Tyrants, tyrants everywhere
by digby
My piece at Salon today talks about a little dust-up down in Texas between the liberty loving freedom lovers and the authority loving cop lovers in the conservative coalition:
One would be hard-pressed to find another state which prides itself more on it’s commitment to freedom and liberty than Texas. It is so determined to make its citizens “free” that it is now in the process of allowing people to openly carry guns pretty much anywhere they choose, including college campuses. (What could go wrong?) It is, after all, the home of the libertarian elder statesman Ron Paul and it prides itself on its low taxes and low regulations.
But Texas is also a very traditional conservative state with a strong sense of loyalty toward the military and police authority. A belief in law and order doesn’t begin to describe its justice system: it has, for instance, executed nearly five times as many people as any other state in the modern era and it’s leaders are unapologetic about that. No one can accuse Texas of being soft on criminals.
One might think these two values would clash, what with guns being everywhere and the police having to try to keep order while ducking all the flying bullets. But it doesn’t seem to be a major problem. The police are not putting up much of a fight against gun proliferation, anyway. So “freedom” in Texas seems to be safe, at least as far as the 2nd Amendment is concerned.
The 1st Amendment? Not so much.
While gun toting extremists have nothing to fear from the authorities, The Houston Chronicle reports that some Republicans (are there any other kind?) in the Texas State House are extremely bothered by the idea that a citizen might film the police in the course of their duties… read on.
There are fault lines in the conservative movement that are very interesting watch. Respect for authority is baked into the cake of conservatism — it’s the foundation on which it’s built. But the libertarian boys aren’t quite so thrilled with the uniforms telling them what to do. (Remember Cliven Bundy?) It will be interesting to see how this sort of thing plays itself out. If you read the piece you’ll see that the same people who threaten the gun control folks are using the same language against those who want to regulate the filming of police.
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