Thursday, November 8, 2012

America at a Moral Crossroad

H/t Mairi. Bill Whittle offers a good video about America's being at a crossroads with respect to virtue. I am skeptical, though,  that Mitt Romney or the Republican Party represents virtue.  The Fed's monetary creation reflects government subsidization as much as welfare does.  A hedge fund manger like Romney whose tens of millions are due to the Fed's artificial monetary creation is no better than a welfare recipient.  I disagree with his claim that Romney reflects virtue or hard work. Romney is as much as welfare scammer as any welfare recipient.

I also disagree that  Democrats and Republicans differ with respect to virtue.  I don't think supporters of Obama or Romney are virtuous or not.  Rather, hard working, honest, virtuous people can support either; neither reflected virtue in the sense that Whittle means it. 

Also, Whittle is wrong that public education was destroyed more than 50 years ago.  Progressive education began the destruction of public education more than 100 years ago, according to Diane Ravitch in her Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform

Whittle's advocacy of parallel private structures is good, but given that half our money is paid in taxes, it will be difficult to use a significant percentage of our pay in parallel organizations involving space exploration and education.  Contrary to his claim, it will cost more than your cable bill to do the things for which he aims.  

Whittle's idea of ignoring rather than fighting the state is good, but difficult. It makes more sense to establish an alternative citizenship and ultimately reside in a better country. There are an increasing number of better countries as America falters and declines. I would rather have an apartment in Montevideo, Uruguay than pay for a second school system here. 


I No Longer Support Ron Paul



I just sent this e-mail to the Campaign for Liberty:

I’m not a Republican because, as a libertarian, I consider the Republican Party to be the worse of two evils.  I have decided not to continue to support Ron Paul because of his cheap, opportunistic refusal to support Gary Johnson.  I appreciate all he has done for the libertarian movement, but in the end he’s just another Republican. I have removed my name from your mailing list, and I do not support you.

The Lesser of Two Evils Won

As a libertarian, I'm glad Obama defeated Romney.  Obama was a dismal candidate, but Romney was worse. Obama is a liar who claims to be a friend of the poor but who uses public power to subsidize the super-rich.  Obama initiated an unpopular socialized medicine scheme, and then, through a destructive cap-and-trade bill, attacked private home ownership--especially of the poor.  Obama has consistently subsidized the stock market at the expense of the average American, and he has attacked fundamental American freedoms through the NDAA, which intensifies Bush's Patriot Act.  Given Obama's ugly policies, policies that are harmful to the average American, the Republicans should have had no trouble defeating him.  Moreover, the economy has been dismal, with high unemployment and instability.

The bailout and Obama's healthcare act energized the rank and file of the Republican Party in 2009 and 2010.  I will never understand, then, what possessed the GOP to nominate a candidate who, as governor of Massachusetts, had adopted a healthcare act comparable to Obama's.  As well, Governor Romney had made a fortune working in the same financial industry that the multi-trillion dollar bailout subsidized. Romney made his $200 million because of Federal-Reserve-Bank subsidization. Make no mistake about it: Private equity in today's form is a primary beneficiary of Federal-Reserve- Bank monetary creation.  Romney is a product of crony capitalism, a corporate welfare baby.  As well, Romney stated that he aimed to initiate a trade war, an economically illiterate path, with China. 

Having thought long and hard and having interacted with Republicans in my region over the past few years, I have concluded that the Republican Party is not for me.  The Democrats are evil, but as totalitarian, murderous, and destructive they may be, the Republicans are worse. The Republicans have been present throughout the implementation of Agenda 21; they have fostered Federal Reserve Bank socialism; they have degraded American education; they have adopted as much regulation as the Democrats.  They claim to oppose big government, but they have consistently expanded it. A so-called political party, the GOP, like the Democratic Party, is a corruption machine.   As a representative of the big-government wing of the GOP, Romney was a worse candidate than Obama. 

That the Republicans couldn't conceive of a way to defeat Obama is a symptom of their commitment to centralization, to  big government, and to any and every scheme by which they can loot the public till.  

It is good that Romney lost. He ran a dismal campaign.  His socialism matches Obama's, and he would have contributed as little to the nation's welfare as Obama will.  Add to it that Romney has benefited from the federal government's thieving Federal Reserve system, and I am happy as anything that he has lost.