Archive for the ‘libertarianism’ Category
Harry Browne’s Interview with Eric Dondero
Here’s an old interview with infamous “pro-war libertarian” (more like neoconservative)Eric Dondero by the late, great Harry Browne. This interview was done at the time a sick and dying Browne was delving into the mind of a Republican nutjob who supported the War in Iraq and claimed that the “Islamo-Fasicists” (a massive force of Islamists who purportedly embraced fascism) are coming through our borders.
Of course, Dondero called those who didn’t support the War, who didn’t support military action in Iraq, and who didn’t sign on board with the “Muslims-Are-Coming” Little Chicken mentality “complete wimps” and “crazy.” Dondero leveled loads of insults, screams, and accusations against Harry on one of his last radio shows.
Callers whom one can hear are the infamous http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifAlex Jones and then-(and now former) National Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus Bill Westmiller. Bill then pointed out that Eric dropped an email to the RLC list, urging the then-Bush administration to “drop a nuclear bomb on Mecca.”
Of course, Dondero accuses Harry of not being a libertarian because Harry would have responded by writing in one of his columns that the attacks were “a criminal act,” yet later in the interview he says:
Look, I don’t want anybody to get the impression that, you know, uh, libertarians hold a single view on foreign policy. We are all in agreement – all libertarians – that we should get out of the United Nations and end foreign aid. I think, you know, we have massive disagreements on the War on Iraq and the responding to September 11th. Harry, I consider you a comrade in the libertarian movement. You and I should be concentrating on getting the Congress to stop foreign aid and getting us out of the United Nations. You know, if we have differences on this, perhaps we can put them aside.
What a complete hypocrite he is!
*Note: Dondero claims to “care about the 3,000 people” who were massacred on 9/11, yet he didn’t give a rip about them long before the September 11th attacks.
My Response to Walter Block’s Hit Piece Against Wendy McElroy
For the record, here’s my official Facebook status post on my wall serving as a response to Walter Block’s hit piece aimed solely at libertarian/anarchist Wendy McElroy. The following is taken from my FB account in its unabridged entirety:
As much as I like Ron Paul tactically and not politically (I’m not an official financial supporter, although I did contact the Paul campaign and offer to volunteer my time and services to help him tactically), I think LewRockwell.com blogger and writer Walter Block’s attack on libertarian/anarchist feminist Wendy McElroy is completely unfounded and uncalled for.
Wendy is right about Paul politically, but she’s not the only person to have called Paul out on his anti-libertarian stands on a few issues such as abortion, immigration, religion, and antiwar if not authorized by the Constitution, and constitutional fetishism all on account of his status as a politician. (URL: http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php) I have called Ron out even though I have praised him during the debate (except for his “secure the border” rhetoric). I know Thomas L. Knapp has called him out in the past and still does to a certain extent. (URL: http://knappster.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-hes-right-hes-right.html) I know Stefan Molyneux has been critical of Paul in the past. I know Sheldon Richman criticized Paul over the old racist newsletter controversy that plagued the Paul campaign in 2007 and 2008, and he was completely spot-on regarding Paul allegedly being unaware of the letters (a claim which Richman didn’t even buy at all). Even Jim Davidson has good reasons to oppose Paul’s candidacy, simply because Paul supported a two-time bailout, prowar candidate named Lamar Smith over a libertarian Republican candidate who was more principled than Smith. Simply put I can’t blame him for it.
With that in mind, because Block measures a libertarian’s credentials simply by whether he supports his favored political candidate (who happens to be Ron Paul) and not by his ideology, will he attack me? Tom? Stefan? Sheldon? Anyone who dares to have a brain against him and the renewed deification of Paul (which seems to be happening already)?
I am so disappointed in Block that I truly question whether he is a libertarian nowadays or whether he’s just a front for the GOP establishment, considering he no longer measures an individual’s belief system solely on his ideology but rather whether he supports a candidate like Ron Paul. I totally resent and object to that game entirely.
Now that Block is trying to stir up bullshit in the movement with his claims against Wendy (who hasn’t written about Paul in over four years now) and with anyone who doesn’t agree with Paul (even if they’re not neocons or progressives), he’s merely doing more damage to the cause of Liberty and not helping it. That’s my objection right there. Who the hell does he think he is just by doing this? Wendy has been an ardent defender of liberty for years and has never wavered since. For Block to stoop to that level the same way neoconservative Republican Eric Dondero has done is shameful, putrid, and disgusting. I’m embarrassed to have any association with him. I’ll be more embarrassed to be in the same room with him. It’s one thing to attack progressives and neocons who want Ron’s head on the issues that he’s right on. It’s wrong to attack fellow libertarians who criticize and call out Ron on the issues that he’s wrong on. Not only does that say more about Block, but it makes him politically and ideologically fair game, IMHO.
Not that I’m a fan of Kevin Carson or just his biggest fan, but he was right about the term “vulgar libertarian.” Block fits that mold pretty damn well, and it shames me to say that.
What on earth was he thinking when he wrote that? Is he trying to push anyone out of the movement for not supporting Ron Paul for legitimate reasons? Is he off his rocker or what? Can someone please explain that rationale to me? I merely ask, because I don’t get it.
Whether you agree or disagree with critics of Ron Paul is not the point and even neither here nor there. The point is that Block is not only off-base for making this libelous and accusatory charge against her, but he’s also wrong to begin with. I will follow this up with this post and any updates to this commentary as well as my previous commentary on the subject.
Ron Paul Acolyte Walter Block Attacks Wendy McElroy
I was disheartened to see LewRockwell.com columnist and Loyola University Professor Walter Block‘s newly-launched tirade against renowned libertarian/anarchist individual feminist Wendy McElroy in his LRC piece today entitled “Is Wendy McElroy Still A Libertarian?: No; She Opposes the Ron Paul Candidacy.” (It’s a shame that Lew Rockwell himself has even allowed this putrid, disgusting, preposterous, and outrageous filth to be housed and archived on his popular website, let alone its own server.)
I encountered this putrid, disgusting, and outlandish drivel when fellow left-libertarian/agorist/voluntaryist Edgardo Peregrino posted this on his Facebook wall a few hours ago.
Edgardo posted the following with Block’s article on his wall, which caught my eye instantly:
I hate to disappoint Dr. Block, but not everyone who opposes Ron Paul is a bloodthirsty neocon or progressive.
Since then his wall has been hit with a few comments which have been largely negative about Walter’s hit piece:
Caleb McGinn As brilliant as Walter Block is he sure writes some stupid shit sometimes. Lew Rockwell probably wrote it for him.
2 hours ago · Like · 1
Edgardo Peregrino I’m a big fan of Dr. Block but sometimes I wonder what’s going through his head when he writes shit like this.
2 hours ago · Like
Bryan Tint What about Patrick Buchanan?
2 hours ago · Like
Steve Lolyouwish Maybe not but they’re certainly not helping.
2 hours ago · Like
Wendy has responded to her old friend Block’s knee-jerk hit piece on her website with the following post:
Apparently the litmus test for being a libertarian is whether you support a particular political candidate or not. At least, that’s the message of Walter Block’s article today on LewRockwell.com: Is Wendy McElroy Still a Libertarian? No; She Opposes the Ron Paul Candidacy. The attack is odd…for a few reasons. Just one of them is that I have not written of Ron Paul for over four years now. Indeed, I am ignoring almost everyone’s political campaigning from now ’til November for the sake of my digestion. Ah well. Clearly, and especially from the last paragraph, Walter is trying to bait me into some sort of exchange. Alas, Walter, old friend, I am not a puppet and I do not jump to the jerk of a string.
UPDATE: My indefatigable husband just sent me a link from the past, a link to the 2007 blog post in which I responded to a similar article Walter wrote in a similar view years and years ago. I don’t have anything to add. It is well-trodden territory.
(The article that Wendy wrote in response to Walter in a similar fashion some years ago over her August 1997 commentary titled “Ron Paul or Antiwar.com?” can be found here. Her commentary on the same piece before Block responded at that point can also be traced to here.)
I have responded to the entire affair on my Facebook wall in defense of McElroy, which I will post in a separate blog posting of my own. In another separate blog posting, I will be commenting on the entire matter, which will enable me to put my thoughts in correct order before I begin.
UPDATE (12-12-2011): A Facebook user identified as “Eric Lau” wrote a scathing attack on Wendy McElroy on Edgardo’s post in which Block attacks her for opposing his campaign (while apologizing for and defending Ron Paul) in a pathetic, snarky attempt to discredit her:
Erik Lau What Wendy McElroy is writing about Ron Paul is ridiculous rant or outright lies. How can any libertarian accuse Ron Paul of not being a libertarian, but an enemy to freedom. She might really dislike most political action and especially from GOP but her factual opinion of Paul is savagely wrong – and that is very damaging.
about an hour ago · Like
The Conservative (and Libertarian) Love Affair with Maximum "Limited" Statism, Corporatism, and Constitutional Fetishism
Whenever I hear (some) “limited government” conservatives and (minarchist) libertarians utter phrases like “We must keep the U.S. federal government to its Constitutional size” and “Only Congress has the legal and just power to [do this] or [do that]” or “These new laws and regulations are an affront to and assault on free market capitalism” or “President [Insert name here] has signed into law a bill that clearly violates the Constitution,” I feel a sudden chill rushing down my spine. And it’s not a good feeling. None indeed whatsoever.
The problem with this school of thought is that the individual who stands to defend this rhetoric bar none injects an enormous amount of political and ideological faith in a few areas under a blind guise of praxeological arguments. Not surprisingly, these aforementioned arguments are of the following:
- That the United States of America as a quasi-governmental corporation must be governed by a blanket set of rules called a constitution and that these rules see the State as a pet to be tamed and put on a leash;
- That, unless the Constitution “authorizes” the State to partake in legal functions (such as granting Congress the power to “coin Money” and to “declare War” against a foreign power) as “America’s Founders had originally intended and envisioned them,” the President, the Senate, and the Congress “has no constitutional authority” to engage in these said functions if said rules expressly forbid them to do so;
- That the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which states in part, “The powers not expressly delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” is the law of the land and that Constitution “is only granted enumerated powers at the State level that the Constitution does not clearly spell out and define.” Oh, and don’t forget that they also say that Washington, D.C. “has no right to tell people and their States what they can and cannot do” because these issues (like taxes, economic regulations, immigration) pertain to “state sovereignty” and “states’ rights.”
(Some of these so-called limited statist conservatives reach an impasse with their ideological and political paradigms because they cannot reconcile their love affair for the Constitution and their alleged pro-liberty ideologies with their corporate socialist and privileged philosophies, given that they express deference to the State while appearing to favor laissez-faire “free market” capitalism);
- That the U.S. Supreme Court was never meant to be an instrument of judicial activism (that is, the Court having legislative power from the bench on the whims of the judges on account of their personal and political views and interests) but rather a provider of a strict, restrictive interpretative federal power on interstate commerce and limited judicial power (as mandated by the 11th Amendment);
- That the State was meant to be “limited” in nature, and that it must be confined to the chains of the Constitution, as “America’s Founders intended it to be”;
- That the State is meant to be in place to have “federal powers few and defined,” and that some functions of society (such as roads, the police, prisons, and the courts) must be socialized and not left in the hands of a free market;
- And so on and so on;
What’s equally troublesome is their easily-debunkable claim that free markets exist now (despite regulations by the State) and their corporatist/privileged safety net protection rackets are protected and carried out by state decree. Even Objectivists fall under this perturbing rubric all too well.
If those phrases are meant to be taken seriously, then I must ask those who employ them in political and ideological discourses this very paramount question: Why? Why must we care about “limited government” when the State is not some kind of a canine that can be put on a leash and trained to behave at his owner’s command? Is it worth spewing those words, knowing how impossible it is to have a limited “minimized state” government because of its temptation to grow? This political opiate has taken on a life of its own. Even the Founders of whom some conservatives and minarchist libertarians have grown so fond had individually different ideas of what the role of government should be in civil society on its own merits. It’s no secret that the “Founding Fathers” of the United States couldn’t bring themselves to see eye-to-eye on how “small” the State should be. (The Articles of Confederation merely accomplished this [despite some of the problems that it had], but that document was thrown aside in favor of the current constitution.)
If we are an astute judge of constitutional history, then it is obvious that the great constitutional experiment that the Founders established has not created a government “limited” within power and scope but a plutocratic-autocratic hybrid apparatus. In other words, the State has become both an instrument of unlimited power and a collusive partner with Big Business and Fortune 100 and 500 corporations that enjoy privileged advantages at the expense of the underclasses. This is where the “free market capitalism” angle comes in: a politico-economic system that is state capitalistic in nature but disguised as a pseudo “free market capitalistic” system exploiting the underclass and protecting privileged elitism by according the ruling class with tangible perks that are not available to the poor a.k.a. the ruled.
And it doesn’t help that a minor subset of libertarians, whether they fall under the minarchistic or, to a lesser degree, the anarchistic categories, have embraced this “vulgar libertarian” mindset, while forgetting that they condemn corporatism if it does not benefit them but, once it starts to work for them, they immediately embrace it. And some of their conservative allies who embrace the constitutional fetishism that the State is their enemy and that Wall Street and corporate America are enemies of true liberalism, a free market, and a peaceful civil society.
Conservatives (even the Ron Paul ones) have done the same, albeit a much lesser degree than the others. If nothing, they are their own worst enemies, and yet they don’t recognize that.
The conservative and libertarian love affair with maximum “limited” statism, corporatism, and constitutional fetishism is enough for me to deliberately question the absolute integrity of these groups.
Stossel’s Show Inquires "What Is A Libertarian?"
Fox Business blogger and Stossel talk show host John Stossel did an entire segment on his show on the meaning of the term libertarian. The question he posits to the public at large is, “What is a libertarian?”
Incidentally, his guests included CATO Institute Executive Vice-President David Boaz, self-proclaimed (but not truly) “libertarian” syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock, Harvard University Director of Undergraduate Studies Jeffrey Miron, Fox News‘ Freedom Watch talk show host and judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano, conservative political satirist P.J. O’Rourke, and, of course, my good friend and fellow left-libertarian/anarchist and individual feminist writer and blogger Wendy McElroy.
Here are the unabridged YouTube videos of the entire show (as shown in five parts):
Part 1:
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/KafCtzW0j-E&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1
Part 2:
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/bVJZmsCbsDY&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1
Part 3:
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/0V_AAJq5-AM&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1
Part 4:
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/6evSFv2zjmY&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1
Part 5:
http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/wHkIL3fHeF8&hl=en_US&fs=1&border=1
I will comment on the show at a later time, but for now these videos are available for your enjoyment.
Say "No" to Capitalism: In Defense of Sheldon Richman and the Libertarians Against Capitalism Facebook Group
Walter Block, a good friend of mine who’s also a fan of my show Liberty Cap Talk Live on Blog Talk Radio, a prominent blogger and writer at LewRockwell.com, a well-noted economics professor at Loyola University New Orleans, and a prominent senior fellow at the right-libertarian educational/academic organization Ludwig von Mises Institute, has penned a piece for LRC.com, in which he criticized my good friend and left-libertarian/agorist/anarchist mentor Sheldon Richman for having recently started his group Libertarians Against Capitalism on Facebook and positing his contention that the word capitalism lacks any value to and is a problem in the eyes of many purist free-market ideologues. (Here’s Sheldon’s rejoinder to Block on his Free Association blog.]
Curiously, Block writes in his piece in part:
If U.S. Presidents such as George Bush (41st or 43rd), Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan are widely considered capitalist supporters, and they are, then I, along with Libertarians Against Capitalism, want no part of this moniker. (Ronald Reagan magnificently utilized free market rhetoric; but budgets and regulations increased when he was governor of California and President of the U.S.) And the same goes for the likes of Vice Presidents Spiro Agnew, Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle and Nelson Rockefeller, along with talk show hosts Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly. I will not say that there is a 180 divergence between what they mean by ‘capitalism’ and how I use this word, but the differences are very stark. This includes other politicians of the following ilk: John Boehner, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Tim Pawlenty, Michael Steele, and Fred Thompson. Their ‘capitalism’ and mine are very, very different.
Intriguingly enough, Block fails to distinguish his so-called term free-market capitalism (in its purported context) from the commonly-used term state capitalism at the end of his paragraph. But then again why ruin the fun when you can attempt to make a good although unconvincing case against the critics of the term capitalism because of its purported pro-freedom/anti-state roots when actually its true anti-liberty/pro-state baggage predates the 20th century and further extends to France’s National French Assembly after the French Revolution of 1789, which was populated by the original leftists (laissez-faire advocates) on the Left (where Frederick Bastiat and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon sat) and the fascistic and mercantilistic aristocrats on the Right? Not only that, what about this term and its concepts’ deep-seated ties to corrupted, seedy, and shady interventionistic state influence? Apparently, he refuses to acknowledge all and any of those historically factual points.
Then, after listing the names of many conservatives in the above paragraph, Block further writes:
Nor can we afford to ignore a large group of neoconservatives, who are also linked with ‘capitalism’ in the public mind, for example: Elliott Abrams, John R. Bolton, Dick Cheney, Douglas Feith, Carl Gershman, Christopher Hitchens, David Horowitz, Robert Kagan, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, Richard Perle, Daniel Pipes, Norman Podhoretz, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Stephen Schwartz, Leo Strauss, Ben Wattenberg, Paul Wolfowitz and James Woolsey. Irving Kristol, the father of neo-conservatism, wrote a book called ‘Two cheers for capitalism.’ As for me, I want no part of this sort of ‘capitalism.’ It is three cheers for me, all the way.
Additionally, he writes:
And the same goes for conservatives such as Roger Ailes, David Brooks, William F. Buckley, John Derbyshire, David Frum, Robert Gates, Jim Geraghty, Jonah Goldberg, Lawrence Kudlow, Rich Lowry, Jay Nordlinger, Ramesh Ponnuru, Karl Rove, Mark Stein, John Yoo and Byron York. If they support capitalism, and they are widely seen to do so, then I, too, along with called Libertarians Against Capitalism, oppose it. For the “capitalism” of these people includes as a central tenet war, militarism and imperialism. They may call it ‘American Greatness,’ but what it amounts to is the U.S. tossing its military weight all around the world, in a totally unjustified manner.
Also, there are foreign dictators who have been, willy nilly, linked with capitalism, and I wouldn’t want to be linked, politically, with them either. For example, Pinochet, Franco, and even, help us please, Hitler.
And, finally, he says:
Reading the above, one might infer that I am as good a candidate as any other libertarian to join Libertarians Against Capitalism.
Ah, but, according to Block, “Not so, not so.” Why is that the case, you ask?
As convoluted as his logic is, here’s the following kicker coming from him:
My main reason is not etymological but rather linguistic. I readily admit that ‘capitalism’ has a bad press, and its historical use is none too salutary either. But, the enemies of libertarianism are always trying to take words away from us.
The “enemies of libertarianism” are “always trying to take words away from us”?
As much I love Walter personally (and I don’t mean to get my digs in him as well), it’s not that the “enemies of libertarianism” have been co-opting our terms for years. They have taken back the term libertarian, considering we took it from them. We did so as a response to the state socialists in the progressive camp having taken the word liberal from us! Look at “libertarians” like Neal Boortz, Mancow Muller, Wayne Allyn, and Bob Barr (who, although successfully had secured the Libertarian Party nomination in 2008, failed to win the presidential election). They have been acting as though they have been in favor of Liberty, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. And they even employ terms such as capitalism and libertarian that are in their vocabularies.
Furthermore, Block says:
They have already long ago stolen ‘liberal.’ We must now call ourselves ‘classical liberals’ if we want to use that appellation at all. Some have recently had the audacity to try to take away the word ‘libertarian.’ I refer, here, to Noam Chomsky, who has the temerity to characterize himself as a libertarian.
(Of course, his “attempted theft” charge against Chomsky doesn’t holds any water whatsoever, considering that Chomsky has been using that term to describe his brand of state socialism [statism] for decades. Block’s “evidence” against him is indicated here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Thus, Block’s case is very weak and implausible and appears to be on shaky grounds.)
It’s pleasant to know that Walter tries to differentiate himself from the capitalists he noted in the above paragraph. My question to him would be: why would you even want to associate yourself with a word that has historically been employed by state socialists (statists) such as progressive Bill Maher (who called himself a “capitalist” on his Real Time show last night) and conservative economist Ben Stein across the political spectrum? Right-libertarians like Block, Stephan Kinsella, and Brad Edmonds continue to embrace the term willingly and without question, despite their inherent incongruities and flawed, convoluted logic. John Stossel of Fox Business even qualifies as an example of this, especially when one considers his vulgar libertarian framing of the libertarian philosophy on his show Stossel and his libertarian and capitalist guests whom he often interviews in front of his live studio audience.
Free market capitalists apologizing for vulgar libertarianism and shilling for the conservative and corporatist shills by protecting the term capitalism, even with the best of intentions and in a vociferous manner, merely create the perceived impression that all voluntaryists and many other advocates of Liberty are in bed with the establishment. These moves land free-market radicals in trouble across the board, regardless of what many right-libertarians claim. These stooges set themselves up for disdain and alignment with the Republicans and their Wall Street-worshipping statist cronies. Should we, including Americans in general, be surprised with this type of behavior that has been an endemic (although embarrassing) part of our society, our culture, and the parasitic political establishment?
As for the word libertarian, Sheldon Richman posits:
Libertarian was used by left-wing Spanish anarchists during the 1930s civil war; they were no friends of private property and free trade. Going back further, the word was used by anarcho-socialists after the fall of the Paris Commune in 1871 because the word anarchist could land them in a heap of trouble. I doubt Block would regard those libertarians as comrades. The French word Libertaire appears to be the origin of our word libertarian, and it seems to have had nothing to do with what Block wants to call capitalism. Quite the opposite.
Sheldon is correct. The word capitalism has always had a twisted, dark, and vile history with the Liberty movement, thanks to and despite the efforts of Ludwig von Mises and Ayn Rand. Block’s attempt to save the term is an exercise in futility, because the word has really never been ours to begin with. Trying to resuscitate it, putting new life into it, and cleanse it from its sins are nothing but ideological and historical revisionism. No amount of spinmeistering from the hacks in our movement will change that talking point.
Block finally concludes his piece by writing:
So, I beseech Sheldon Richman and the other members of Libertarians Against Capitalism to disband their group, and, instead, work with the rest of us to save as many words as we can for our own use.
I doubt Sheldon has any interest in saving the word simply by disbanding his group. No left-libertarian/agorist/voluntaryist worth his salt believes that such an endeavor is, as Sheldon correctly noted at the end of his blog post, “worth the candle.” Capitalism, like the word libertarian, is not an ally – but rather an enemy – of laissez-faire. They do not truly go together like popcorn and butter. Laissez-faire capitalism is an artificial construct, not to mention a clever redundancy. Not only that, it is an oxymoron. One who calls oneself a laissez-faire capitalist is akin to one calling oneself a Christian Satanist. One cannot be a Christian and a Satanist simultaneously. Either one is a Christian or a Satanist; there is no such thing as “between one and other other” or “both.” Besides, there are plenty of terms that advocates of Liberty can use such as market anarchist, voluntaryist, laissez-faire, and free market. Besides, capitalism is a word that free-market radicals have now rejected.
It would be wise of our pro-Liberty allies to wash themselves of the label and stay away from it permanently. After all, it can’t be saved.
Besides, we have no need and use of that poisonous word we call capitalism. But we do have a need of the Libertarians Against Capitalism group on Facebook. Let’s educate the masses about the true vile nature of capitalism as it stands today.
Bureaucrashed
Bureaucrash, which was founded in 2001 by entrepreneur Al Rosenberg and the now-defunct Henry Hazlitt Foundation, has been funded by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) (a long-time libertarian think tank), and was run by former Crasher-in-Chief Jason Talley (who runs the Motorhome Diaries with fellow CEI activist Pete Eyre), has been taken over by a neoconservative Republican. Lee Doren, who is the organization’s new Crasher-in-Chief, claims to be a libertarian-conservative (which is ridiculous because the libertarian ideology is a different animal from the conservative one), yet his so-called “libertarian-conservative” positions are not sitting well with the bulk of the group’s entire member base.
Since CEI has control of Bureaucrash and has obviously decided to take the organization in this statist direction, this has had a very detrimental effect on the favorable view and reputation that the group has had for years. The bulk of the membership has expressed utter outrage over Doren’s appointment to his new position, which has led to many members threatening to bolt from BC if Doren does not either embrace the complete ideologically pure tenets of liberty, step down voluntarily, or is not terminated from that job.
This is what Doren wrote on the front page of BC’s official website, even though he wrote a long missive in the form of an intellectually dishonest “mea culpa” from which this message is taken:
Dear Current Members of BureauCrash
Okay, mea culpa. I came in here as the new guy trying to hit the ground running and may have moved too quickly, so I’d like to address the concerns that you have about the future direction of BureauCrash. First, BureauCrash will be an open forum for debate and discussion about the intersection between liberty and politics. Moreover, it will continue to allow all types of pro-liberty political philosophy (and if socialists want to come in here to debate, I’m sure we’ll all be up for that). I am sensitive to the fact that many of you are worried that my personal political views are more from the traditional wing of the liberty movement, but I make no apologies for that. Liberty is a broad concept. I will not be revamping BureauCrash to turn into my own pet project. My goal is to broaden our discussion and activist base while maintaining current ideas and projects. While that task may be difficult, I am sure we can work together to accomplish this goal.
Many BC members have already terminated their Bureaucrash Social (a website which acts as a pro-freedom social networking tool that mirrors Facebook and Myspace in some respects) accounts, while voluntaryists like Ian Freeman of Free Talk Live have already declared that they will be pulling their accounts on Monday. I have already pulled my account from the website, and I no longer wish to be associated with an organization that is transforming from a libertarian one to a conservative one.
Doren, who was on FTL to respond to the questions about his new appointment, was scrutizined by Freeman, co-host Mark Edge, and occasional co-host and AnarchyInYourHead.com cartoonist Dale Everett because of his neoconish positions, which he disguises as “libertarian-conservative.” At one point in the interview, Lee, when asked whether the military budget should be cut, says that he doesn’t “have an opinion” on the issue. What a ludicrous position to have! This man is the head of a libertarian group, and if he is ever interviewed and gets asked about whether the budget should be reduced dramatically, he should have a position as to whether the budget should be cut or not. But this nitwit has no position on the matter, and, because of CEI’s bungling, it shows that he is not a libertarian, let alone an individual who advocates voluntary activism and opposes the state and its bureaucratic nonsense.
It is also indicative of what has become of the libertarian movement, considering there are conservatives like Wayne Allyn Root and Lee Doren who call themselves libertarians when they are not.
This is the problem when libertarianism becomes mainstream. When the libertarian movement and its ideas become mainstreamed into society, they lose their true meaning and their essence. The movement no longer becomes one that has its own autonomy and its own uniqueness; it becomes a political movement that warps and even perverses the purity of its tenets. Thus, the word “libertarian” no longer means an advocate for individual freedom and the elimination of the state; it becomes an advocate for “limited government” (meaning that the government can be what the advocates want it to mean) and the reformation of the state.
As a result of its mainstreaming, when the tent of the movement is widened for people to enter it, then it becomes watered down and sounds not so radical so that interested parties that support the initiation of force will join it. Conservatives who like this new brand of libertarianism (a faux one that it is) will adopt it and dupe ill-informed and unwitting members of society to believe that, because, if these people believe in this brand of liberty, then all advocates of human freedom must share these beliefs as well.
The reason that they would see it that way is that human beings are irrational creatures, thanks to human nature. They make irrational and illogical associations all the time. This is the reason why the libertarian philosophy must be guarded and protected at all times!!! This is not about making personal attacks on conservatives and neoconservatives and their ilk; this is about protecting the libertarianism from bigotry, jingoism, nationalism, xenophobia, collectivism, and even statism.
As for Bureaucrash, I doubt that there is any chance of saving the group from itself or bringing it back to its glory days. I’m convinced that the second BC ventured into neocon territory, it was over for the group as a libertarian organization. The odds of restoring and rescuing it from implosion are little to nil. After all, as Pete Eyre of Motorhome Diaries said on the Peace, Freedom, and Prosperity Movement Radio show on BlogTalkRadio.com on Friday, June 5, 2009:
You ask the last thing, ‘What can it be done to resurrect Bureaucrash?’ I mean, personally, I don’t think Bureaucrash can be resurrected as it was. I think the move by CEI has just made it too radioactive. Even if Lee was fired or he chose to leave and they brought in somebody good, like I think the damage is done.
Dale Everett said it best on his AnarchyInYourHead.com blog:
Sadly, the organization is not likely to simply fade away. Instead, by embracing the mainstream, it will probably grow, but it will have lost the edge that made it a special place for principled lovers of liberty. For now, it has chosen a quantity over quality approach when it comes to members, which I feel is very short-sighted, but then that depends on the goals of the owners. If their only goal is to grow membership, then perhaps they have chosen well. I just hope they have more meaningful goals than that.
If this new direction is not quickly changed, Bureaucrash will lose quite a few supporters, including Ian Freeman, host of Free Talk Live, and myself. I do not want Mr. Doren wielding the voice of Bureaucrash to distort the already diluted meaning of the word “libertarian”. If this mistake isn’t nipped in the bud, it is my opinion that Bureaucrash goes far beyond becoming unworthy of your support. They become an enemy.
The tragedy of it is that Bureaucrash has been “bureaucrashed.” What a loss to the libertarian movement this has become!
For those of you who want to know what Lee Doren looks like and is like, check out this YouTube video I got from Everett’s blog:
[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles and Peace, Freedom, and Prosperity.]
Tucker Carlson Joins CATO
It’s official: conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, former host of CNN’s now-defunct “Crossfire” and his failed MSNBC show “Tucker,” has joined the CATO Institute. Carlson, who briefly flirted with a presidential run by running for the presidency under the Libertarian Party’s banner and then decided against it, will be serving as a senior fellow at the think tank.
According to a press release on CATO’s website, Carlson will do the following:
Carlson will use his initial time with Cato to focus on writing a book on the state of the American polity. Through other writings as well as media and public speaking appearances, he will also seek to educate the broader public about how the libertarian philosophy differs from the standard liberal and conservative orthodoxies embodied in the two main U.S. political parties.
The next paragraph of its press release caught my eye, enabling me to shake my head in disbelief:
“Tucker Carlson is one of the most effective communicators of libertarian ideas in the nation,” said Cato founder and president Ed Crane. “We are delighted to have him associated with Cato as a senior fellow.”
First of all, Carlson is not “one of the most effective communicators of librtarian ideas.” He’s not a libertarian; he’s a conservative. He may have a libertarian bent in his conservative thinking, but he’s a conservative. It is true that he has come out against the war in Iraq and the War on Drugs, but he’s not a consistent defender of liberty. He’s not even a radical. Sure, he has expressed his admiration and respect for Ron Paul many times (he had Ron on his show during the course of his presidential campaign) and had been involved with his campaign. (Interestingly enough, one MSNBC toadie who had filled in for Carlson on his old show bashed Paul on December 27, 2007 for openly and truthfully declaring that the United States didn’t need to have its own civil war to end slavery.) But he is a conservative of the Barry Goldwater-style variety. His view on independent migrants a.k.a. “illegal aliens” epitomizes my point.
Second, why CATO? Why not the Ludwig von Mises Institute? CATO serves the interests of the beltway “cosmopolitan” libertarian crowd that embraces Milton Friedman’s Chicago school of thought. CATO is not truely liberarian; it’s libertarian only when a Democratic government and a Democratic president are in power. They were neither libertarian nor attempting to be libertarian when Bush was in power for eight years. In fact, many of its key personnel were (and still are) big supporters of the Republican Party, including Bush. Not a single peep came from them (with the exception of a very few) when Bush dragged us into Iraq, called for and launched the U.S. Department of Homeland Stupidity (I mean, Security), and signed into law the Military Commission Act, the Patriot Act, and the REAL ID Act (among many draconian and pro-state bills).
Carlson may be feeling at home in the think tank’s D.C. offices, but CATO’s Ed Crane calling him an “effective communicator of libertarian ideas” hardly passes the ideologically pure smell test.
[Cross-posted at The Freeman Chronicles.}