Republicans have long professed support for private property rights and the free market. Increasingly, they are abandoning both principles and are becoming a gang of traitors and hypocrites. Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican from Colorado, provides a recent example.
The Congressman has introduced three bills that will “reform” antitrust laws. Big Tech is among the targets of Buck’s bills. Buck cited Google as a monopoly that is controlling the dissemination of information and censoring content. His “solution” is to dictate how social media companies must operate their businesses.
The right to property means the freedom to produce, use, and trade material values. It means the freedom to do with one’s “stuff” as one chooses. And this is precisely what Buck and his ilk find objectionable. They don’t like how Big Tech is using its “stuff,” and they want to use the coercive power of government to compel social media companies to act as the conservatives desire.
The operative word in “free market” is “free.” Freedom means the absence of government coercion. It means that one may act as one deems best without interference from the government. It means a separation of state and economics.
Buck and his fellow conservatives mouth support for property rights and the free market. But when they don’t like the choices that others make, they are more than willing to use force. They want to force Big Tech to act as they—the conservatives—demand.
These conservatives are traitors and hypocrites. They are traitors for turning their back on the principles upon which America was founded. They are hypocrites for advocating ideas in contradiction to their professed beliefs.
Republicans would be wise to heed the words of Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” We may not approve of the decisions other individuals make, but we must defend their right to make and act on those decisions. Freedom does not apply solely to those with whom we agree.