Republicans Vote to Restrict Liberty

Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. The bill passed 2 days ago that effectively bans the use of credit cards for placing bets on internet gambling sites is a major unnecessary blow to liberty. It is also hypocritical in the extreme and so overtly political that it will backfire.

First liberty. As much as gambling to many people is a vice to be avoided, it is none of the Government's business to look for crafty ways to legislate moral standards. Regulation? Maybe. But why should Americans be made to live to the absolute moral standards of any Congressman? Morality can never be legislated and should be left to family, community, leaders and individual choice. Government's role should only be to insure that one man's freedom does not infringe on another man's freedom.

Now hypocrisy. This one is easy. How many state lotteries are there, and how much advertising is there for these lucrative activities? A ton. So, it's okay for the Government to setup a numbers racket, insure a monopoly by banning the private sector from competing, advertise to disadvantaged and vulnerable widows and orphans, set impossibly stupid odds for someone to win, but its not okay for someone to exercise their free will to play online poker. I wonder if one of the major proponents of this legislation, Arizona Senator, John Kyl (R) will call for an end to lotteries in his state?

Overtly political. Republicans are going to the Karl Rove playbook of 2004 by promoting a social issue to rally conservatives to the polls, as they did succesfully with gay marriage. This time it won't work. Internet gambling is not a big enough issue for conservatives and Democrats won't position themselves in opposition, so it will be a dead issue to the electorate. The beauty of Karl Rove's strategy in 2004 was that gay marriage was actually on the ballot in many states and he knew that conservatives would show up to vote for that issue alone and while there would also pull the lever for Republicans. Internet gambling is not on the ballot, so even if it was a big issue to conservatives, it does not provide any further incentive to get to the voting booths. This is such a badly mangled political move by Congressional Republicans that the electorate will see through it, and they will be angry.

President Bush has not yet signed this wrong-headed bill. I hope that Republicans come to their senses and let it die without the President's signature. The Democrats are supposed to be the party that over-legislates and resricts liberty. If Republicans want to act like Democrats, Americans will vote for the real Democrats. And then the country might get a real gambling ban that will make the current Republicans wish they never started down this road.