My good friend Mark Jeftovic, over at his Under the Radar blog, gets it, as far as he goes, in his latest post: Governments mostly bad. Individuals mostly good. Government meddling in the economy bad. Free markets good. He states in his post that he is a 'free market conservative.' I, on the other hand, am one of those 'eccentric libertarian' types with whom Mark frequently finds himself rubbing shoulders as he seeks the truth that will set us all free:
"Ideologies are dangerous things, but as a political animal I find myself in abject disagreement with the status quo in the West today, how things are run, what is promoted as "beneficial" and what the true motivations are, that I find myself frequenting the fringes of the political sphere, places where eccentric libertarians hang out and even other places where left leaning collectivists gather to 'stick it to the man'."
Come to the light, Mark. You are way past 90% there already. Governments have no business not only in running the economy but also shouldn't do anything else beyond simply protecting our individual rights to live our lives in safety.
Oh, wait a moment. Mark closes his post with this priceless paragraph:
"Get rid of 99% of the government, make money honest, and everybody mind their own business. What could be so hard about that?"
What, indeed! Mark, my friend, I don't know if you really want to hear this but, curmudgeon that I am, I'm going to say it anyway. You ain't no conservative, bud, you've become one of us: a died in the wool, true to life, honest to goodness, authentic 'eccentric libertarian.'
Congratulations!
Well Sieg, when you cut through all the fancy talk and tell it like it is, Ronald Reagan was more libertarian than traditional CRAPublican, any day!
ReplyDeleteI was proud to be GOP when he was President. Now I don't recognize the party that has become nothing but a diet version of the socialist DemoCRAPs.
I liked Reagan. He wasn't perfect but at least had a clue, more than I can say for more recent presidents. His rhetoric, at least, promoted individual responsibility and personal pride. I miss the guy.
ReplyDelete