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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Why Libertarianism will never work

There is an article out last week by John Stossel over at reason.com (that name cracks me up) titled "How libertarianism can fix what's wrong with America." In it, he writes on a new book out by Reason magazine Editor Matt Welch and Reason.tv Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie: The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America. Sorry to rain on anyone's parade but this just isn't going to ever happen. Ever. The reason why Libertarianism can't "fix what's wrong with America" is because Libertarians can't decide and agree on--and never will--how small "small government" is supposed to be. Some will say no government at all. Others will say "only this much." Still others will say, "Well, we've got to add this." Get, say, a dozen Libertarians in a room and ask them how much government we should have. They'll never agree. Then, imagine thousands of them, collectively, at, say, a national convention. Fights would soon break out, I feel certain. They can never be a cohesive group because they'll never be able to decide the size of government and what its functions are to be. It'll never happen. Stossel writes "The big change they see stems from independents' refusal to be absorbed by any party." This "refusal to be absorbed" is more an indication of our own national fracturing and splintering, not evidence that we're coming together--or going to--to fix our problems. I say again, the way to "fix America" is to get the wealthy people's and corporation's money out of our government. We have to get them to stop legally buying our representatives and so, our legislation and government. If we can't or don't do that, nothing will change and we are doomed to failure, as a nation. And trust me, usually I'm an optimist. Links: http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/30/a-new-day-in-politics; http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586489380/reasonmagazineA/

3 comments:

Sevesteen said...

And a room full of liberals can't agree on how big government should be, how much of the military we should cut--most of them can't even agree with the president on much.

Every political orientation has moderates and extremists, and disagreements within the ranks. Just like having Democrats or Republicans in power doesn't drastically and suddenly change America, neither would an initial libertarian majority.

But a significant libertarian minority would be a really good thing for America, if nothing else to get some new ideas,to curb the excesses on both sides and hopefully to stop the "the other side thought of it first, so we have to be against it" If they were libertarians first, and politicians second, it would add a lot of discipline in getting our finances in order.

Mo Rage said...

And here's where we agree--I think a significant Libertarian minority would be a good thing for America. I also think it should be a significant, true, shaped 3rd political party for the country so it takes some power from the only two we've had for far too long and makes them more do the will of the people.

Anonymous said...

And, of course, liberals and conservatives agree all the time: MORE government, LESS freedom, further and further restrictions. Example? The PATRIOT act: created by Republicans, extended by Democrats!

There is no alternative to freedom, except slavery and destruction. And THAT is where the Demopublicans wish to lead us.