I’ve got a group of friends that discuss all kinds of things on a daily (nearly) basis. One of the topics that regularly comes up is politics, in general. Recently, in creating this blog, I decided to Google for the phrase “core conservative values“. I was shocked at the varied amount of answers… So, I took the conversation to my group of friends.

We’ve obviously discussed this concept in the past. But this time, I made a list of 10 items I felt were most likely agreeable core values. Most of the ideas were happily agreed to, except one… Social/Moral Behaviors…

There were several points of view on the topic. Primarily, the sticking point was whether government should have the ability to legislate “morality”. In the last 20 or 30 years, we’ve all heard it said that “you can’t legislate morality”… But I completely disagree and here’s why.

It is my belief that ALL laws are based on someone’s morals and values. You can look at any law and trace it back to some value in someone’s moral beliefs. Take for instance “murder” or “theft” laws. Those are obviously based on someone’s moral code. Safety laws that relate to driving and operating other heavy machinery relate back to one’s beliefs on rights to life and security. Tax codes relate back to one’s beliefs concerning property and responsibility.

Not only CAN you legislate morality, all laws are exactly that.