Sally Kohn Doesn't Understand How Laws Work

Fun read by Sean Davis over at The Federalist. Be sure to head over there and read the whole thing. It includes his twitter back and fourth with her and some from blog favorite Charles Cooke.

In a column for TPM, liberal media personality Sally Kohn asserted that it makes no sense to say the government is forcing people of faith to violate their consciences, because government can’t force you to do anything:

You may have heard that the government is forcing businesses not to discriminate. It isn’t. If you chose to run a business, you have to follow the laws. If you don’t, that’s a choice—and you choose to suffer the consequences.

Americans don’t pay taxes out of the goodness of their hearts. They pay taxes to avoid force in the form of government fines or levies. We don’t generally drive the speed limit because it’s fun to go slow. We do it to avoid fines and arrest, an act which requires literal physical force. Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t end up in a Birmingham jail cell because he longed for the quaint, cozy confines of prison. He ended up in that cell because police forced him into it for the crime of peacefully protesting segregation. That’s how laws — even vile ones like those of the Jim Crow era — work. Blacks didn’t choose to use different water fountains or lunch counters. They were forced to do so by police, hoses, and dogs.

Oh and speaking of The Federalist, Gabe's doing something with them. A podcast I think? I don't know, I wasn't really paying attention when he was talking about it. You can find a link to it here.

posted by BenK at 11:03 AM

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