Liberalism and morality

Liberalism is about living your own life the way you want and letting others live their lives the way they want.

Conservativism is about living your own life the way you want and making others live their lives the way you want too!

Take the issue of sex toys, for example. Liberals are not bothered by the fact that some Americans may be using sex toys to pleasure themselves in the privacy of their homes, because it has no impact on their own lives, and they don't care what others do in their bedrooms. Conservatives do worry about other people using sex toys, because even though it has no impact on their own lives, they don't want others to live in a way they don't approve of. Thus in Alabama, in 1998 they passed a law that banned the sale of devices designed for "the stimulation of human genital organs."

We live in a free country and we take pride in it. In a truly free country citizens are free to do anything they want as long as it does not infringe the rights and freedoms of other citizens. The government does not exist to decide what is moral and what is reprehensible. The goverment exists to protect the country from foreign aggressors and to make sure one citizen does not infringe the rights and freedoms of another citizen. That's it. In a free country anything that does not infringe the rights and freedoms of another person should be legal, even if it is immoral in the view of the majority. Thus for example, sex toys, masturbation, pornography and prostitution may be immoral to many, but it is not the government's job to prevent it. Marriage and family may be virtuous, but it is not the government's job to encourage it.

It is suitable for authoritarian governments (such as the Singapore government) to encourage marriage, make divorce difficult or illegal, punish adultery, etc. It is not suitable for the land of the free.