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Comment Rescue: Starchild responds to Eli Lehrer's self-serving attack on Libertarians

Worth thinking about (even if I am fairly sure Tom Paine not Tom Jefferson said that):

As the "Starchild" mentioned in this article, I'll gladly confirm I not only attended the Libertarian Party's national convention in Las Vegas, but was elected as one of the Libertarian National Committee's five at-large representatives.
Libertarians are not conservatives. Most LP members believe in the Non-Aggression Principle -- if you want to be a sex worker or client, gamble, sell drugs, carry a gun, peacefully migrate to another part of the world, etc., you have the right to do so as long as you don't initiate force or fraud against others.
It's easy to call names, but Lehrer fails to substantiate his name-calling with cogent arguments explaining how the Big Government priorities he implicitly (anti-prostitution laws, marijuana prohibition, etc.) or explicitly (the Federal Reserve, foreign aid, etc.) defends are compatible with a system based on individual liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
He claims libertarianism is "not a credible governing philosophy". It was not *meant* to be a tool of those who govern, but to serve *we the people* by keeping *government* in check! As Jefferson said, that government is best which governs least. The "political right" is too enamored of governing. Establishment Republicans are marching us along with establishment Democrats down the road to serfdom.
As traditional GOP leaders find themselves politically compelled to address libertarian ideas like ending the Fed, the undeclared wars, etc., we learn how deep (or shallow) their commitments to limited government, the Constitution, and freedom really are.

I will remake a point that I made in a more private context:  Starchild IS one of the reasons there needs to be a Libertarian Party.


If you have never read my post on "The Fringe," now would be a good time to do so.


Oh, and as a warning for some of my more strait-laced friends who consider the use of profanity to be an indicator of not having sufficient imagination to make your point otherwise, I've been writing professionally for over thirty years.  When I use profanity, it's because I have selected exactly the correct word to create precisely the effect I want.

Comments

tom said…
that quote is attributed to both Jefferson and Paine, but much as i wish somebody named Tom had come up with that, it is nowhere to be found in any of their known writings.

Henry David Thoreau did write it in 1849, but he attributes it to John O'sullivan.
June 5, 2012 at 7:43 PM
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