Kicking the Hornet's Nest

Conspiracy is fun.  Perhaps it's my conservative roots, perhaps it's just a natural reaction to a good ghost story.  And like a good ghost story, here's one you haven't heard yet:

In December of 2012, while we were all waiting for the end of the world, the Republican Party was in complete shambles.  Yes, they continued to control the US Congress, but they were divided and beaten.  It appeared that, perhaps, the beast of Austerity was finally slain, and America could breathe a sigh of relief.

Of course, that's not the situation now, just 3 months later.  For some unknown reason, the Democrats in the US Senate chose to pursue a list of social policies, including gun control, rather than issues that could have driven the Republicans into the ground, like Social Security, the Post Office, bank regulation, and ending the Bush tax cuts.

And instead of swinging America back to a moderate position, we now see conservatism even stronger than ever.  Instead of marginalizing the right-wing radicals, this latest string of Democratic initiatives has energized and empowered them.

Obama is caving on every single economic issue, he's championing our radical foreign policy, and he has fully left progressives in the dust.  These social issues are just an excuse to get everybody fighting again.  The Democratic Senate continues to issue bills that they know won't pass the House, but that don't challenge the grassroots support that the Republican House still retains.

And Austerity continues.

So, is this a conspiracy?  Reasonable people will weigh in on every issue that's put before them.  But who puts these issues before us?  Have you noticed that for the past 3 months, all that MSNBC wants to talk about is guns and gay rights?  I mean, sure, we all have opinions on that, and reason should prevail.  But is THAT the issue facing America that should be unifying us?

If you want to get rid of a hornet's nest, you don't go up to it and smack it with a stick first.  That's just stupid.  So either the secret masters behind this battle plan are stupid, or they're diabolical.

Help me uncover this grand conspiracy, this great betrayal.  There's no need to attack Social Security and Medicare, no reason to kill the Post Office, no reason to starve America into submission.  And there's no reason to empower your enemies with pokes and prods when such core issues are at stake.

Liberty, Democracy, and the Political Center

This blog began three years ago as part of a US Congressional race.  Recently, I created a YouTube video that caps off my activities in the Libertarian Party and explains why I can no longer support that organization any longer.  Please give it a watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STzf4EuDHog

Transcript:

I served for 30 years as an active member of the Libertarian Party,
and then another 3 years trying to re-brand the Pennsylvania chapter as a moderate, common sense and full-fledged political party.

Here in Pennsylvania, we soon limited the radicals by a new, simplified platform,
one that respected their extreme ideology but that would also accomodate
other moderate views... and therefore many more people.

Unfortunately, the radicals saw it as Heresy, and nothing was achieved in 2 years due to in-fighting and hack politics.

My only choice was to either surrender the party,
      or to stop negotiating and expel the radicals from the party altogether.
I chose to leave.

So, while I'm at the end of the story, let's move on to the beginning.

I joined Libertarian Party through the Clark Campaign in late 1979

I served as State Chair of the Delaware LP 81-85

And I ran for National Chair at the 1985 Phoenix Convention (where I carried 2 states)

In '89, I moved to western Pennsylvania to raise a family
 and served 4-years as an elected School Board Director

I rejoined the LP of Pennsylvania in 2009 where I came to serve as Secretary for a year, and managed to rally overwhelming support for a new, simplified and reasonable platform, only 10 statements long.

I also ran for US Congress in 2010 and received over 3% of the popular vote.

However, my platform wasn't the normal Libertarian Party BS you see today: 

I advocated single-payer medical insurance, which I justified from a libertarian perspective.

My motto was, "We don't need less government, we need better government"

And built my public statements on the assumption
   that Liberty and Democracy are NOT opposing ideas.


After the race, I started calling myself a "Progressive Libertarian".

I spent 3 years total in the LPPA trying to make it an inclusive, broad-based political party

However, the national Party is under complete policy control rooted in Austrian Economics and Ancap fundamentalism.

I'm done fighting with them.  They'll retake the state party this April and the LP of Pennsylvania will once again be just a right-wing populist group on the fringe of conservatism.

Good news is that I've come out of this experience with a new position, what I call Radical Centralism.

I recognize that, historically, the point of any economic policy is to secure wealth.

That's how it has always been.  Any progress for humanity is ultimately a balance with its conservative roots, between Property and the People.

And that is why the political Center the most volitile position in politics, because that's where change is actually made.

And this is also why Right-Wing Populism, which is what Murray Rothbard advocated, is such a dangerous phenomena in the US today.

They are educating a new Corp of youth and veterans,
 all under councils of Old Guard Conservatives

The trolls you find that spout off about NAP and "voluntaryism" are simply leaders-in-training.

Now, I'm not saying that they are Fascists.  I'm not.  I'm saying that fascists are like Them.

People wrapped up in this Anarcho-Capitalist, Austrian School bullshit need to check themselves.

If you truly believe in the principle of Liberty, it's time you embraced the principle of Democracy as well.

This is America.  For all its faults, the US stood against the monarchies of Europe, from the Congress of Vienna to the end of the Habsburg Empire.  The Austrian School was born under the Habsburgs and continues the tradition to this day.

Anarcho-Capitalism is a very radical view, a belief in the privatization of everything and an end to all democracy.

The Libertarian principles of "individual sovereignty" and "self-ownership", as if people can be owned at all, needs to be questioned.

I'm not calling them feudalists, but that feudalists are like Them.

These "new intellectuals", as Ayn Rand called them, all talk the same, all argue the same way.

They're being trained that way.  They're everywhere.  And frankly, it's exhausting.

Government is not the problem.  Corruption is the problem, and we need to correct it.

I believe that government should Serve== to protect the People and secure their rights.

I think that rights in property should be respected, but that citizen rights must also be respected.

And in referencing the US Constitution, Article 1 Section 8, the phrases "common defense" and "general welfare" should carry equal weight.

Anyway, that's how I see things now.  If you'd like to discuss anything, post your comments and we'll chat.

Thanks for watching.