Being a libertarian, small 'l' or big 'L' is inherently frustrating. I'd like to outline a few of the ways in which being a liberty-loving individual sometimes drives me, and I'm sure others, to the brink of throwing up my hands and admitting that the best ideas will not win.
1. The Preface: Libertarians have the distinct displeasure of having to argue against nearly everyone in politics, and most people's political views. Of course, since (as Sean so wonderfully wrote in the last post on this blog) politics is a game, any attack on a politician must come from the 'other team'. This requires libertarians to preface every conversation about Obama with "I didn't vote for McCain"; to have a preamble before discussion can begin in order to not be dismissed immediately as a 'bad guy', 'enemy' or 'one of those'. Of course, since libertarians aren't a mainstream factor in one of the two parties, then we cannot be correct about anything and are immediately dismissed as 'kooks', 'crazies' and 'one of
those'.
2. The liberal assumption of evil: Arguing with liberals and conservatives is always annoying, because their positions are illogical, or at least inconsistent. The liberal I is often worse because he presumes that those who do not agree with him are flawed, or even bad, people. He wishes to marry whomever he likes, work wherever, live wherever, say whatever and pray wherever (if ever) he likes; however, he does not wish for all of us to spend whatever we like. He'd prefer to take our money and spend it on the things he deems most important, as though he is sage enough to determine which things are most important, and I am too stupid to realize that feeding hungry children might be a good idea. While conservatives have a million and one ideological fallacies as well, the liberal tends to assume that anyone not willing to pay absurd amounts of taxes wishes to see babies starve, millions of homeless, and so on until every non-liberal is Monty Burns, Ebenezer Scrooge and Lex Luthor rolled into one. Frederic Bastiat so eloquently writes:
Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.
We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.
3. Getting zero credit: The biggest credit crunch in this country is not a matter of mortgages and small business owners. It's the lack of credit given to Ron Paul, Peter Schiff and the few other folks on television and print media who consistently get things right. Mr. Schiff, for example, has
YouTube clipsfor miles outlining
all the times Arthur Laffer, Ben Stein and the rest of the Keynesians and neoconservatives laughed at his dire predictions for government intervention. As Mr. Schiff says in that last clip, going against the so-called experts, the big shots and the consensus opinion is unpopular, but what is more amazing is that when inevitably proven right, those same clowns will take all the credit for 'fixing' whatever was wrong (for and infinitely higher price and in tenfold more time) and the scenario will repeat itself indefinitely.
4. Senator Harry Potter (D-Privet Drive): Homer Simpson said that beer is the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. Talk to liberals and conservatives alike, and they'll tell you that the solution is always government. It is as though, upon being elected to office, a regular man or woman passes Platform Nine and Three Quarters, dons a robe and grabs a wand. They become capable of superhuman life saving magic spells, which make the world a better place. Paradoxically, Democrats and Republicans distrust 'politicians' as a group, just as they despise 'the media' and 'corporations'. These broad terms, for some reason, have an inherently negative vibe (it's hard for me to recall someone using any of the terms as a broad stroke in a positive light), yet somehow health care, education, regulation of business, food safety and an ever-growing plethora of other "necessary" government controls. Politicians are merely individuals, just as corporations and media outlets are run by individuals. Yet we never expect private citizens to be capable of solving their own problems. Instead, we ask the wizards to conjure up a spell that will force everyone else to realize what's good for them.
Of course, that's just for starters.
