Secret Sin Theory of Politics

I have thought for a long time that many peoples' politcal principles are dictated by what moral hazard they most fear they will succumb to. I now find there are kindred spirits; this is excerpted from a Jacob Levy post at The Volokh Conspiracy:

...it took a certain kind of mindset to, when confronted with libertarian ideas, immediately spring to the question "What about a man humping a dead boy dog? Shouldn't that be illegal?" And he'd run into this sort of thing a lot, had had more conversations about necrophelia than seemed remotely in order...

He went on to generalize this to a "secret sin" theory of politics-- that people form their political views on the basis of a generalization of their own deepest darkests ... So: if you think it's only the law that keeps you from plunging into a life of full-time sexual depravity and debauchery, you become a moralistic conservative. If you think it's only the law that keeps you from becoming Ebeneezer Scrooge and screwing the poor just for the sheer sadistic joy of it, you become a lefty. And if you look inward and detect a craving for power, you generalize that to everyone else and become a libertarian.

I know in my heart that this is a pretty good reason why I lean towards the Libertarian side of conservatism. And, like a lot of people, I'm not particularly judgemental about the particular moral hazards that I've already succumbed to.

Via Best of the Web Today (well, March 25 actually).