Tag: Libertarians

Speaking Of Libertarians

We all know of Ron Paul and his son Rand and their Libertarian leanings….even some within the GOP have these leanings….but that is all there is ….leanings.

As popular as people think Libertarianism …….they are probably mistaken….there some parts of the political philosophy that they will use to their advantage….but a total Libertarian is a thing from the past…..

I have tried to explain this belief to some of my friends and acquaintances….but have been fairly unsuccessful…..the truth is that I also find some of their policies acceptable….but only a few……mostly in the field of foreign policy.

But how do you explain Libertarians to others that are not so sure of what they are or what they believe?

Good question!  And I think I have an answer for them……

Libertarians have a problem. Their political philosophy all but died out in the mid- to late-20th century, but was revived by billionaires and corporations that found them politically useful. And yet libertarianism retains the qualities that led to its disappearance from the public stage, before its reanimation by people like the Koch brothers: It doesn’t make any sense.

They call themselves “realists” but rely on fanciful theories that have never predicted real-world behavior. They claim that selfishness makes things better for everybody, when history shows exactly the opposite is true. They claim that a mythical “free market” is better at everything than the government is, yet when they really need government protection, they’re the first to clamor for it.

Source: Here are 11 questions you can ask Libertarians to see if they’re hypocrites

These days a libertarian belief is one of convenience…anything to be elected and stay elected….whatever is useful to gain that end…..including Libertarianism.

Speaking of “getting elected” as a Libertarian…….

There’s a guy who’s “having a good day” and emerging with surprising poll numbers against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but he’s someone FiveThirtyEight says is easy to confuse with “that plumber who fixed your running toilet last month or your spouse’s weird friend from work who keeps calling the landline.” Who? It’s Gary Johnson, the probable Libertarian Party candidate for president, and based on recent numbers, FiveThirtyEight thinks he’s someone to keep an eye on. The ex-New Mexico governor went up against both Clinton and Trump in two May polls, and while Trump and Clinton hovered within 3 points of each other in both polls—Clinton got 38% to Trump’s 35% in a Morning Consult survey released Tuesday, while Trump came out with 42% to Clinton’s 39% in a Fox News poll conducted May 14-17—Johnson walked away with 10% in both matchups. And FiveThirtyEight doesn’t think these polls are necessarily May outliers, citing a Monmouth University poll from March that gave Clinton 42%, Trump 34%, and Johnson 11% in a three-way runoff.

Morning Consult notes that percentage is nearly twice as high as what Johnson got in most 2012 tracking polls when he ran against President Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney. And Vox notes that if the experienced Johnson is picked as the Libertarian nominee at his party’s convention in Orlando, Fla., this weekend—along with William Weld, an ex-Massachusetts governor who could become Johnson’s running mate—the Libertarian ticket “could have a real opportunity this November to run a real race against two of the least-liked presidential candidates in recent history.” What FiveThirtyEight also says Johnson has in his favor: history, via other third-party candidates who did fairly well nationally (e.g., George Wallace and Ross Perot). And the Washington Post says the case for a third-party candidate is growing. But FiveThirtyEight also adds Johnson only won 1% of the national vote in 2012 and that he still needs to secure the nomination. (Don’t know Johnson well? USA Today takes you on a “speed date.”)

I am sure that there are some that are pleased with these numbers……but that will quickly disappear on election day.

Decentralization: A Strategy For Liberty

I have always been fascinated with the way Libertarians think….I will admit that some of their stuff I can get on-board with….like the non-interventionism thing……I am not so sure about their economic outlook….I seems to me that it would allow the ideology to rape the poor worker and the country…..on economics I disagree and on social I tend to agree somewhat but not totally…..

This is an interesting piece that I thought my reader would like to read……it is an elective and not meant to be a required piece……

Hardcore libertarians sometimes criticize me because of my focus on the Constitution and political action at the state level to limit federal power. They argue that the American constitutional system will never bring about liberty, and that by working through government at any level, I undermine the cause of freedom.

I am sympathetic to the idea that “where government begins, your freedom ends,” and I believe some of the hardcore libertarians philosophical objections to the Constitution have merit. But to quote Murray Rothbard, “Libertarians must come to realize that parroting ultimate principles is not enough for coping with the real world.”

Source: Decentralization: A Strategy For Liberty | Michael Maharrey

Does anyone have any thoughts about Libertarians?   Please do not start with the Ayn Rand stuff…..I prefer to concentrate on the ideology and not that of a the drug addict with a big mouth….thank you.

2016: When Is Enough Enough?

Now that this is an official election year I will try to post at least one post a day on the progress of the election and its players……

It is the election year and I suspected that other candidates would appear from the woodwork…..we have a football team on the GOP side and battling progressives (although only one is a progressive the other is just Repub left) on the Dem side of the coin….but who else could be waiting to join the fanfare?

That one is easy….a Libertarian……yet another pretender to the throne……

In a move Gawker says will “[render] Rand Paul even more irrelevant,” former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson announced Wednesday he’s running for president. “I want to take this opportunity to announce my candidacy for president; I am hoping to get the Libertarian nomination,” Johnson told Fox Business Network’s Neil Cavuto, followed shortly afterward by a tweet that said, “Game on! America deserves another choice in #2016presidentialelections.” Reason.com notes Johnson resigned his position earlier this week as head of Cannabis Sativa, which promotes legal cannabis products. He told Cavuto the biggest issue facing the US is “the $20 trillion debt we will have when Obama leaves office” and notes government today is “unwieldy” and “out of control.” “Hillary is a known quantity who’s not going to win all of those voters,” he tells the Washington Post. “And if Trump’s the Republican nominee … a large number of people will want an alternative.”

Johnson’s announcement, while a bit of a surprise this late in the game, isn’t a total shocker: Politico notes that in October he penned a blog post titled “Why I would run for President,” in which he took on both parties and ripped on Paul, noting, “in [Paul’s] quest to have one foot in the libertarian camp and the other in the establishment Republican museum, he has emerged with a vague mix of positions that is clearly not compelling.” “There is a price to be paid for selling out—and he is paying it,” Johnson added. The self-made millionaire also ran for the nation’s top spot in 2012, claiming about 1% of the total electorate, per Politico. “[My candidacy] was kind of a commitment from the last go-round that I made to a lot of people,” he tells the Post. “I’ll be the first one to say that I don’t think I did very well at all! But everyone else has said … that it was a very successful, very significant campaign for the party.”

To be fair…I want to let my readers know of all the “major” players in the 2016 election…..there is always an alternative to the 2 parties….all you have to do is look for them…..

Have Libertarians Changed?

It is official……we now have at least 4 candidates for president…..2 GOP and 2 Dems……I am sure some third parties will enter starting very soon.

Something to think about……Rand Paul is basically a Libertarian even though he is a GOP mouth piece……maybe we should ask him how he stands on the list below……it maybe a list from the 80’s but how does it stand up in 2016?

Voters need to ask questions instead of just nodding when some pea brain mumbles some mindless slogan…..if you want change then demand answers….NOT SLOGANS!

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How We Stopped Worrying And Learn To Love Greed

In the 1980’s, the ME Generation, brought about unbridled greed……Greed is not something new it has been a part of our society from the beginning….however the 80’s set up the climate for massive greed and avarice…..For 30 years greed has been the driving force in this country……

But what happened to make greed the driving force of society?

 

How Ayn Rand Helped Turn the U.S. Into a Selfish, Greedy Nation | Alternet.

What Do You Think Of Hayek And Von Mises?

I have heard a lot of people that think that these two men have all the answers to our situation we are experiencing in the US today………

This was a tweet I found the other day and felt I had to pass it along…….this is a bit troubling…at least for me……

 

“Hayek admired Pinochet’s Chile so much that he decided to hold a meeting of his Mont Pelerin Society in Viña del Mar, the seaside resort where the coup against Allende was planned. In 1978 he wrote to the London Timesthat he had “not been able to find a single person even in much maligned Chile who did not agree that personal freedom was much greater under Pinochet than it had been under Allende.”For instance, Hayek—writing to The Times in 1978 and explicitly invoking Pinochet by name—noted that under certain “historical circumstances,” an authoritarian government may prove especially conducive to the long-run preservation of liberty: There are “many instances of authoritarian governments under which personal liberty was safer than under many democracies.”As Hayek notes, “democracy needs ‘a good cleaning’ by strong governments.”The Pinochet junta “enacted a new constitution in September 1980. . . . The constitution was not only named after Hayek’s book The Constitution of Liberty, but also incorporated significant elements of Hayek’s thinking.””I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking in liberalism. “Interestingly enough, Hayek had sent Salazar a copy of Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty (1960) in 1962 and Hayek’s accompanying note to Salazar is particularly revealing: Hayek hopes that his book—this “preliminary sketch of new constitutional principles”—“may assist” Salazar “in his endeavour to design a constitution which is proof against the abuses of democracy.”Dictatorship, as he put it in his El Mercurio interview, was “a means of establishing a stable democracy and liberty, clean of impurities.”

What say you now?