Conservative vs. Libertarian
Scott McPherson does a great job of summing up "The Cowardice of the Conservative."
A couple of examples - on private school vouchers as a solution to the failures of public education:
When they see generation after generation of America’s young marched off to the equivalent of the government indoctrination camps found in Cuba or the former Soviet Union, Republicans are so incensed that they demand that parents … have a choice of which camp their child will go to!
Worse, the few private camps (I say private schools still qualify as government-controlled camps because they must, by law, conform to government “standards”) that exist will become virtually indistinguishable from government camps once subsidized attendance becomes widespread enough. (See Wickard v. Filburn, 1943: “It is hardly lack of due process for the Government to regulate that which it subsidizes.”)
On how the welfare state provides an enticement to illegal immigration:
When I pressed him long enough on the immorality of the welfare state itself — regardless of who was using it — he threw his hands up in despair and addressed the audience at large: “Who here thinks we’ll ever get rid of the welfare state?”
So the jig was up: Conservatives aren’t prepared to take on the unpopular issue of abolishing the welfare state, so immigrants have to take a bashing. That’s unprincipled and cowardly.
I do find myself as a libertarian feeling a bit squeamish about saying conservatives are unprincipled and cowardly because they won't stand up for their alleged principles. After all, I have pretty much abandoned the idea of changing the system because a clear majority seems to like the welfare police state that America has become, and instead I try to go my way and make noises out here on the fringes about how men and women are inherently freedom-loving beings, in hopes that if enough of us make enough noise over a sustained period of time, someday there'll be something like a majority who demand their freedom. Perhaps I'm not unprincipled, but I certainly could qualify as cowardly.
But conservatives actually have the power to restore our liberty; they hold the machine's steering wheel, and if they truly believed in freedom and limited government they could steer the machine in that direction. Instead they have steered it toward fascism and government expansion. This is unprincipled and cowardly only in the sense that they don't have the stones to declare their real principles: They like the power, they enjoy tyranny (because they are on the giving, not receiving end) and they are shaping the hammer of Big Government into a shape more to their liking. Or, to cite the popular parable of our day, they have taken the ring of power and instead of wisely tossing it into the fiery furnace, they have put it on their finger in the foolish belief that they can use it properly.
By the way, the link to McPherson is courtesy of FreedomSLUT. My lust is quickly becoming love.
A couple of examples - on private school vouchers as a solution to the failures of public education:
When they see generation after generation of America’s young marched off to the equivalent of the government indoctrination camps found in Cuba or the former Soviet Union, Republicans are so incensed that they demand that parents … have a choice of which camp their child will go to!
Worse, the few private camps (I say private schools still qualify as government-controlled camps because they must, by law, conform to government “standards”) that exist will become virtually indistinguishable from government camps once subsidized attendance becomes widespread enough. (See Wickard v. Filburn, 1943: “It is hardly lack of due process for the Government to regulate that which it subsidizes.”)
On how the welfare state provides an enticement to illegal immigration:
When I pressed him long enough on the immorality of the welfare state itself — regardless of who was using it — he threw his hands up in despair and addressed the audience at large: “Who here thinks we’ll ever get rid of the welfare state?”
So the jig was up: Conservatives aren’t prepared to take on the unpopular issue of abolishing the welfare state, so immigrants have to take a bashing. That’s unprincipled and cowardly.
I do find myself as a libertarian feeling a bit squeamish about saying conservatives are unprincipled and cowardly because they won't stand up for their alleged principles. After all, I have pretty much abandoned the idea of changing the system because a clear majority seems to like the welfare police state that America has become, and instead I try to go my way and make noises out here on the fringes about how men and women are inherently freedom-loving beings, in hopes that if enough of us make enough noise over a sustained period of time, someday there'll be something like a majority who demand their freedom. Perhaps I'm not unprincipled, but I certainly could qualify as cowardly.
But conservatives actually have the power to restore our liberty; they hold the machine's steering wheel, and if they truly believed in freedom and limited government they could steer the machine in that direction. Instead they have steered it toward fascism and government expansion. This is unprincipled and cowardly only in the sense that they don't have the stones to declare their real principles: They like the power, they enjoy tyranny (because they are on the giving, not receiving end) and they are shaping the hammer of Big Government into a shape more to their liking. Or, to cite the popular parable of our day, they have taken the ring of power and instead of wisely tossing it into the fiery furnace, they have put it on their finger in the foolish belief that they can use it properly.
By the way, the link to McPherson is courtesy of FreedomSLUT. My lust is quickly becoming love.
posted by B.W. Richardson at
10:40 AM
4 Comments:
I do find myself as a libertarian feeling a bit squeamish about saying conservatives are unprincipled and cowardly because they won't stand up for their alleged principles. After all, I have pretty much abandoned the idea of changing the system ... and instead I try to go my way and make noises out here on the fringes about how men and women are inherently freedom-loving beings, in hopes that if enough of us make enough noise over a sustained period of time, someday there'll be something like a majority who demand their freedom. Perhaps I'm not unprincipled, but I certainly could qualify as cowardly.
I object. The current USSA system of governance is inherently coercive, so it's entirely in keeping with your love of freedom to eschew it. And speaking out against the status quo, particularly in times like these, is anything but cowardly.
...hey are shaping the hammer of Big Government into a shape more to their liking...
Isn't that the controlling concept of power, no matter who's running the show?
And the Libertarians...taking power to abolish power? A glaring contradiction in terms plus, it's a futile exercise. Looks to me like bummint has a life of its own now til it dies.
Best not be underneath when it falls. Gonna be tuf to do, ain't it.
I'm not sure which is a bigger waste of time, writing about either party, or reading the writing.
I object. The current USSA system of governance is inherently coercive, so it's entirely in keeping with your love of freedom to eschew it. And speaking out against the status quo, particularly in times like these, is anything but cowardly.
Thank you. A little Clintonesque parsing of words: I said I certainly "could qualify as" cowardly by anyone who believes in "working within the system." This is not to say I think of myself as cowardly or that I think those of us who speak out against the status quo without joining the status quo are cowardly. I agree with jomama that "taking power to abolish power" is oxymoronic and moronic. And I agree with John that the two major parties are beneath contempt.
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