Misguided and nutty, versus malicious and murderous

Reading this, you’d almost think that conservatives want their fellow citizens imprisoned for victimless crimes:

Last week, leading conservatives raised the alarm about yet another terrifying instance of “presidential lawlessness” from President Obama. What is it this time? New revelations of dragnet spying? Targeting more American citizens with flying robot assassins? Nope: He’s going to let more nonviolent drug offenders out of prison.

No argument there, and I am no fan of Obama. Nonviolent drug offenders don’t belong in prison, and the president has every right to grant them clemency under the Constitution.

Apparently, conservatives would rather they rot in prison.

Still, drug war conservatives are better than Marxists. While conservative drug warriors want to punish people for (in their view) hurting themselves, Marxists want to punish people for bettering themselves and creating jobs (because making money is evil and hiring people is exploitative).  So, while both want to criminalize private consensual activities, the Marxists’ goal is to kill the economy entirely, while the conservatives’ goal is to make the people’s lives more miserable for wanting relief from misery, while creating economic opportunities for law breakers.

But why do I have to keep having to choose between the two?