More and more states are considering drug testing as a
condition for receiving unemployment benefits. Bills are being introduced in
statehouses across the country by Republicans who offer a variety of muddled
rationales for their actions that defy the simplest tests of logic. As civil
liberty activists have pointed out time and time again, Republicans are
spending taxpayers’ time and money addressing a non-existent problem.
This drug-testing frenzy is an interesting and telling
contrast to one of the top stories of the moment, gun control. On the one hand,
you have fervent gun owners who insist that any infringement on their right to
own weapons is government intervention and intrusion of the worst kind, while
on the other you have Republican state legislators wanting to know what you’re
doing in the privacy of your own home while you collect unemployment benefits.
The irony is painfully apparent. Although Republicans claim
to be the party of personal freedom and limited government, they have no
problems using the federal or state government to pursue their ideological goals,
whether it’s drug testing or abortion or prayer in schools.
Actually, I’m all for drug testing, if it includes our state
and national political representatives. Pee away.
No comments:
Post a Comment