Pubdate: Tue, 18 Jun 2013
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2013 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact: http://www.newsok.com/voices/guidelines
Website: http://newsok.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Michael Barone, Creators Syndicate
Page: 6A

SOCIETAL GUARDRAILS GOING AWAY

Are Americans becoming more libertarian on cultural issues? I see
evidence that they are, in poll findings and election results on three
unrelated issues - marijuana legalization, same-sex marriage and gun
rights.

Start with pot. Last November, voters in the states of Colorado and
Washington voted to legalize marijuana, by a 55-45 percent margin in
Colorado and by 56-44 percent in Washington.

In contrast, California voters rejected legalization 53-47 percent in
2010. These results and poll data suggest a general movement toward
legal marijuana.

State legislatures in Denver and Olympia have been grappling with
regulatory legislation amid uncertainty over whether federal law - and
federal law enforcers - override their state laws.

But marijuana has already become effectively legal in many of the
states that have reduced penalties for possession of small amounts or
have legalized medical marijuana.

Same-sex marriage, rejected in statewide votes between 1998 and 2008
and most recently in North Carolina in May 2012, was approved by
voters in Maine and Maryland in November 2012, and voters then
rejected a ban on it in Minnesota.

Since then, legislators in Delaware, Minnesota and Rhode Island have
voted to legalize same-sex marriage. A dozen states and the District
of Columbia now have similar laws that would have been unthinkable two
decades ago.

To some it may seem odd to yoke together marijuana and gay rights,
generally thought of as causes of the left, with gun rights, supported
more by the right. Yet in all three cases Americans have been moving
toward greater liberty for the individual.

One landmark was the first law, passed in Florida in 1987, allowing
ordinary citizens to carry concealed weapons. Many, including me,
thought that the result would be frequent shootouts in the streets.
That hasn't happened. It turns out that almost all ordinary citizens
handle guns with appropriate restraint.

Concealed-carry laws have spread to 40 states, with few ill effects.
Politicians who opposed them initially, like former Michigan Gov.
Jennifer Granholm, have not sought their repeal.

In contrast, voters have reacted negatively to gun control proposals,
even after horrific events like the Newtown massacre.

What about the cultural issue that most pundits mention first,
abortion? Attitudes have remained roughly the same: Most Americans
think abortion should be, in Bill Clinton's phrase, safe, legal and
rare.

Young Americans, contrary to their libertarian leaning on same-sex
marriage, are slightly less pro-abortion rights than their elders.
They've seen sonograms, and all of them by definition owe their
existence to a decision not to abort.

And from the point of view of the unborn child, abortion is the
opposite of liberating.

Back in the conformist America of the 1950s, marijuana, homosexual
acts and abortion weren't political issues. They were crimes. And
opposition to gun control measures in the 1950s and 1960s was much
less widespread and vigorous than it is today.

Is this libertarian trend a good thing for the nation? Your answer
will depend on your values.

Something to worry about

I'm inclined to look favorably on it. I think the large majority of
Americans can use marijuana and guns responsibly. Same-sex marriage
can be seen as liberating, but it also includes an element of
restraint. Abortions in fact have become more rare over a generation.

But I do see something to worry about. In his bestseller "Coming
Apart," Charles Murray shows that college-educated Americans have
handled liberating trends of the 1970s, like no-fault divorce, with
self-restraint.

But at the bottom of the social scale we have seen an unraveling, with
out-of-wedlock births, continuing joblessness, lack of social
connectedness and civic involvement.

In conformist America the old prohibitions provided these people with
guardrails, as The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger has written.
In today's more libertarian America, the guardrails may be gone.
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MAP posted-by: Matt