TheAgitator.com
Self Promo
Monday, November 17th, 2003Jim Antle is becoming the go-to guy on the libertarian-conservative split.
He has the cover story in the latest American Conservative, and quotes yours truly a couple of times.
18 Responses to “Self Promo”
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Split? Libertarians are no more than a political splinter, and I’m not just talking about the LP. Conservatives have viewed them as sometimes-useful-idiots and now some on the anti-war left are seeing them the same way.
I found the mentions of Bennett and Limbaugh interesting. How a person will proclaim to believe one thing with their words, but another entirely by their actions.
So the question is whether Libertarians are smart enough to be happy with 50% of what they believe in or whether they want to live in a land that does not represent anything they support.
Prood is in the pudding my fellow freedom fighters. The article mentions three senate races that won by the left. That is three more senators that make confirming a moron to our federal judiciary that much easier. That is three senators that allow the stalling of current judicial nominations. There is no greater problem in our country now that allowing judges to make laws. The left has realized that they can not pass their crazy ideals onto this country through elections so they have decided to subvert our constitution and pass laws throught he bench. A place where no one looks for infringements on our rights.
Conservatives have failed us, no doubt, the expansion of government is sickening, but lets be serious, if this country had Clinton and a Democratic Congress the expansion of goverment would be ten times as big.
The right has lost the phrasing on the battle, it is now common knowledge that you either take benefits away or give more of them. The left and their media have demogoged (is that a word) this country into the belief that getting stuff from the government is a right, instead of flipping the coin and seeing that the government can not give us anything without first taking it away. Because of this the right is now forced to expand government, and the fact that the left controls our socialits school system only makes it more difficult to get Americans to understand what the issues are.
I disagree with Libertarians who think that our military work in the Middle East is Imperialism. Give it whatever name you want, but something must be done. The arab world is stuck in the 13th century, where life is cheap, with 20th century killing technology. I agree with you that we should not risk our troops, that is why I think we should just drop nukes on them, one country at a time. But allowing that area of the world to stay stationary is unacceptable.
So the question is, do you want to be like the religious right, that will not support anyone who is not pro life. They would rather get nothing they believe in rather than get everything but abortion and in the end they still lose on abortion.
I believe in fighting the two party system, both parties are scumbags, but lets at least stick with those who provide us with the most we desire while we work at destroying them.
â??Your vicesâ??sinful, regretful, damnable. My vicesâ??not so bad. The guy lost $1.4 million in one two-month stretch. But he doesnâ??t have a problem. Cancer patients who want to smoke marijuanaâ??theyâ??re the ones who have problems.â?
Very nice…I’ve paraphrased you a couple of times with that one.
John Kennedy: Then why the hell are you reading this blog? Besides, conservatives are the useful idiots of Republican politicians.
Peter: Yes, “dropping nukes”, as you call it, should bring the Islamic world out of the 13th century. And into the first.
Since when is nationalism incompatible with libertarianism (Regarding Jeffrey Tucker’s assertion “We are not nationalists”)?
“Then why the hell are you reading this blog?”
Because I think the Agitators are mostly good critics. Still, libertarianism is going nowhere as a political movement.
Matt, I am not particularly concerned about the Muslim world. I could give two rats asses about them. I care about the Muslim world when they start killing the innocent people in my world. Unless the Muslim world starts living in the 21st century there will be no Muslim world when we get through with them, and you know what, who cares. Just imagaine all those inventions and discoveries we would have to do without. Oh wait, they have not done a thing for civilization since the Moors, so now they are starting WWIII, is that considered an accomplishemnt?
My point is still that anti war should not be a Libertarian stance, and to me the principle part of our constitution and government should be to protect our citizens, so killing anyone slightly responsible for hurting our citizens does not bother me.
My second point is still that the Republicans have abandoned the concept of smaller government, but is it really their fault. I hate big government but in our crappy two party system they compete to see who can spend more. At the end of the day the Republicans will still spend and tax us less than the Liberals and will not appoint jackass judges that blatantly disregard our constitution.
The Popular Front proceeds apace. Let’s see – it’s unprincipled to compromise with Republicans, but principled to join with people who truly despise you – the Dean Democrats (their love of liberty is amply displayed every day at http://www.democraticunderground.com), the obscurantist paleocons at American Conservative and (presumably) the admirers of the late unlamented slaveocracy over at Lewrockwell.com.
Brilliant coalition building there, Balko.
Mr. Sabotta, I often find your perception laser-like.
But I hope Mr. Balko wonâ??t take your comment the wrong way. Ultimately I think he is one of the â??good-guysâ?.
And the pretentious, esoteric semasiologists over at no-treason.com
“But I hope Mr. Balko wonâ??t take your comment the wrong way. Ultimately I think he is one of the ‘good-guys’.”
matt is kind of evil, though.
lung,
small, easily annoyed semasiologist.
Conservatives have failed us, no doubt, the expansion of government is sickening, but lets be serious, if this country had Clinton and a Democratic Congress the expansion of goverment would be ten times as big.
Odd, why did you phrase this as a hypothetical? When the country had a democratic Congress and Clinton as president, did the government expand ten times more than Bush and a GOP Congress?
I agree with you that we should not risk our troops, that is why I think we should just drop nukes on them, one country at a time. But allowing that area of the world to stay stationary is unacceptable.
I’m sorry, I hadn’t read this far as of the previous comment, mistaking you for someone worth taking seriously. My apologies.
Yes Radley, I saw that piece and was glad to see you quoted!
In a similar vein to your “your vices bad, mine OK” riff, ever notice how Andrew Sullivan bitches ‘n’ moans about the Bush deficit, then posts about how Bush isn’t throwing enough resources into Iraq? Same kinda thing…
esoteric???
â?¦ only subjectively speaking.
lung: matt is kind of evil, though.
I donâ??t know â??mattâ?.
Peter:
So the question is whether Libertarians are smart enough to be happy with 50% of what they believe in or whether they want to live in a land that does not represent anything they support.
50%? Just what have libertarians actually gained politically from the republicans? Spending is through the roof, the patriot act has pretty much invalidated huge chunks of the constitution, free trade is being squashed for political benefit, anti-terrorism laws are being stretched to aid the “war on drugs”…with all that, what are they yelling about? Not being able to have laws against buttsex (!).
If this is “50%” I’d hate to see us actually get less…
The left has realized that they can not pass their crazy ideals onto this country through elections so they have decided to subvert our constitution and pass laws throught he bench.
Democrats are “the left” now? Doesn’t this assume that they actually believe political correctness & generous social spending improve conditions, rather than them really not caring what they have to say or do as long as they hold power?
These are statists we’re talking about. It’s all about power, if they ever thought for a second that what they pushed actually did improve lives then they’d end it right now, because their self-interest does not allow for actual success. To call Dems “left” is an insult to actual socialists.
Taktile: A couple of things, because I believe that dropping nukes on Arabs who believe god wants them to kill innoncent women and children I should not be taken seriously. I could argue that someone who automatically rules out all the weapons in his arsenal should not be taken seriously. We have them so we should seriously determine when is the right time or wrong time to use them. For me this is a legitimate threat to the ongoing survival of this great country so I would like to nip it at the bud right away. Ten kilotons at a time is just fine for me. Anyway, nukes are good, they help you make friends, look at the Japanese. Someone has to make tough decisions and say things no one wants to hear. Let me take responsibility, drop the nukes myself, deal with me and my ilk as you like, but I promise you that those actions would make you a lot safer. Remember how we treated Israel when they took out Iraq’a nuclear reactors twenty years ago. Did you send them a thank you note recently?
As for Clintons two years in office with a Democratic congress, do you not remember the results, the Democrats were swept out of office and Clinton sold them down the river to get a second term. There is no way to prove this stuff, and I am angry as hell about what the Republicans have done in terms of government spending, but I am sure that if our government was all Democrats we would have even higher taxes and more spending.
Unfortunately the Democrats have won the marketing side of this battle and the lines have been drawn at who can spend the most. If the Republicans do not match them then the Republicans will never win another election. Maybe I am more pessimistic than most.
The problem is our two party system where these bunch of monkeys fight for power and control over the rest of us. However, I must be a realist at this point in time and pick the one that is the least bad for me, and I am pretty confident that is the Republicans.