Posts Tagged ‘government’
Advancing Liberty Through Electoral Reform
What is the best way for liberty-minded people to affect change within our political system?
This question will likely evoke strong, often differing, opinions from activists within the liberty movement. Some favor trying to work through the current two-party system by electing Republican or Democratic candidates who support free markets, individual responsibility, and a humble foreign policy. Others claim that the lost cause of party reform should be abandoned in favor of third party or independent candidates.
The obvious problem with the latter assertion stems from the incredibly small odds of success for third party candidates. Running for office without the blessing of the Republican or Democratic parties rarely results in election, due in large part to our “winner-take-all” electoral system that perpetuates the two-party charade.
Michael Lind’s column at Salon, “The best way to fight the two-party monopoly,” explores the possibility of adopting a European-style proportional representation (PR) electoral system that could diminish the incentives to choose between the “lesser of two evils” and could boost the chances of third party candidates.
Lind explains:
“Voters list candidates in order of preference, and if no candidate receives a majority, the candidate who wins is the one who, in addition to first-choice votes, gets the most second- and, if necessary, third- and fourth-choice votes. This prevents a candidate who is despised by the majority from winning with a small plurality in a multi-candidate race.”
While such a system could make third parties a more viable option for the average voter, the barriers to implementing such a system are huge, since the two parties in power stand to lose the most from this kind of change. It is also worth noting that parties are notoriously corruptible entities that rarely stick to their principles. Who’s to say that a third party dedicated to liberty would not stray from their core platform just as the GOP and Democratic party have each supported massive market interventions and violations of civil liberties, respectively.
In the end, our surest bet is to educate our peers by vigorously defending individual liberty in the court of public opinion. With an educated electorate that understands the moral and practical rationale behind a philosophy of individual liberty and limited government, those ideals will be represented in our policy. As Judge Learned Hand famously remarked,
“Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.“
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James Robertson currently attends the University of Mississippi, where he plans to receive degrees in Political Science and English. He is the President of the Ole Miss Chapter of Young Americans for Liberty. He can be contacted at jrrobert@olemiss.edu.
Drunk Driving is NOT a Crime
So how quickly did that title catch your eye? I sometimes enjoy throwing quick hits such as that out to truly get a glimpse into how ingrained our society is with government protection. Drinking and driving is no laughing matter, however. It is dangerous to the extent of immorality (in my opinion). When people drink and drive they put themselves and, more importantly, others at risk.
However, I believe the actual definition of the word ‘risk’ escapes us sometimes. Risk is not simply for the stock brokers and day traders. Human beings take risks every day. It is the necessary response to living in a world of uncertainty. You take risks just by getting out of bed in the morning. Yet, there are certain activities which seem to raise the risks of extreme casualty to unnecessary levels. It is up to the individual to decide when the level of risk is too extreme to continue with any particular task that is currently occupying his/her time. However, circumstances, understandably, change when we venture into the realm of one person’s risks causing particularly unnecessary risks to others.
Government and Taxation Survey
Please take some time to answer this 10 question survey on government and the income tax: CLICK HERE!
School Sucks
I recently found a great podcast discussing the immoral and inefficient nature of the public school system in the United States. Brett Veinoitte gives the best description of government and its true negation of liberty I have ever heard. I have only gotten to episode 5 so far, but it already has me once again endulging in the vast ideology of liberty. Please visit the School Sucks Project website and download his podcast from Itunes. I promise you won’t be dissapointed.
Terror by Another Name
Coming off the heels of the 8-year anniversary of 9/11, now insidiously dubbed “Patriots Day,” I think it important for Americans to seriously question our outlook on terrorism. Indeed, September 11, 2001 was a tragic day for our nation’s history. However, I believe we as a nation should look to the acts committed on 9/11 as a way to connect with the rest of the world, which seems to bare the brunt of all atrocious acts we hear about on a daily basis.
I would first like to point out that I believe it takes a skeptical mind to tackle the true definition of terrorism. Relatively speaking, one person could view a violent act as terrorism while another could view it as honorable. So it is important to understand the motive behind any violent act if we have any hope of entering a peaceful world.
Secret Transparency
It’s been a little over 5 months since Obama took office. Now that he’s approaching half a year as our commander-in-chief, I feel as if we can begin to judge his actions thus far and project his future measures. I have been met with much dissent upon my criticism of Obama, usually from his supporters who claim I shouldn’t expect him to solve all of our problems within a few measly months. For those who use this excuse, I would like to point out that this type of argument is a red herring that would be very characteristic of the typical Bush supporter.
I am, of course, not expecting him to fix all of our country’s problems within 6 months. To be honest, judging by his rhetoric and campaign promises, I never expected Obama to fix anything. However, very complex problems, such as the ailing economy, aside, we can begin to evaluate Obama based on the approaches he has been taking compared with his promises.
Obama’s Recovery Plan
Statistics do seem to ail governments and their projections. Here is a graph put together from PowerLine Blog. It compares Obama’s projections of unemployment with his recovery plan to the actual unemployment that has been recorded. How is it going so far? Take a look for yourself.
(The red triangles are the actual unemployment figures that have been recorded. Compare them to the predicted unemployment line.)
Obamanomics
Would it be safe to say that the Obama recovery plan is a failure seeing as how the line predicted without the recovery plan is better than what actually happened with the recover plan?
Government never can seem to fix our economy. We should not stand for any more impovershiment at the hands of our financial planners.
Somalia’s Problems: Big Government?
Big government supporters have been quick to point to Somalia as what happens when government is relinquished and the free market is allowed to run wild. Well as it turns out, these big government supporters are not paying attention to history (surprise, surprise). Go here
to read Jesse Walker’s article for Reason Magazine discussing the bloody history of Somalia. The article is a series of questions he answers dealing first with the pirates of Somalia, and then the history involved with how the piracy came to be such a large problem. As the article explains:
Let me get this straight. To combat communism in east Africa, the United States propped up a Marxist dictator. After sending troops to battle the warlords, it intervened again to assist the warlords. It did this about-face to stanch the growth of Islamism, but the effect was to put an Islamist group in charge of the country. And after Washington backed an invasion and occupation of the nation to end the Islamic Courts Union’s control, the result was a government run by a former commander of the Islamic Courts Union?
You can see why I’m skeptical about a war on the pirates. It’ll probably end with Obama dedicating a 60-foot statue of Blackbeard in the middle of Mogadishu.
So how do we fix the problems on the mainland, if we don’t invade and don’t send aid?
We butt out. If we can’t solve Somalia’s problems, we can at least refrain from making them worse. The closest the country has had to a period of optimism and growth came when the international community—with the ignoble exceptions of the fish thieves and waste dumpers—largely left the place to its own devices.
It is not lack of government that causes these type of massive humanitarian disasters. As the 20th century shows, with over 100 million murders to their names, big governments are a plague on society. They always seem to promise safety and comfort, but bring pain, death, and suffering.
The New Volunteerism
Things could really start getting interesting in Washington with the passage of HR 1388 by the House of Representatives. If there ever was cause for alarm in the minds of young people, this should be it. The name alone is yet another misleading government acronym created specifically for the purpose of confusion on the bills actual implications. Deviously entitled the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act, this legislation vastly expands on AmeriCorps. It is estimated to cost $6 billion over 5 years and increase the current national volunteer program by 175,000.
Of course, to call this “volunteerism” is a misnomer. Current AmeriCorps volunteers typically receive college scholarships and stipends after completing one of the programs. This idea of government funding and rewarding acts of charity runs contrary to the idea of charity and places morality in the hands of government while taking away private incentives to give back to their communities. The government will pick which areas they believe are in need of the most help, and all “volunteers” will go to work. This, of course, feeds off the idea that government has a better understanding of what is best for a local community than the community itself. Not to mention, this is yet another form of criminality on the part of the American government. If you are in disagreement with this program, the government is politely saying, “Too bad.” This type of legislation reveals the underlying thought process abounding within the halls of big government and the citizens that support it. These are the people that believe they have the right to take your money by force and tell you how to live your life.
Majority Rules
Government never has impressed me. If anybody has read more than one of my articles, that fact is pretty clear. I feel as if most government action is based on special interest and ultimately does no good for society as a whole. Obviously government intervention has gotten us into the mess we are in today. If you feel it is a free market problem, I would suggest doing some research. Since the government has gotten more involved in trying to fix our economy, our national debt has ballooned from about $5 billion to $10 trillion. Also, as author G. Edward Griffin of The Creature from Jekyll Island explains, net worth of two-income families is lower than one-income families used to claim, the percentage of Americans who own their homes is dropping, the age at which a family acquires their first home is rising, mortgage foreclosures are increasing, the number of families in the middle-class is falling, family debt is greater, savings are smaller, the number of people below the poverty level is rising, the percentage of people working beyond age 65 is rising, and the rate of personal bankruptcy is quadruple what is was in 1960. This is all with government run programs trying to help the poor, regulate the banks, and save the economy. Is it any wonder I don’t buy into government help?
