RE: Losing respect for Rand Paul
February 1, 2018 at 6:07 pm
(This post was last modified: February 1, 2018 at 6:11 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
The crucial difference, with our forms of government..is that you have some influence over those things you "don;t like". Try telling an unregulated (or under regulated) corporation to stop doing x. They'll laugh in your face and tell you to pound sand - and then send you a bill for the legal or physical ass kicking they delivered to you.
I think that libertarianism, as an ideology, would have been much more compelling when government was largely a bunch of repressive monarchies handing out charters to their buddies, who ..by virtue of charter, were the only people allowed to do business. When the concept of civil liberties was more an issue of what privileges were granted by the local potentate. That might explain why, as corporate interests and moneyed elites turn our government into an oligarchy... it starts sounding good again.
At some point, though, a person has to face the reality that it;s those very same corporate interests that are..for example..compelling bought politicians to engage in government waste and subsidy to their benefit and your detriment. That libertarianism as sold in the us is nothing more than another Koch Bros wedge meant to divide the majority and maintain minority control in a representative government. In the real world, a real libertarianism has had all of it's space sucked up by other ideologies. It has nothing to offer us, and exists only as a historical curiosity for weed afficianados who'd rather not pay their taxes.
I think that libertarianism, as an ideology, would have been much more compelling when government was largely a bunch of repressive monarchies handing out charters to their buddies, who ..by virtue of charter, were the only people allowed to do business. When the concept of civil liberties was more an issue of what privileges were granted by the local potentate. That might explain why, as corporate interests and moneyed elites turn our government into an oligarchy... it starts sounding good again.
At some point, though, a person has to face the reality that it;s those very same corporate interests that are..for example..compelling bought politicians to engage in government waste and subsidy to their benefit and your detriment. That libertarianism as sold in the us is nothing more than another Koch Bros wedge meant to divide the majority and maintain minority control in a representative government. In the real world, a real libertarianism has had all of it's space sucked up by other ideologies. It has nothing to offer us, and exists only as a historical curiosity for weed afficianados who'd rather not pay their taxes.
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