Really, I Have No Idea Why People Make Fun Of Libertarians
Ron Paul was a big hit at this year’s CPAC convention and he really brought the house down with his speech. He has, well, an interesting proposal.
A lot of Republicans running for president (or “maybe running for president”) these days are trying to reach out to the Libertarian wing of the party, whose fiscal views have come to dominate the tea party movement. But Paul made it clear how far the Mitt Romneys and Tim Pawlentys of the world will have to go before they really talk like a libertarian. Where they’re talking about small government and shrunken entitlements, Paul’s suggesting young people be allowed to walk away from the government entirely. His proposed deal works like this: you pay the government 10% of your income (presumably to protect your borders and such) and you promise you’ll never take advantage of a government service for the rest of your life.
Can we make sure that these opt-liters don’t use our roads, our sewers and our electrical grids? How would this work at all in practice? Would the opt-Lugers wear special badges or something so police know not to help them and ambulances can ignore them. I suppose they could go live in a cabin in Idaho or something.
Also, apparently conservatives have found their love of trains. The Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 of 3 (no I’m not kidding, supposedly there’s 3 movies total) was a big hit at CPAC.
I’m sure you’re all saving your money already to go see this.
Tags: CPAC, Republican Crazy, Ron Paul
Notice no suggestive “train going into tunnel” in the clip?[Sex?]
Only a crash?[Abortion?]
“Notice no suggestive “train going into tunnel” in the clip?[Sex?]”
Hitchcock’s North by Northwest?
The best CPAC clip I saw was of Trump casually dropping “By the way Ron Paul could never win.”. Into his remarks. The place exploded into competing boos and huzzahs. Then when it settled down, Trump ads “he can’t win.”. Sparking more pro anti anti Paul jeers.
Comedy gold.
I actually really like this idea. 40 years from now, most of the libertarian morons who chose not to let the gumment do anything for them will be dead, or out of the social security system that will still be around for me to use. Cya, ‘tarians. dont let the door hit ya on the way out.
Sorry U.I. but the electric grid is private. There is very little that government really does for most people. As for roads since they are paid for in the gas tax and certainly the 10%, you lose there as well. The post office and parks are funded by user fees so are paramedics. That is not federal either. Neither are the police or schools. You see, you have no idea what the feds even do. It is an intriguing idea until someone gets laid off before they saved 6 months of expenses or gets sick and raids their retirement fund to pay what health insurance does not such as lost wages, copays, deductibles, travel, etc. Then having a social security back up to supplement it looks good. I would propose in conjuction to that that bankruptcy laws be amended to allow for the sick and protection of the home for those who take the option.
In other words, the way they used to be before the lobbyists changed them. We didn’t need government taking care of us because the laws allowed us to do it for ourselves. It would take a sea change to go back. It is doable, but it requires changes in a lot of areas people don’t think of.
It is doable, but it requires changes in a lot of areas people don’t think of.
David – there is a reason people don’t think of those areas. It’s because we are… normal.
and Mr. Delusional would be quite wrong about how some of these public items are funded. For instance, there are few parks OR paramedics completely funded by user fees. And there ARE federally-funded parks. The Justice Department has funding to award a plethora of grants to local police departments for certain types of items/services/initiatives. Grants that alot of PDs would have a difficult time giving up. Airports run in a fairly orderly fashion due to air traffic controllers and subsidies for airport expansions. The government subsidizes the dirty fuel industries so that we can pretend to have cheap fuel. The government also subsidizes the replenishment of beaches, geological features never meant to be permanent, yet they still keep pumping up sand that just washes away. The government provides some of the maintenance of the C&D Canal, and of the Delaware River shipping channel so goods can get to Wilmington, Philly and Camden. The Feds were responsible for the upgrade to the Wilmington train station. And if you take a good look at a map of local Superfund sites, the Fed have cleaned those up, are in the process of cleaning those up or doing long term monitoring of sites.
There’s LOTS that the Feds do, much less local governments. So let’s not be here telling other people that they don’t know what the Federal government does, when the person in need of some knowledge is you.
and Cass delivers the smack-down!
Rep. Dave, Paul charged people to “promise you’ll never take advantage of a government service for the rest of your life.” In Libertarian world, that means ALL government, not just Federal Gov’t. So that includes Police, Fire, Ambulance and the FDIC when a bank closes, SEC when another stock market scheme occurs, etc. And lets not forget Libertarians believe in privatizing roads, so no gas tax for roads, just get ready for LOTS of toll booths on every road you drive on, save your own development. Every. Road.
You skip the context, he is talking abut the federal government. Grant for local police are temporary and a very small percentage of the funding. It is just done to get the federal nose under the tent because there is no constitutional authority to butt their way into local police so they bribe their way in. Local police should be local. Abolish the TSA and go back to airports running their security. It is a failed experiment. I gladly would like to see that happen. No local enforcement of the Patriot Act because there would be no bribes. No unconstitutional mandates coming down the pike. Brokerage accounts have private deposit insurance, the banks can get out of our pockets and buy their own.
The federal government has several very important roles in our lives. It just doesn’t have to do everything.
As for Cassandra’s arguments, they are laughable. Toss a few grants into an exisiting well funded police force for some computers or training classes and we are supposed to think the feds are now the major indispensible funder. It is not. It amounts to very little of the budget and every department has a plan to do without it. It is not even icing on the cake. It is the nice little toy added to the top. Nice, but not needed. As for the canal, look at the Constitutuion. Roads, canals, federal law enforcement, defense, and infrastructure for interstate commerce are provided for. You could do those things on 10%. 1000 other things are not. Those people opting out could pay as you go if they decide to let’s say go to a park.
You have an addiction to the central government. You credit it for what it does not provide and think its crumbs are needed. It would be more efficient to cut federal taxes and let the states and local governments pick up what they wanted. Our highest taxes should be at the state and local level where we have the most control because that is where our services should be.
The evolution of thinking is occurring. I am not sure it is here yet. We have had almost 80 years of federal expansion and fewer than 30 years of real push back. It may take another 20 to restore balance. It will not be what it was in 1911 which is fine. We don’t live in 1911. The world is different. We also don’t live in 1961. Individuals have more information and choices. That should also apply to government. Will that be Congressman Ron Paul’s idea? I doubt it, but you will see more opt in and out choices. It is the start of a discussion not the end of it.
Even a lot of intelligent liberals are understanding localism is the future. It is not a left v. right issue. It is an individual v. bureaucracy issue.
Well that’s quite the backoff. And, of course, no one has missed any context — you were the one who told UI that she had no idea that the Feds don’t do much for us anyway. But local police ARE local — they just get some funding for various items from the Feds. I was talking about AT Controllers, not the TSA, so there’s another dodge. Banks do buy deposit insurance from the only place that sells it. And you really are delusional if you think that if a bank could just buy private insurance that they wouldn’t pass that cost onto customers. But there’s another nugget for the books from the Party of Business. Meaning that the laughable is on you — still here trying to lecture people about things You Have No Clue over.
But, of course, the Feds don’t do everything. But they do enough that pulling it all back is going to cause a world of hurt. And, of course, if you use the mortgage deduction or the deduction for childcare or maybe even Coverdale accounts, the Fed is helping you plenty. The place where the Feds can afford a pretty massive pullback is in the DOD. Maintaining the world’s police force is expensive and not especially useful.
What we need to do for the Libertarians to opt out of government services is to somehow annex Somalia and send the opt-outers there. They’d still owe the government some money since it would cost something to hold the place, but still. That might be a useful experiment.
Yes, people laugh at things which they cannot understand or comprehend. But the laughing occurs only to cover up the fact that they are scared shitless of the complex world around them.
You see, when someone potificates that this equals this and that over there fits oh so nicely into this box, it’s pretty damn certain that whomever is saying such things possesses a limited intellect. Either that or they are a practicing bullshitter.
Oh and s
Yes, people laugh at things which they cannot understand or comprehend. But the laughing occurs only to cover up the fact that they are scared shitless of the complex world around them.
You see, when someone potificates that this equals this and that over there fits oh so nicely into this box, it’s pretty damn certain that whomever is saying such things possesses a limited intellect. Either that or they are a practicing bullshitter.
Oh and speaking of glibertarian fantasies, Rand willingly accepted medicare and ssi benefits late in life. Guess the glib lifestyle was too much for her. That, or the unicorn ranching business went tits up and she had to get on the Fed dole.
Appologies for the dup comment
I’ve been rereading Atlas Shrugged, recently. It needs (in addition to substantial literary editing) a real look at its internal contradictions. Many of the people who reference it, of course, have never struggled through it. But the logical fallacies and disconnect are so numerous and glaring that I wonder what the people reading it think they’re reacting to.
I keep hearing Mandy Patinkin saying “I do not think that word means what you think it does.” 😉
most people who follow atlas shrugged make the same mistake with another grammatically horrific book.
But ben, Ayn HATES religion. I mean, seriously-worse-than-opiate-of-the-masses HATES it.
That’s one of the things I don’t get.
true. I guess that even further proves the self condraticting horse crap liberpublicans are willing to take on in support of their movement.