We Have To Send A Message!

Have you ever noticed that, whenever anyone tries to convince politicians to do anything that makes sense, like decriminalizing marijuana, restore the 2nd Amendment, protect people's privacy rights, or whatever, their response is some variation on "we have to send a message"?

Nobody ever asks them what kind of message they're trying to send.

Maybe that's because people know, even without being told, that the message they're sending is one of the following:

"You are stupid." - The politician believes you are too stupid to be able to live your own life without being told what to do by the government.

"You are evil." - The politician believes you are an evil person and must be constrained by government power to prevent you from doing whatever it is the government has declared to be "evil."

"You are insane." - The politician believes that you are crazy. You must be, because only crazy people would question the beneficence of the all-powerful government.

So let's be real here. Why should we trust, or believe, anyone whose essential message is any one of the three messages I've mentioned here?