"Yes, conservatives, government exists to help its citizenry. It’s purpose is to promote their happiness—their common good. We cannot even properly attempt to achieve this purpose if we are ignorant of its impact on the formation of marriage and morals."
americanmind.org/features/the-e…
americanmind.org/features/the-e…
"Laws do legislate morality. The western tradition the American founders were familiar with held that the kind of regime you lived in formed your very soul, including your ideas about what is just and unjust."
"But even our contemporary traffic laws exist b/c of a shared understanding of the value of human life and our agreed upon need for the enforcement of some kind of group order. And even our traffic laws save lives. Admitting as much does not make you a socialist or a communist."
"These same conservatives proudly and rightly argue that governmental policy and law in the form of the welfare state can deform character. But they cannot bring themselves to admit that good laws can help form the character of individuals, families, and America itself..."
"Obviously, law cannot reach inside a man and make him virtuous. But law does set the environment in which choices occur, encouraging and rewarding good behavior and discouraging and punishing bad behavior. In fact, that’s the very basis for the critique of the welfare state."
"If the Right wishes to win the battle of ideas, it needs to drop the absurd notion that a leader’s words encourage or discourage good character, but the policies he is elected to set do not."
