Monday, October 1, 2012

To Our Libertarian Friends

 Commentary by walford

If you are a collectivist and vote for the Communist or Socialist Party candidate instead of Obama, your vote might as well be for Romney.

If you favor personal/economic freedom and vote for the Libertarian or other third party candidate instead of Romney, your vote might as well be for Obama.

The American electorate has been acclimated toward increasing collectivism and central planning for several generations now. Even most Republicans cannot conceive of an America without the Income Tax, Social Security, Medicaid, the Federal Reserve, public schools, welfare and other government institutions that are at best unnecessary in a free society.

Private charity that is geared toward getting people out of poverty rather than government entitlement that is geared toward keeping people dependent -- at cost of their own freedom -- would be far better at providing for those truly in need. Private investment in which companies must convince people they would get a good return on their own dollars would be far better at allocating capital to everyone’s benefit rather than companies that are only competent at convincing politicians to give them other peoples’ money.

Only a small minority of us understands these things today. So sorry.

Too many of us think that the people are the State and the State is the people [“we are the government”], so the more powerful the government is, the more empowered are the people. Private property is increasingly seen as only to be tolerated if it serves the State. True freedom and justice is increasingly seen as only possible through the State. It has taken a long time for America to get where it is socially, economically and politically and it will take a practical, patient approach to arrest this process.

You cannot take a train that is hurtling toward a cliff and abruptly reverse its course. Inertia is a powerful force in physics and in society. Romney/Ryan is only promising to slow that process down, which is the most that an ever-thinning majority of voters are willing to accept at this time. I'm not happy about this either, but that's the way it is right now.

Much of Obama’s disastrous economic policies will be slowed down, stopped and even reversed if Romney is in the White House. The private economy will improve significantly with the uncertainty taken away. That would be a good start. Then we can make the case for how much better off America would be under economic freedom. But it will take time and demonstrable results, which I am confident that the current Republican candidates will deliver. Romney has a proven track record of improving things in the private sector and finding ways to get things done in government even in an environment hostile to freedom like Massachusetts.

We can look to Greece as an example of what beckons if we choose poorly. People there and in much of Continental Europe are so addicted to social welfare programs that to threaten to even slow down the growth of one turns them out into the streets rioting. Obama and his minions lust for the day when this happens in America on a large scale so they can reap the political benefits of being our Sugar Daddy -- and pimp.

America stands at the precipice of the Abyss and the upcoming election will determine whether we will choose the shared poverty and dependency of collectivism or the prosperity and self-determination that comes with economic freedom. The upcoming election will determine which way America goes. It may indeed be seen as the tipping point when the United States sank into oblivion until history is sanitized of the fact that at one time, we had a choice.

There are some social conservatives who believe that America deserves to be punished with the Democrat if the Republican candidate does not 100% support the evangelical agenda.
I'm sorry if the current Republican candidate is not as pure on the economic front as you would like. Does this mean that America must be punished with four more years of Obama? I fear that another term for him will do us in for good.

The Obamanites have gotten an increasing number of us thinking that they are better off taking from the government rather than working for themselves. Such people don’t mind if taxes are raised, because that is not seen as affecting them. To them, raising taxes means they will get more.

It was a mistake to found the Libertarian Party and abandon the Party of Abraham Lincoln to the Jerry Falwells. The best chance of having libertarian policies enacted is to libertarianize the Republican Party from within and diminish the influence of those who think the government should be used to impose theocracy. They are just as bad as the Leftists who wish to impose Secular Humanist dogmatism via the coercive power of government.

We must make the case to the American people that the G.O.P. has always stood for equality under the law, personal responsibility and opportunity while the Democrat Party has stood for inequality, oppression and dependence since the days prior to the Civil War.

If you think that voting third party in order to make a statement is more important than preventing America from irretrievably sinking into collectivism, you are not a part of the Cause of freedom. I invite you to leave the country, buy an island, call it Galt’s Gulch and live out your purist libertarian fantasies.

Leave America to those of us who actually care and are willing to determine what will actually work and how it can be made to happen rather than wallowing on what should be and could be.