Seymour Flops
Diamond Member
A libertarian writer, I wish I could remember who it was gave us this parable:
When people ask a libertarian how the libertarian mindset would solve this problem or that, they sound like the commander of an infantry company, who has led his men into an ambush, having first spent weeks on fruitless patrols that wasted their food and ammo for little gain. As the survivors of the first volley hunker behind scarce cover, he remembers that his XO is always talking about how much better the world would be if it were libertarian. He says, "Well Lieutenant . . . how do your libertarian ideas address this little problem, hmmmm?"
Obviously, the non-aggression principle (NAP), that is the heart of the libertarian movement, would not come into play in that situation. There is no time to talk about natural rights, malum prohibitum, or shrinking the bloated government, which are important concepts to libertarians. The idea is to survive, live to fight until the war is finally over, and then advocate for true freedom.
We, as a country, are in a similar situation now. Much as I would love for us to become a libertarian republic, right now we must be concerned about whether we will remain a republic of any kind. The disaster areas that many of our cities have become, the disaster area that the border has deliberately been made into, and the potentially disastrous policy of a government more or less openly supressing free speech all must be dealt with.
We must elect a strong leader who is willing and able to take steps to solve these problems. He must be willing to accept that by doing so, feelings will be hurt. People who have profited greatly from these disasters will not want them to end, and they have friends in the media who will gleefully help them smear that leader.
If that leader were to be a Democrat, they would get my vote. But the only way I would know that such a Democrat were serious would be by the volume of the shrieking attacks on them by their fellow Democrats.
When people ask a libertarian how the libertarian mindset would solve this problem or that, they sound like the commander of an infantry company, who has led his men into an ambush, having first spent weeks on fruitless patrols that wasted their food and ammo for little gain. As the survivors of the first volley hunker behind scarce cover, he remembers that his XO is always talking about how much better the world would be if it were libertarian. He says, "Well Lieutenant . . . how do your libertarian ideas address this little problem, hmmmm?"
Obviously, the non-aggression principle (NAP), that is the heart of the libertarian movement, would not come into play in that situation. There is no time to talk about natural rights, malum prohibitum, or shrinking the bloated government, which are important concepts to libertarians. The idea is to survive, live to fight until the war is finally over, and then advocate for true freedom.
We, as a country, are in a similar situation now. Much as I would love for us to become a libertarian republic, right now we must be concerned about whether we will remain a republic of any kind. The disaster areas that many of our cities have become, the disaster area that the border has deliberately been made into, and the potentially disastrous policy of a government more or less openly supressing free speech all must be dealt with.
We must elect a strong leader who is willing and able to take steps to solve these problems. He must be willing to accept that by doing so, feelings will be hurt. People who have profited greatly from these disasters will not want them to end, and they have friends in the media who will gleefully help them smear that leader.
If that leader were to be a Democrat, they would get my vote. But the only way I would know that such a Democrat were serious would be by the volume of the shrieking attacks on them by their fellow Democrats.
