2010 Elections: Leyton for Attorney General

(By Andrew MacKie-Mason)

The last time I wrote about the Attorney General's race, I wasn't sure who I was supporting. I've still been unable to learn anything about Gerald T. Van Sickle, so as far as I'm concerned he's out of the race.

After an email conversation with Daniel Grow, I'm even more convinced than before that he would be a poor choice for Attorney General. He doesn't think that the government should ever interfere in economic matters, but keeping businesses in line is one important job of the Attorney General. He also has a very extreme version of property rights that he says would guide his actions as Attorney General:

Rule One: Every person is the proper owner of his own physical body; Otherwise, would it not constitute a case of slavery, and is slavery not unjust as well as uneconomical? Rule Two: Every person is the proper owner of all nature-given goods that he has perceived as scarce and put to use by means of his body, before any other person; if not the first user, than second or third, or everyone? Rule Three: Every person who, with the help of his body and his originally appropriated goods, produces new products thereby becomes the proper owner of these products, provided only that in the process of production he does not physically damage the goods owned by another person. And last, Rule Four: Once a good has been first appropriated or produced, ownership in it can be acquired only by means of a voluntary, contractual transfer of its property title from a previous to a later owner.

There are many dangerous implications of this philosophy, which I'm willing to go into more depth on if anyone wants me to, but that I think are relatively obvious.

And, from a law enforcement perspective, Daniel Grow advocates possibly one of the worst ideas possible in the modern state: privatization of the police force. Finally, Daniel Grow would continue the wasteful and basically meritless lawsuit against the federal government's health care bill if elected.

For these reasons, I encourage everyone to vote against Daniel Grow on Tuesday.

So, the choice is now down to Bill Schuette and David Leyton. Both are too prosecutorial, and neither recognizes that the true aim of the Attorney General should be justice, not convictions. But what's going to sway my vote on this one is the fact that Bill Schuette has pledged to continue the, as I said above, "wasteful and basically meritless lawsuit against the federal government's health care bill."

For that reason, I recommend that anyone in Michigan who thinks that health care is a basic necessity and who doesn't want the state's money wasted on a political lawsuit should vote for David Leyton for Attorney General.