LETTER: Coercive policies

In his commentary published in the Dec. 14 Review-Journal (“Brave New World”), Pierre Lemieux of InsideSources.com discusses political polarization and argues that it grows alongside the expansion of government. He notes that opposing sides often have conflicting desires, needs, values and priorities, and that government policy inevitably becomes a one-size-fits-all solution.

While Mr. Lemieux acknowledges that each side disagrees over the causes of crime, homelessness, poverty, rising prices and other problems, he stops short of addressing a deeper source of division: The effort by one side to impose its values — and therefore its rules — on the other. That is where disagreement turns into coercion.

The clearest and most controversial example is abortion. One side insists that its belief should govern the personal decisions of others, effectively declaring, “You do not control your own body because I disapprove.” At that point, the issue moves beyond shared social obligations and becomes intensely personal.

When government enforces one group’s personal moral beliefs onto others, it politicizes what should remain a private matter. A free society should not compel individuals to live by someone else’s personal convictions.