How much control should the government have over an individual’s life — most of the Republican presidential nominees offer differing opinions.

On the surface, candidates Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul, Rick Perry and Mitt Romney all believe in reducing the size of government. Government, in their opinions, should have less influence on individual freedom. But this attitude seems inconsistent when compared to their other beliefs. As a result, the major GOP candidates confuse voters who are paying attention to what they say.

All of the major candidates argue that the unborn have the same rights as everyone else. Mitt Romney, who once claimed that the government should not legislate abortion, now says he is firmly against abortion and would support nominating Supreme Court justices who share his view. Romney says that he ‘believes in the sanctity of life, from very beginning until the very end.’

Romney, in 2002, advocated for a mandatory death penalty for convicted first-degree murderers in Massachusetts. Should Romney truly believe life is sacred from beginning to end, he would oppose capital punishment — regardless of how brutal the crime.

Ron Paul argues that ‘if you are going to protect liberty, you have to protect the life of the unborn just as well.’ Paul opposes the death penalty. Michelle Bachmann has no definitive stance on the death penalty, but she agrees life is sacred from the beginning to end.

Paul and Bachmann continue to claim that government needs to have less of a role in people’s lives. Giving the government the ability to rule over every pregnancy seems unfitting of a small government.

In a recent debate, Wolf Blitzer confronted Paul with a hypothetical situation — a man who was healthy but unable to afford health care. The man suddenly needed intensive care but could only survive if the government assisted. When Blitzer asked if society should let the man die, several members of the crowd shouted ‘yeah.’ Paul argued that the values of the country rest in individual liberty; the choice to buy health care was offered to the man.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has stated that the unborn have a right to life and has advocated for a law that would require women who want abortions to view their fetus on a sonogram. But a crowd at a recent debate applauded Perry when it was stated that Perry had authorized 234 executions. Much like Romney, Perry also has a double standard on how much control government should exercise over individual life.

The conflicting viewpoints of candidates leave us with a few conclusions. The candidates have not figured out their own feelings on these matters, or they are trying to cater to voters’ inconsistent beliefs. Alternatively, voters may not yet realize their potential candidates’ inconsistencies.

Those who do not pay attention to these contradictions will end up with candidates who are more concerned with protecting the quality of life for the unborn than for providing adequate health care for those already living. President Barack Obama and the GOP candidates have not offered a concrete solution to fixing health care costs. The GOP candidates have simply promised to strip the law of its effectiveness and ensure that an estimated 46 million Americans remain uninsured.

None of the candidates can be considered in favor of smaller government. More importantly, their self-professed adherence to small-government principles do not place the public good over all else.

Harmen Rockler is a junior newspaper and political science major. His column appears every Monday. He can be reached at horockle@syr.edu.

 

Published on September 24, 2011 at 12:00 pm