Time to kick libertarians out of government?

Mike and I were having an online chat about Newt Gringrich’s comments on free speech and terrorism when I came across this beauty of a joke. In the first line of the comments section, one Mr. Don Robertson, self proclaimed “American Philospher”, writes that the libertarian ideal of laissez faire economics is the world’s problem.

What you’re reading about here today is what peak oil is all about. There is plenty of oil in the world, but cheap oil is getting scarce. Newt believes nothing is more important than American domination of the world. Not the government of the Americans, the American corporate interests in which he believes the future of the world economy can only be saved. It is however, the Libertarian ideal of free trade that is destroying the world at every turn.

The U.S. economy is in a depression as is the rest of the world. This depression is due to the false precepts of laissez faire economics.

This is what the Libertarian ideal of the free market, laissez faire economics is all about. This is the Dictatorship of the Marketplace killing all these fellow human beings in Iraq, Americans and Iraqis.

He goes on to say

The Libertarian ethic of free trade rules our country, and rules the world by the fodder of soldiers fighting on either side of the war in Iraq.

The Libertarian ethic is wholly false, and misleading the world.

Damn, has he got it wrong or what? I see nothing in my libertarian rule book that says that you should take people’s property by force. I went to the libertarian playbook and found what I was looking for.

Statement of Principles

We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.

Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.

We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life — accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action — accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property — accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.

Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market.

It seems to me that Mr. Robertson has most of his “facts” wrong, but when he went on to demand the removal of libertarians from the seats of government, I spit out my wine.

It is time to bring this war home. It’s time to kick these Libertarian ideologues, these free traders, and these progress at any cost laissez faire economists out of the seat of government.

I don’t care if it takes a guillotine, the whole philosophy of our government is wrong. It is apparently bent on destroying the world in a thousand brilliant flashes of light.

I laughed at his stupidity all the way through the comment and then I realized what he was up to. It seems that Mr. American Philosopher is hawking a book that he has written, An Illustrated Philosophy Primer for Young Readers .

God, I hope the powers that be don’t include his “philosophy” book in school courses. I think that the passages from his “enlightened mind” would be better suited to some comedy show. In fact, I hereby dub Mr. Robertson “The American Idiot” because everybody knows that libertarians are not in charge of government.

~ by Miche on November 29, 2006.