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December 04, 2004

Force and Government

These days, I can really sympathize with Ronald Reagan's old saw about him not leaving the Democratic Party, but the Democratic Party leaving him.

Never one to consider the possibility the government might not have a role in an issue, John McCain is now telling Major League Baseball to test for drugs voluntarily or else. I can recall a time when the Republican Party stood for keeping the federal government out of people's business, but that seems like a very long time ago. Now Senator McCain has decided that whether or not baseball players use steroids is the business of the federal government. There's not much left the federal government isn't supposed to regulate, apparently.

I have mixed feelings about steroid use in baseball, as I suspect many fans do. While I'd rather see players not using the drugs in principle, obviously I've still enjoyed the sport for years when players are using the drugs, so it doesn't really appear to have reduced my enjoyment of the game. Players like Ken Caminiti demonstrate the unfortunate risks steroids pose, but plenty of people take unfortunate risks in life; I don't see it as the purview of the federal government to prevent that.

This article arrives at an interesting time, as today I also read this fascinating article about the true nature of moderation.

I frequently get into disputes with my father regarding the true nature of government. We disagree on what backs government: I argue that it is force, but I'm never able to convince him of it. Poretto lays out the case more cogently than I've ever managed, demonstrating that any time we decide to ask government to regulate something, we're giving it the power to use force to control that thing. Which tends to undermine the case of people like Senator McCain to use the power of government to attack issues that are so far outside the realm of proper governance.

Let's think about this for a minute: McCain thinks that it is fitting and proper that the government use its monopoly on force to regulate a sports issue. While I'm sure we can all disagree on precisely where the fine line should be drawn between using force and standing aside, it frightens me to think that too many people either don't understand government well enough to realize that we're crossing that line, or that they simply don't care.