Todd Andrew Barnett, in his second speech to the BTP attendees at the Boston Tea Party's National Convention online, tells us why the BTP is the future of liberty in America. by Todd Andrew Barnett
(libertarian)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
[Note: This is the second and final speech I gave to the Boston Tea National Convention attendees online on October 25, 2008.]
Good evening my fellow Boston Tea'ers!
On this glorious second and final day of the Boston Tea National Convention, it has been, it is, and it shall always be the best convention in the history of this Party. The national Boston Tea Party, its recent ups and downs notwithstanding, is the libertarian party of the future. Not the LP, not the LNC, not the LP Headquarters staff, and certainly not the Bruce Cohens, Aaron Starrs, Eric Dondero Rittbergs, and the Wayne Allyn Roots of the world. That honor belongs to the BTP, and, as far as I'm concerned, rightfully so.
The Libertarian Party once did deserve that distinction, from the time of its inception until when it began to water down, and then subsequently, eviscerate its ideologically pure principles that made it stand out from the Republican and Democratic Parties. But, as soon as the LP's disastrous Portland convention took place, its reputation as the Party of Principle no longer applied. The repeal of more than 80 percent of that party's platform and subsequent Republicanesque principles and positions on the issue infecting and dominating its heart and soul show that the LP no longer deserves that spot. It no longer has the right to call itself the Party of Principle, because it has entirely rejected that paradigm. It has jettisoned the ideological purity of its principles and the libertarian philosophy that it purports to believe in now.
It is one of the reasons why I'm no longer a capital L libertarian or even a lower case (l) libertarian. It is the reason why I reject that label, because of Bob Barr and his McCainesque ideals and positions as well as the Republicanesque stooges who have become the heart of his campaign. They can call themselves libertarian all they want, but they have neither the right nor any business to use that term. But they use it anyway, much to the peril of the liberty movement and to the activists who not only work in it, but also support it. The true libertarians -- and that's everyone who supports small government, real free markets, not the kind of capitalism that Republicans want -- are the ones who rightfully guard, protect, and nurture the values, beliefs, and ideals that encompass the very heart and soul of liberty. Not only that, they encompass the very fabric and soul of the Constitution, despite the flaws that were created by the once-great Founders of this country.
The statists, the collectivists, the social engineers, the central planners, and the religionists, cheerleaders, and worshippers of the cult of the state see democracy as a living, breathing institution that must be protected. Their values tell them that the majority must rule over the minority. That's what democracy is and has been for thousands of centuries. That's their religion. And, because of that coercive religion that they have been foisting upon us, it's what they would like to call the Church of Democracy. Their view, in the language of civics, is that the state is their god, and their beloved and precious democracy is the Church where they worship that god. Socialism, communism, populism, and fascism ae all part of that Church's bible. That's what it's all about, and that's how they proselytize their religion to others.
Free marketeers (such as Yours Truly), individualists, propertarians, libertarans, voluntaryists, and all lovers of liberty see the individual -- including themselves -- as the living, breathing person that must be protected from the likes of those religionists, cheerleaders, and worshippers of the cult of the state. As those freedom-loving individuals, we worship ourselves, not the state. Yes, we do help those who need the help, but not out of some altruistic, utopian idealism. We do it because we're generous, we DO care about them, and we want to help them to succeed. We want to help them succeed, without the state and its cultists standing in the way.
The Republicans claim to be the Party of Limited Government, National Defense, Freedom, Free Markets, and the Law of Rule. They play a good game about the virtues of civil society and the vices of political society and the need to do away with the latter. They rhapsodize about the need for limited government, the evils of costly government regulations, and their goals to cut taxes, regulations, and spending. They even promise, in a shameless manner, to reform health care by keeping government out of it (whichever that means in their language) by furnishing tax credits to the insured so that they can purchase medical insurance under the phony guise of free markets. Oh, and if Senator McCain gets his way should he be the President-elect, that credit would be "refundable." It is nothing more than a ploy to coerce people into believing that, if they pay an income tax liability of, say, $10,000, their bill is surely and simply pared down to $5,000. The other part of that lie is, if someone has no income tax liability, that credit would not apply.
But, in the real world within the realm of the state, nothing is ever simple. Someone who has a zero tax liabilty would find that the credit IS "refundable." It is NOT a refund, but a cash hand out. It is a machination of the welfare state. It is a form of weath redistribution -- that is, a transference of wealth from those who reap the fruits of their labor to those who don't, even if it's for the good of society. How is that reconciled with the principles and platitudes of limited government, things that are often shared by conservatives in the GOP?
Republicans are not just hypocrites in that area. They are also hypocrites when they claim to be for free markets. The recent $850 billion bailout that the BTP denounced in its unanimously-passed resolution of which I am the proud author epitomizes that. McCain and his Republican allies want the government to purchase risky mortgages in which the owed amounts surpass the present value of the homes. The banks would receive payments for the face value of the mortgages and then the state would refinance them at a lower principal and interest rate. The taxpayers would be given the short end of the stick. That is nothing short of redistribution.
That is economic fascism. There's nothing inherently good about this. This is the swindle of the 21st century. And our futures are now mortgaged because of the bailouts and the never-ending war in Iraq. Thanks to those vile Republicans, our country will never be the same.
This is the reason why the Republicans will lose this election and why Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats will be the victors. When the smoke clears, they will assume command of this economy and this country.
The Republicans are to blame for all this, even for eight years of one economic failure after another. They have tainted the system of free markets by blending socialism and free markets into one system -- capitalism. Sure, regulations do cost the economy money, and so they are right on that account. But they, along with their corporate lobbyists and supporters comprising of Big Business and Corporate America itself, would love to reduce regulations, but not the subsidies, privileges, and guarantees that come with the package. That's what fascism is. And Republicans are crazy for associating themselves with the term "capitalism," as it IS a term coined by Karl Marx and his minions. It is a system that favors protected business interests in THE NAME OF capital.
Libertarians are guilty of this too. Kevin Carson was correct when those libertarians who claim to be for free markets and economic liberty but support the corporate status quo are nothing but vulgar libertarians. They ARE vulgar libertarians. Libertarians are guilty for associating with them because of that. I share that guilt too, and I reject that term completely. I believe in free markets, not capitalism of any kind. Marrying the terms "free market" and "capitalism" as a unified term is like marrying the terms "Satanist" and "Christians" as a unified term. You can't be both. You are either for free markets or you're for capitalism.
And that is why the Democrats have an advantage over us on that ground. They pound on us because we have a habit of saying "deregulation is the answer" as if that's the be-all and end-all as a magic bullet to the economic crisis with which we have been hit. Yes, the Democrats are socialists. Yes, they are for expansive government. Yes, they are not for free markets. Oh, and yes, they are for wars too. But that's because a lot of this is the fault of conservatives and libertarians who used to ally themselves to one another in their quest to get rid of Bill Clinton at the end of his legacy term in 2000.
Free markets are not about "deregulating business," although that is a small part of it. Yes, deregulation occurred to an extent in the 1980s and 1990s (but not during the Bush II years). Free markets are all about getting the government out of the way completely, entirely, and permanently. It is also about ending subsidies, privileges, and guarantees. If you only deregulate (or even partially deregulate) but keep the subsidies, privileges, and guarantees in place, you are not moving toward any free market. You are moving towards a corporatocracy a.k.a. economic fascism at its worst.
The Democrats are for bigger government, more expansive government, higher taxes, higher spending, and wars from which they would benefit. They can spend all evening griping about how we must tax and regulate the economy to death, how we need to protect jobs, how we need to cut ourselves off from the world economy, how important unions are, and how crucial universal health care (socialized medicine) is. But they are naive to think that this is the cure for the slowdown of the economy. Government cannot produce things; it merely steals from those who DO produce. It cannot create jobs; it merely destroys those jobs that businesses and individuals create due to the demands of their consumers. Health care and education are not "rights" and are not "free." No one has any moral, ethical, and philosophical right to anyone's labor in health care and education. No one has any moral, ethical, and philosophical right to the health care and educational services that people desire. Certainly, individual Americans should have access to them, but if a free market were called into existence (and, under the present system, it doesn't exist), there's no telling what can come of this.
The Boston Tea Party understands these differences. Its members understands them as well. And liberty must be defended and guarded, no matter the cost. We cannot submit to the state. There are no excuses for this. As the late U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) said, while giving his speech, to the delegates of the GOP Convention in 1964, "Extremism for the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation for the pursuit of justice is no virtue." Those words are true today, as they were then. And thus they remain true for posterity.
The Boston Tea Party is the future of liberty. It is my future. It is your future. The Democrats, the Libertarians, and the Republicans are not our future. We are the future. And let's make the future of liberty a positive, rewarding, and happy one.
Thank you all, and good night.
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 5
thumbs so far
The views expressed
in this article are those of Todd Andrew Barnett only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Todd Andrew Barnett is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
It's always such a breath of fresh air to read the delusional oratory of someone so out of touch with reality that they think they make sense.
Just trying to distinguish between the capital "L" and the little "l" is really an important distinction. I'm sure that there are people swarming to follow you now that you pointed out this rejuvenated belief.
These people who can't get accepted by the mainstream go out and try to hawk up a bunch of radical losers and think they're making a contribution. You ought to get on a bandwagon that's going somewhere, not give totally worthless "speeches" (I would call them "musings" because there aren't enough people listening to call them speeches) to a tiny group of malcontents.
Why don't you try pushing some weight loss program? You'll probably create more interest.
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2008-10-28 14:56:07
Nice article. I disagree about the big "L" and small "l" rejection, because I disagree that all small "l" libertarians favor working with Republicans. That's a myth perpetuated by paleo-libertarians.
I've rejected the LP, like you. I refuse to support sell-out politics in the Barr/Redpath mold. I think principles count. But unlike you, I still consider myself to be a small "l" libertarian.
Want to comment on
this article? Leave your comment
here. Your email address is required to track your
comment. However, we will neither publish your email
address nor distribute it to other organizations or
persons. The only reason we might use it would be if
we needed to contact you regarding your comment. All
comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
