Nathan J. Robinson in Current Affairs:
It is tempting to label Gadsden a hypocrite for designing a flag endorsing freedom from violent coercion while personally depriving others of their freedom through violent coercion. But Gadsden was not a hypocrite. He was just evil. His principle was that he and his fellow white property owners ought not be made to do anything they didn’t want to do. The flag says nothing about whether Black people ought or ought not be trodden on. Similarly, there is nothing peculiar about a “Blue Lives Matter” flag next to a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag. The combined message of the two is: please tread on someone else.
“Small government for me but not for thee” is the right’s implicit motto. Frank Wilhoit put this pithily when he said that conservatism consists of the single proposition that: “There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” […]
Thus, conservatives are not really sincere when they say they believe in “small government.” What they mean is that they believe in small government when it comes to anything that could restrict them (conservatives generally but also members of the privileged in-group) from doing as they please. The lovers of liberty, however, want the government to be omnipresent and carry heavy weaponry in order to regulate all kinds of behaviors of other people.