RUSH LIMBAUGH: Prostitution "is against the moral code of conservatism."

That's not immediately apparent to me. Rush's argument is that prostitution undermines the family and helps organized crime. I suppose the family-based argument has some validity, but it's incomplete: it says nothing about unmarried people without families who could engage in a consensual exchange. ($5,500 an hour indicates that both parties are VERY happy with the deal they're getting. I don't see why government should stand in the way of blocking that commerce.) When using a prostitute causes families to break up, that's a matter between spouses. Government should only get involved when it's crafting policies and has to make a choice between supporting strong families or not considering them.

The argument that it causes organized crime is bunk. The criminality causes the organized crime, so getting rid of its criminality--and allowing these things to be regulated and organized under the rule of law--will get rid of the organized crime aspect. A desire to fight organized crime is no reason to support anti-prostitution laws--it's a reason to abolish them!

I just don't see why this issue has some inherent moral conflict that is necessarily core to conservatism. It may be against the morality of Christianity, but only Russell Kirk would argue that conservatism is necessarily a Christian philosophy. We openly refer to the "Judeo-Christian" traditions of this country, but increasingly Hinduism has proven itself a compatible religion for conservatism. (Something which both Edmund Burke and Hindu-cum-Catholic Bobby Jindal would possibly agree with.) I remain iffy about Islam and Buddhists, but contingent only upon the degree to which either religion can embrace individualism and the imperfectability of man and his earthly institutions.

I'm digressing again, but I'd really appreciate it if a commenter could explain to me how conservatism, as a philosophy, should have a problem with prostitution qua prostitution--NOT the specific case of Governor Spitzer.

UPDATE: I listened to Rush some more and a caller asked why conservatives in the GOP were so fixated on enforcing their morality upon others. It was an awkward and bumpy exchange, but it ended with the caller asking where in the Constitution it permitted prostitution to be regulated, and Rush saying, "That's beside the point, it doesn't matter, there's a huge block of people in this country who want it from their political leaders." I have yet to read a conservative thinker who believes that majority-makes-right. That's why we HAVE a constitution, sir.
Jake McGuire | 1:15 PM | 2 comments|