provider agencies like Blackwater and Halliburton, and cover up the gross, criminal negligence favourite via their friends in chemical production agencies like Monsanto. so as to drag off the criminal activities they have already got, it demands government effect. yet, admitting to that would desire to make it a procedures too obtrusive. And, so, they declare to advise precisely the different of what they do. interior the advise time, the paper government might particularly be "smaller." yet, the helpful oligarchy of huge company hobbies is particularly working the instruct. you are able to yell "freedom" all you like. yet, it won't replace the actuality that your freedoms have been bought to the utmost bidder (and many times brokered via the GOP).

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  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    It's kinda hilarious that as I sat down to type this, I've spilt coffee down my top! Anyway... Impose our values?! you gone out of your mind or just feeling bold? because its practically illegal to be a white christian male now a days. the librals impose their vi Well, I'm now off to a job interview as a dish washer.

  • 8 years ago

    Libertarians believe in limited government on fiscal AND social matters. This is why conservatives are dead wrong when they call libertarians conservative and say that when libertarians vote for the Libertarian Party that they are "splitting the conservative vote".

  • Ngri42
    Lv 5
    8 years ago

    Impose our values?! you gone out of your mind or just feeling bold? because its practically illegal to be a white christian male now a days. the librals impose their views on children as young as kindergarten.

  • The "limits" they want on government are the ones that prevent them from trampling YOUR rights. Since they are against freedom the most, the laws are against them the most.

  • 8 years ago

    If you wish to complain about members of any and all political parties engaging in logical inconsistency, you'll have LOTS to complain about for the rest of your days. On the other hand, you COULD find something productive to do. ;-)

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    Can we have sharia law also?

    The women are gonna love this when it happens.

    Rape will be a figment of their imagination.

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