Tag: Libertarians

Mar 09 2015

TBC: Morning Musing 3.9.15

I have 3 articles for your perusal this morning.

First, in honor of International Women’s Day yesterday, here are some revolutionaries you likely haven’t heard much about:

10 Female Revolutionaries That You Probably Didn’t Learn About In History class

We all know male revolutionaries like Che Guevara, but history often tends to gloss over the contributions of female revolutionaries that have sacrificed their time, efforts, and lives to work towards burgeoning systems and ideologies. Despite misconceptions, there are tons of women that have participated in revolutions throughout history, with many of them playing crucial roles. They may come from different points on the political spectrum, with some armed with weapons and some armed with nothing but a pen, but all fought hard for something that they believed in.

Let’s take a look at 10 of these female revolutionaries from all over the world that you probably won’t ever see plastered across a college student’s T-shirt.

Jump!

Jan 11 2012

Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Oh My

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

In 2006, the public policy research organization, The Cato Institute, invited some leading liberal Democratic columnists and bloggers to discuss the question if Libertarians should vote Democratic:

In over a half-decade of Republican political dominance, Americans have witnessed a huge expansion in the scope and cost of government, a questionably just and so-far unsuccessful war in Iraq, serious erosions of civil liberty, and a troubling tendency toward an imperial executive. Is it time for the traditional alliance between libertarians and conservatives to finally end? If Republicans in power have failed so utterly to promote libertarian ideals, would libertarians better advance their cause by supporting Democrats at the polls? Of course, the fact that libertarians have been so badly abused by conservatives doesn’t necessarily imply they will find a more welcoming home among liberals. Is the Democratic tent big enough to include small-government free marketeers. Perhaps libertarians have something to gain by supporting to Democrats, but does the Democratic party have anything to gain by courting libertarians?

Markos “Kos” Moulitsas, proprietor of DailyKos, opened the discussion with the lead article, The Case for the Libertarian Democrat:

It was my fealty to the notion of personal liberty that made me a Republican when I came of age in the 1980s. It is my continued fealty to personal liberty that makes me a Democrat today.

The case against the libertarian Republican is so easy to make that I almost feel compelled to stipulate it and move on. It is the case for the libertarian Democrat that has created much discussion and not a small amount of controversy when I first introduced the notion in what was, in reality, a throwaway blog post on Daily Kos on a slow news day in early June 2006.

Moulitsas went on to describe how the article was attacked by Libertarians unwilling to recognize they were losing their “grasp of libertarian principles” but at the same time were “unwilling to cede any ground to a liberal“. The real surprise came from the general reaction:

[O]f Americans who are uncomfortable with Republican/conservative efforts to erode our civil liberties while intruding into our bedrooms and churches; they don’t like unaccountable corporations invading their privacy, holding undue control over their economic fortunes, and despoiling our natural surroundings; yet they also don’t appreciate the nanny state, the over-regulation of small businesses, the knee-jerk distrust of the free market, or the meddlesome intrusions into mundane personal matters.

The discussion in that introduction continues with Moulitsas explaining why he is, in essence, a Libertarian Democrat, how liberal Democrats relate to Libertarians, the Conservatives’ “war on freedom” and why he believed that there was a rise of Libertarian Democrats. He went on to write three more article for that series:

  • A New Breed of Democrats

  • The Internal Democratic Struggle

  • Don’t Wait for Inspiration, Do Something!

    • They are well worth reading and book marking.

    Since then, Mr. Moulitsas has become a prominent voice for the left and has used the Internet to bring liberal/progressive policies into political mainstream and to the attention of what he calls the “traditional” media.  

    Aug 04 2011

    Hows that Libertarian Love Thing Working Out?

    A few months back this site was awash in pro-libertarian sentiment, but since the Paul boys have been a big part of the successful “Attack on America’s Poor and Middle  Act, Pt 1,” we’ve heard crickets about them.

    Ron Paul (who voted for the original and totally crazy house bill) has criticized this act, because it didn’t hurt the poor enough:

    According to the non-partisan CATO Institute, this bill merely commits Congress to spending less than it otherwise would

    (yes, sure Ronny, CATO is non-partison)

    Well, in fairness, he did criticize the “Super Congress”.

    But, um…  why?

    The rich might get taxed a little bit:

    This guarantees that Members will face tremendous pressure to vote for whatever comes out of this commission- even if it includes tax increases.

    Sen. Paul and Rep. Paul were both signatories to the Cut, Cap and Balance Pledge on the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling pledge required its signatories to pressure lawmakers to cut federal spending, cap federal spending and pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution as preconditions to a “yes” vote on the debt ceiling.

    So, the ‘libertarians’ want to amend the constitution? Nice.

    Meanwhile, Rand has been babbling about

    runaway entitlement spending

    .

    Really, bucko?

    When exactly did the ever falling bit of money the richest country in the world spends on the same people whose money it actually is in the first place become “runaway” ?

    Who exactly pays for Social Security anyway? You congress perps?

    The rich people you want to ‘liberate’?

    No.

    maximum wage base for social security tax is $106,800

    Meaning that for every millionaire or billionaire, the max they pay is based on  $106,800.

    Workers pay either 6.2%, or 12.4% if self employed.  For employers, this 6.2% is basically tax deductible, so in many cases, they don’t pay it either.

    May 19 2011

    The Left is Dead, Long Live the Left (reborn from the right?)

    I will first refer to Chris Hedges’ book The Death of the Liberal Class. His analysis of the Americna left’s turning it’s back on the very values it professes is beautifully presented. I will not re-capture his argument here. There are YouTube videos of him giving talks on the subject that I urge you to listen to if you are unfamiliar with his POV. Suffice it to say that what it left of the left is fairly isolated and so far-outside the mainstream that most Americans don’t even know it exists. What the right, for example, terms as “the left” is largely fantasy and projection based on the bizarre idea that Obama is a socialist despite the fact that even rhetorically he is, by Euro standards solidly center-right politically, if not on the right.

    The left, in terms of function, today is mainly made up of the extreme right-that is, it is on the right that you see real commitment to revolutionary and fundamental change since the liberals and progressives seemed to have abandoned much interest in the working-class. The militant masses have gone right not left and the most fertile ground for the left is on the libertarian right particularly those gathered around Ron Paul. Paul represents a critical interest that should be first and foremost on any real leftist’s mind. That concern is structural and procedural. How do we re-establish Constitutional rule (in case you haven’t heard it has, in many ways, been suspended) and basic rule-of-law. Honest law, honest law-enforcement, honest courts, and so on are essential. The left cannot succeed at anything if the oligarchs can jail us, torture us, kill us, seize our property, watch us, enter our homes without a warrant often without any reason. Lettres de cachet are now mainstream law. War is carried out on “terror” which is impossible no matter the definition you have of the word-you can have war on France or even a criminal gang but you cannot have a war on terror. Yet this Orwellian term is accepted by the mainstream without any sense of irony, without any question as if it was all perfectly sensible-well it is not in any way sensible. And if you accept that “war” then you accept nonsense and illogic.

    It is the libertarian right that is on the forefront of talking about civil liberties, about clearly illegal wars and the growing power of the federal government. As a social democrat it is difficult for me to say “government is the problem” but today I will say that government is the problem. It is the problem because, in most situations and in most of the government, it is acting in the interests of the oligarch class and not the majority of people and furthermore is so constructed that it is furthering an anti-Constitutional, anti-liberty, and anti-human agenda that the libertarian right-wing condemns and the left seems to be ambivalent about. Nothing the government does can be trusted to be anything other than some form of racketeering just as nothing that is said in the mainstream media can be believed even if some of what is said is true. The government is now in service of a criminal class and the right notes that more than the left which seems stunned and hypnotized by the magician Obama.

    And worse, it seems more common to see 9/11 skeptics on the right than on the left. The left seems to have swallowed the government/media story without any question–this is stunning in itself. I repeat, even most of the more radical left, including Hedges, accepts the government narrative without question–it is still forbidden on blogs like DKOS to suggest even a minor quibble about the events on 9/11. This to me stamps what is left of the left as dead. When you abandon reason, when you, as a leftist accept government proclamations without question, then how can you consider yourself on the left?

    Jan 23 2011

    The Only Hope We Have Left

    As The State Of The Union approaches, it is interesting that just recently Dick Cheney endorsed President Obama’s conduct of U.S. Foreign Policy:   Endless Bloodshed, Endless Futile Foreign Occupations, Prediator Drone Mass-Murder, Indefinite Gulag Detentions, CIA Torture Renditions, No Legal system (termination of Habeas Corpus), Criminalizing Whistleblowers, Assassinations, War Profiteering Corruption, etc. — the final proof of the depths of treachery, depravity, and global tyranny that Obama has aggressively promoted and protected.

    Photobucket

    You’d think that giving us a Dick Cheney Foreign Policy, and a Mitt-Romney Health Insurance sentence, and a reverse robin-hood Bush-Reagan Tax Policy would be enough rightward, reactionary policy betrayal by Obama, but no.  We will soon hear about Obama’s coming plans for stripping away at Social Security, as he continues to appoint and surround himself with Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Robber Barons when formulating his “public policy” on economics.

    Cutting the Debt is, in truth, an important priority for a Country awash in runaway $16 Trillion Dollar Debt — a number impossible to repay — and which threatens the solvency and legitmacy of the U.S. Dollar. But there is a right way to do that, and a wrong way to do that.  

    If Obama had any brains, he would stop wasting away Trillions of Dollars on futile, corrupt Foreign Occupations and U.S. mass murder (which has also directly killed more Americans than any “terrorist” ever did, ever could, or ever would).

    Instead Obama is going to strip away at Social Security — something that George W. Bush could not do, but under the cover of “bipartisanship” Obama will do.

    What hope does this Country have left?   None whatsoever, if we keep supporting Corporatist-Neocon Democrats like Obama, and their unholy GOP counterparts (God Bless America).

    But as the 2011-2012 Presidential process begins to get underway, there is one coalition that could offer some real honesty, and some real solutions to our very real problems:



    The Only Hope We Have Left

    While neither man could win on his own, the combination of Nader and Paul together represent a true left-right “bipartisan” coalition that would be based finally on putting the priorities of ordinary people first, and the priorities of Corporate Oligarchs where they belong — dead on arrival.

    It’s time to back such a coalition.

    Apr 04 2010

    Docudharma for the Right Winger. (Part I)

    If you are a right winger, you may realize that we on Docudharma are not your typical liberals.  Or you may not have.

    We are not typical in that most of us here choose to think for ourselves and do not follow the typical Democratic Line.  We believe, as some among you do, that the right to dissent from our government, even when it is in power, is sacred.

    That may make us like you in that respect.  However, it does not make us like you.  You see, many of us may oppose our government for exactly the opposite reasons you do: it’s not that it does too much to solve problems destroying our society, it is that they do too little to correct the damage done since Ronald Reagan, George Bush I, and George Bush II.

    Depending on our viewpoints, our solutions may be the same, though, and as long as we have common understanding, we may find common values.

    Others on Docudharma may disagree, but I think one of the problems is in finding common understanding and common values.

    So let me answer as best I can, speaking only on behalf, of course of myself, and not claiming to represent the entirety of the points of view of all Docudharmans.

    What I would like to do is first talk about the ways we are unlike you and the ways we are like you.  For the disinterested, this has the advantage of driving the disinterested away right away.  Secondarily I want to divide you into groups, and the groups I am specifically talking to may have something or many things in common.  Others we or I may have nothing in common with.

    Like you, there are some among our number who want to sit across from a table with you.  These are divided into, largely, two groups.  The first group is that of Survivalists:  If you count yourself a survivalist, these are people, who, generally, believe that civilization is doomed.  Perhaps unlike you, many of us believe that the downfall of civilization will be answered, not with individualist, Ayn Rand style perfection, but rather with a return to communitarian values_.  _I do not count myself among the group that wants to sit across a table with you, if you are a right wing survivalist.  And the reason is very clear:  Many of you are right wing survivalists because you are bigots.  And I have no truck with bigotry.  It may be that we share certain ideas and philosophies.  For example, you may believe, as I do, that the downfall of civilization is either inevitable or close to inevitable.

    If you are the type of “right wing survivalist” I described above, the difference between you and I is that number one, I do not believe that people with more melanin than you are either responsible for the downfall of civilization or a threat to me personally if it does.  Secondarily, being a person with a prediliction for attraction to persons with the same sex to begin with, I also do not believe that it is those lousy homos who brought about the downfall of civilization either, rather that we are keeping it upright against the very best efforts of bigots to destroy it.  Finally, no, the Jews are not responsible, in my world view, for all your miseries and then some.  No, they don’t control the media.  No, they don’t somehow secretly control your lives.  

    There is a second group of Docudharmans who would like to sit across the table from right wingers.  This group, more pollyanish than the first, believes that it is possible, in today’s society, to sit across the table with you, in a similar manner to the Coffee Party, and discuss where we might find “common values”.  Among these common values might be found, for example, things like what we get from the government in exchange for our taxpayer money, and so on.  I do not count myself among this group either.

    To be very clear, I am not among the groups that wants to talk to you at all.  I style and believe myself, your enemy.  However, many on Docudharma have noted the many things we have in common, which is why I undertake this sacred duty.

    Due to concerns of space, I will only cover two classes of “right winger” with whom we at DocuDharma might find common ground, in this installment.

    Mar 18 2010

    A New Language To Describe It

    The Founding Fathers gave us democracy.  We have the moral responsibility to restore what was given to us, to take back what has been taken away by corrupt politicians of both major parties.  There is no longer any doubt that the two-party system has been used to Establish, Maintain, and Expand corporate Tyranny.  It has been used to divide and conquer, to prevent We the People from uniting in defense of our rights as citizens.  

    The false paradigm of We the Left against We the Right must be rejected.  Americans must embrace a new ideology of Citizen Empowerment, they must speak a new language of Political, Social, and Economic Activism, they most forge a new movement, a local, state, and nationwide alliance encompassing the values and goals they share in common.  They must cast aside the dead language of We the Left and We the Right, for among the victims of corporate Tyranny, there is no We the Left nor We the Right anymore, there is only We the Powerless.

    Oct 15 2009

    The Protesters .vs. Sen. Lindsey Graham

    So, I’ve seen some comments here and elsewhere (DKos) that mock the people calling out and protesting against the crooked GOP agenda of Lindsey Graham (and the Elitist pro-Establishment interests that he represents).

    But you all should be rooting for the protesters here, and not accepting the U.S. Media line that the status-quo GOP agenda is somehow to be perceived as less “extreme”.

    For it is the well heeled LindseyGraham-GeorgeBush-RushLimbaugh Republicans who are the fascists, the Human Torture enthusiasts, the buddies of the Wall Street crooks, the racists, and the War Mongering World Empire murderers — not the people shouting out in protest at Lindsey Graham.

    The protesters of Lindsey Graham, who Graham himself decries for calling Bush a “War Criminal” (which of course he is), are largely Libertarians and old-school Constitutional Republicans that disapprove of the GOP War and Wall Street agenda.

    Watch: