Sherry and I went to the NM Progressivist's "Oxford Style Debate" in Santa Fe tonight. The debate topic, "Cut Education and Public Services or Raise Revenues" was poorly framed, since it left the affirmative a choice. "The State of New Mexico should raise taxes rather than cut spending," would have been better, but the debaters certainly didn't mind, and their arguments would have fit my restatement just as well.
(Stay with me, I'll get to the definition of Rights... eventually.
Standing for the statist/progressivists, they were former Richardson Cabinet Secretary Kelly O'Donnell, State Senators Eric Griego and Jerry Ortiz y Pino, and AFScummy Lobbyist Carter Bundy. Our intrepid warriors for economic liberty were former candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination Doug Turner, Rio Grande Foundation head and libertarian writer Paul Gessing, and freshmen New Mexico Representatives Alonzo Baldonado -- drafted 5 minutes before the event began -- and Conrad James.
Sherry is a former college scholarship debater, and after a quick review of the rules, she pointed out one certain to be violated: no new arguments to be introduced during the rebuttal phase. She was right, of course, as both sides would proceed to smash that one to smithereens during their very first rebuttal speech.
The rest of the audience came with their axes ground and honed to the finest of edges, and really didn't care a whit for the rules or who said what unless it drew blood for their side. I know that's how I felt, anyway.
"Let's get to the voting!" we thought, because our job was to determine the winner.
"And the cookies. We know these arguments and have heard them a thousand times." That's what everybody but Sherry was thinking, including me....
But Sherry was there for the sport, and in her element, so when the fur began to fly, she gleefully took notes to score the participants.
No. I'm not going to do the blow-by-blow description. The debate will run on KUNM Monday night, I think. The vote was a foregone conclusion, given the venue, so I won't keep that a secret, but if you insist on listening without knowing the result, don't skip to the bottom of the page below my signature. You can take my word on it, the voices of economic liberty carried the day, no matter how stacked the house. Sherry scored Conrad James the highest, but that may be because he's taller than I am. And smarter. She's big on smart.
The most important idea of the night was germinating in Sherry's brain all the while I wolfed down the free cookies, guzzled the free coffee, and cruised the gas stations of Santa Fe looking for the right price for my 17 gallon tank of gas -- $60! As I headed the gas guzzler down I-25 for Bernalillo and Corrales, she had her Kindle out and was playing word games to occupy her hands while that brilliant subconscious mind worked.
I supplied the topic. "I really hate the way Eric Griego so gratuitously identified government services as rights," I said.
Bam! That steel trap mind slammed shut on the idea of the century. "You know," she said, "rights are those powers you would have if you were all alone on a desert island."
Blinded by her brilliance, I was lucky not to drive off the road. She went on, "Rights are those things you could do if no-one was there to stop you. Speak your mind. Write your thoughts in the sand. Own the products of your labor. Keep anything you wanted in your hut. Rights are things with which other people, no matter how powerful, ought not interfere. Not a single one of those involves forcing someone else to do something for you, like build you a house, or give you food, or treat your illness without payment. That's slavery."
No matter how long I worked to explore those ideas in depth, I'm sure I could never do it any better than she did in just a few seconds.
It's not hard to understand why I love her so!
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Debate results are below. Be sure you want to know!
The damn fool statist/progressivists in the audience outnumbered the economic libertarians by 66 to 39. Needless to say, that's how the vote came out. Well, I suppose Sherry might have scored it for the left on points. It's possible.
But I doubt it.
