Libertarianism
I missed the Peter Morrison Report in my inbox Friday.That’s OK though, it’s not too late, because there are still some excellent points Peter asks us to remember as we go to the polls tomorrow. You are going to vote tomorrow, aren’t you?
In case you’re not acquainted with Mr. Morrison, he writes a newsletter concerning National, Texas State and southeast Texas issues from a conservative / libertarian perspective. If you haven’t signed up for his newsletter, I highly recommend it.
Here is The Peter Morrison Report:
Will 2010 Elections Be a Repeat of 1994?â€
Election Day is fast approaching, and if the long lines for early
voting here in my hometown of Lumberton are any indication, big
changes are coming. It appears that the Republican party is almost
certainly going to win back control of the US House of
Representatives. There is even a slight possibility that they will
also win control of the Senate (although that is less likely). You
don’t have to be a prophet to see that this election is going to be
a major setback for Barack Obama and the Democrats. All the polls
point to major gains for the GOP. Republicans need to take at
least 39 seats currently held by Democrats to become the House
majority party. Five Thirty Eight, the website which was amazingly
accurate in its predictions for the 2008 elections, is currently
projecting that the GOP will pick up 61 seats.Some pollsters are projecting lower numbers, but still enough to
control the House, while others are saying that the GOP could even
pick up 70 seats. Peter Hart, a well known Democratic pollster,
stated bluntly: “It’s hard to say that the Democrats are facing
anything less that a Category 4 hurricane.”Of course, anything can happen between now and November 2nd, but
barring some sort of shocking development, it seems pretty clear
that the anger and energy we’ve seen expressed over the past couple
of years at town hall meetings and Tea Party rallies is still going
strong, and Democrats are going to be held accountable at the
ballot box for signing on to Obama’s radical leftist agenda. This
is certainly good news, and it shows what conservatives can
accomplish when we work hard and refuse to give up the fight.However, if we’re not careful, a massive GOP victory could actually
be a setback in the long run. Many conservatives will be lulled
into a false sense of complacency if the GOP takes control of one
or both houses of Congress. Far too many people are locked into a
“Democrats bad, Republicans good” worldview; they assume that with
Republicans in place to oppose Obama, there’s nothing to worry
about. This attitude is widespread, and it has been one of the
main reasons conservatives have seen our agenda remain unfulfilled.In 1994 a very similar realignment occurred. Voter anger at Bill
and Hillary’s left wing activism–NAFTA, ordering the military to
stop discharging homosexuals, and attempting to socialize health
care (not to mention the Waco massacre)–led to the so called
Republican Revolution, when the GOP took control of the House and
Senate for the first time in 40 years. For all the talk of
revolution, very little came of it. Which should have been no
surprise as the first thing the GOP majorities did was elect Newt
Gingrich Speaker of the House, and Bob Dole Senate Majority Leader.
Gingrich, for all his conservative bluster, has always been most
interested in advancing his own career, not pursuing an authentic
conservative agenda. Bob Dole was a McCain style Republican, a
“moderate” who prided himself on being able to compromise with the
Democrats.Both Gingrich and Dole (and most other Congressional Republicans)
had helped Bill Clinton pass the disastrous NAFTA “free trade”
agreement prior to the 1994 election. After the “revolution”, they
then helped Clinton secure Congress’s approval of GATT/WTO.
Together these trade treaties have nearly wiped out America’s
manufacturing base, and led to increasing economic dependency on
Communist China. In spite of all these betrayals (and many more),
conservatives became complacent after the 1994 election, simply
because they assumed that with Republicans in charge, everything
would be fine.Nothing could be further from the truth, and by now it should be
crystal clear that the words “Republican” and “conservative” don’t
have the same meanings, and that the problem isn’t just limited to
Gingrich and Dole. Look at how George Bush treated us. He teamed
up with Ted Kennedy to give us No Child Left Behind, the expensive
folly that won’t do a thing to close the achievement gap, but will
fill decent public schools with bad students after their own
schools have been shut down by NCLB. He pushed banks to lower
lending standards for minorities, leading directly to the mortgage
crisis. He bailed out Wall Street to the tune of 700 billion
dollars. In 2004 he mobilized Christians and conservatives to
rally to the polls to re-elect him by talking tough on gay
marriage, but after he won re-election he never mentioned the
subject again. He and the GOP Congress gave us the prescription
drug bill, which is projected to cost America trillions in the
future. They also did nothing as millions of illegal aliens poured
into America under Bush’s watch.
I used to be one on the sidelines. One could have labeled me liberal in that I didn’t understand the thoughts and feelings that stirred me deeply were Conservative and Libertarian in nature and ignored them in my debauchery. As time passed I worked my day job and played music with a band of Pure Liberals, these were people who actually believed they were not taxed enough and that government was the answer to any and all problems, even and especially the ones it caused. I instinctively understood that my beliefs were wholly different, that self reliance and true liberty was not a part of their ideology. They spoke of something to which I could not ascribe.
Thus began a transformation. I began to realize that, while I may not be college educated as my band-mates were, one of them in fact being a professor and holding a doctorate, that I still could not agree, in fact must disagree, with the viewpoints espoused by my musical brethren. I began to read and educate myself as to the beginnings of our country and why the Founders chose the method of our governance, how the Constitution is not a “living, breathing” document, that some would have us believe can be interpreted as an activist judge or corrupt city council sees fit. Our system of government is not a Democracy but a Constitutional Republic that must be defended each and every day by the very people who desire to live under it’s divinely inspired protection.
Then I began to discover how blind most people really are to their Federal Government and how little it is allowed Constitutionally, to do to them.
Around this time I discovered “the blogs,” some liberal, some conservative or libertarian, and many of whom I still read to this day, one of which is the featured blog of the week.
You see…
Once upon a time there was a man who disparaged his government and ridiculed their mismanagement in seclusion or in beer joints and pubs across the southeastern side of Texas with relatively little fanfare. While his rantings and ravings didn’t slow in tenacity or decrease in venom, he started to find a need for a forum of greater magnitude to vent his frustration because he knew with more and more certainty as time passed that if he and many others did not shout and scream and pitch a hissy fit full of logic and reasoning in combination with the wild-eyed passion for God and Country and Freedom, that the objects of those loves would soon be gone.
One of the reasons this man chose to embark on the journal you now read was a website called Washington Rebel.
The contributors to Washington Rebel know these things with every fiber of their being; and when you visit The Reb, you will find a fearlessness of thought that quickens the heart and bolsters the spirit. As one who is in need of such things every now and again, I truly appreciate their hard work and bodacious attitude.
Now that you know a part of my story. I would encourage you to partake in some Rebel goodness for yourself, but be aware, they of the Reb fear not to speak their minds with some essay of assault on the weak minded or to assail you with the beauty of Gods female creation.
God Bless the Reb.
This week the Robot’s featured blog is known to many in the blogospere because of his tireless work linking to other fine blog posts with his damn near daily “Right Wing Links” in which is invariably featured some beautiful Rule 5 action to help us all wash down the inevitable bad news we are about to stomach. Mike has great taste in the female form and never disappoints in that regard.
His insight into the Liberal psyche is just as keen, as he displays when speaking on subjects such as the economy or his absolute passion for the Classic Liberal ideals of Libertarianism. He and I may disagree on a very few finer points of application of those ideas, but you will never hear me discount the rightness of them.
I learn something new every time I visit The Classic Liberal and I know you will also. So quit sitting there reading my incoherent drivel, check out The Classic Liberal Blog and be sure to tell him a drunken automaton said hello.
Lately, I’ve sensed an undercurrent in the blogosphere, a small rift between a few well reasoned bloggers trading barbs pertaining to the “isms” of Conservative and Libertarian. While I don’t presume to know the minds of said thinkers, I will offer a quick thought on the topic. Perhaps someone fresh into the fray can offer a new perspective or a reminder as to a common goal.
In describing methods of rule or governance, some scholars have done so pictorially, using a line with anarchy on one end and tyranny on the other. They go on to break the line into levels of governance, such as monarchy, theocracy, democracy, communism, socialism etc., as they reside on the line of how much or how little government and what type it is. A friend once told me, when we were discussing the difference between Conservative and Libertarian thought, that he sees his role as a Libertarian as to pull for the least possible government in order to balance the extreme left’s argument for the most government. This, in my thinking, would place Conservatives just to the left of Libertarians on that line, but at least standing side by side.
This is the tug of war we find ourselves in, with many factions of thought hanging on to the same rope, each of them tugging with differing amount of force. It has always been the case to some extent. Hamilton and Jefferson were at odds over the allowable reach of Federal government, arguing some of the same points we wrangle with today. Jefferson and Adams also, close friends as they were, found themselves divided in the middle of their lives over their basic beliefs, at last to reach a sketchy reconciliation in their later years through a famous series of letters.
All this is to say that it would be a shame for such a fissure to develop between the Libertarian and Conservative camps at this moment in time. The way I see it, if you and I are holding the same rope, and we are pulling in the same direction against an opponent, there is no intelligent way for me to justify turning around to face you and begin pulling the other way. To do so only helps our common enemy.
Government should be like a friend you call on, in an absolute emergency, to help you defend your person, property or freedom. Not be like a thief or rapist you need to barricade the door against.
Wonder where that thought came from?