United Liberty

Way back in July of 2003 Ron Paul wrote an article entitled “We’ve Been Neo-Conned” in which he laid out facts showing that the “Neo-Con” philosophy had taken over the foreign policy of the USA (For a quick primer on the Neo-Conservative movement please click the link above). As I was reading this article one question kept repeating in my head:

“How did it come to this?”

The only place to start I believe is with the American person (notice I didn’t use the plural “people”). I will use myself as an example since I believe my story is common to many modern-day libertarians and members of the Liberty movement.

In short, I was raised a Reagan Republican, became a Neo-Con after 9/11, converted to a Goldwater conservative after the invasion of Iraq and became a full-fledged libertarian after finding the writings of Murray Rothbard(OK, maybe every libertarian didn’t become one because of Murray but I think many have a similar story).

But here is what I believe is key in my story and the reason why there aren’t more capital “L” Libertarians: I didn’t get their foreign policy. Like many I actually referred to myself as libertarian on social and monetary issues, but not when it came to our “enemies”. I hear the same from freedom loving people over and over again, especially in the wake of 9/11.

The reason the Neo-Cons were able to seize power is FEAR. I am not putting anybody down because of it. I can certainly relate, but we still have to figure out why the American person is allowing our government todrop bombs and declare war on anybody they want to while we cheer them on. When does fear translate to lunacy?

A brand new, government-subsidized shopping center recently opened on Alabama Avenue, providing one of the few full-service grocery stores in the area, along with a new sit-down restaurant and mainstream bank branch. But reformers are finding that such initiatives won’t fix decades of market dysfunction overnight.

I was watching Tim Geithner’s testimony before the Senate Budget Committee earlier this week and found his answer to some questions to be simply infuriating.  It is not atypical for witnesses to dance around when answering questions.  In fact, the ability to say a lot of words without saying anything of substance is apparently one of the skills most admired in Washington.  There is one particular exchange which is most illustrative of the phenomenon.

Earmarks have come to be recognized as the epitome of government waste in Washington.  This has been a growing phenomenon over the last several years, but reached new heights on the campaign trail over the last two years.  Both John McCain and Barack Obama criticized earmarks while running for President.  

I used the web archives to grab quotes from the pages of both McCain and Obama while they were seeking the Presidency.  McCain’s site had the following:

As president, John McCain will work to ensure that money spent by Congress, and contributed by hardworking American taxpayers, is used wisely and prudently on legitimate national priorities, not squandered on wasteful pet projects and special interest earmarks…

Oniomania (from Greek onios = “for sale,” mania = insanity) is a medical term for the compulsive desire to shop. Oniomania is the technical term for the compulsive desire to shop, more commonly referred to as compulsive shopping, compulsive buying, shopping addiction or shopaholism.  Wikipedia

The consensus coming from Washington DC is that the solution to the coming recession is more of what got us here in the first place- borrowing and spending.  Not only does Congress and the White House plan on continuing this dangerous trend, they’re encouraging all Americans to be good citizens and do the same.  So, apparently, what the economy needs are a few million oniomaniacs and banks brave enough to issue them credit.

Lately, in the wake of all the rotten legislation being proposed today, a lot of people have asked me how they can contact their congressmen and senators.

I decided to put together a quick guide that I believe will maximize the effect of your citizen lobbying activities!

1. Find out who represents you.

Very Important! Most people don’t know who represents them in Congress. It’s always good to be from a congressman’s district before asking him to do something!

To find out who represents you, use this link.

2. Don’t send letters.

After the Anthrax scare several years ago, all mail takes forever to get to your congressman. So, by the time they get to your comments, chances are the crisis you were writing about has been settled a long time.

A recent AP story caught my attention: “GOP governors press Congress to pass stimulus bill.” After caving last year to a $700 billion bailout, the Republicans in Congress appear to be standing firm against Barack Obama’s call to flush another $800 billion down the tubes.

By the way, this is one advantage to having Democrat control in Washington– Republicans will vote against many things they would normally support just because Democrats are sponsoring the ideas.

Well, apparently many Republican governors are rushing in to Washington to shore up George Wallace’s maxim that there’s “not a dime’s worth of difference” between the two major parties.

These GOP governors are putting pressure on their colleagues in Congress to support Obama’s bailout and to make sure they get their fair share of the pork.

The late Samuel Francis stated that the United States has a two-party system, the Stupid Party and the Evil Party. Occasionally, you find a bi-partisan effort and when you do so, you can count on that proposal being both stupid and evil. I am incensed that Washington power-brokers have come together to bail out the greed of both big business and big government. Noted economist Jim Rogers has said that this bailout would make our economy more communistic than that of Red China. Do we really want that much more infusion of government into our economy? Years ago, I heard Congressman Phil Crane state that Government does nothing well. While observers should have noted the failure of statist systems and the growth of free market economies, our nation promises more from government. How blind do our leaders need to be before they realize that government spending is breaking the taxpayer and damaging the economy.

Please give careful attention to the wise warnings of my friend Matt Chancey.

Dear friends,

The reason I am writing you today is to ask you to join me in contacting your congressman and senators to urge them to reject the $700 billion bailout being rammed through Congress this week.