Tim put up this post, urging movement Libertarians to consider how they’d be voting on Tuesday:
If you are a libertarian, or if you are a Free Stater, or if you just believe in limited government, individual freedom, and personal responsibility….
David Mamet, the famed playwright that was hard Left and just veered Right after finally realizing what the results of the Left have done, put it another way (even as he was speaking to Liberal Jews, it fits here):
Are you prepared to explain to your children not the principles upon which your vote is cast, but its probable effects upon them?
Go read the whole thing. Tim’s post started a bit of a conversation on Facebook and I waded in (note: I’ve not been active on FB for a while but given the tenor (pretty much, I “went there”. Now Leah was the main respondent and we’ve been friendly ever since we met when the TEA Party decided to “meet & greet” back in 2009 when Obama sojourned to Portsmouth, NH. On FB, she expressed an attitude that many Libertarians seem to hold: both Romney and Obama are pretty much communists and there’s no difference between them (and many view Romney as actually being worse). The comment that set me off was one about Romney not being able to reverse what Obama has done:
“He is not a king, and cannot just make a pronouncement that he declares a law null and void.“
Have you not been paying attention!! What the heck do you think Obama has actually been doing???? My response (edited to be more bloggish and a bit more expanded here):
Leah, Obama IS DOING JUST THAT (ruling like he was King Obama the First)!:
- The Congress did not pass the DREAM Act – Obama has created it via Executive Order.
- The Congress did not amend the 1996 Welfare Reform Act – HHS simply decided to write their own waivers.
- The Congress did not allow for NCLB (like the law or not) but the Dept of Ed is issuing waivers all by itself.
- The Congress did not pass Cap N Trade – EPA is implementing it via regulation without having the authorization of the underlying legislation.
- EPA and DOT are effectively mandating electric cars via CAFE regulation – isn’t that something that CONGRESS should be doing?
In all of the above cases, we are seeing the beginnings of a Totalitarian State via no longer adhering to the Rule of Law in not
- obeying the actual law passed (and simply carrying out the Law)
- making up their own laws (the “We can’t wait for Congress” campaign, which basically says “To Hell With The Constitution!“).
Leah, Obama THINKS he is King. No, that’s wrong – he BELIEVES that he is King! Remember, the end stage of Progressivism is the Administrative State – democracy plays NO role in it. I listed only a few examples above.
And THIS is what this election is all about – are we going to stay with the American Founding Fathers with respect to governing philosophy, or are we going to move to an 1880 Germanic spawned Progressive one? Are we going to try to hold onto the idea that Individuals come before the Collective and that Government exists to protect and preserve our Rights, or should the Collective “common good” outweigh that and government should “take care of us” and as NH Dem Kris Roberts says “protect us from our own stupidity”. Who gets to control you? You, or somebody else?
Leah, I beg you and all other Libertarians – Romney is no Ron Paul or Gary Johnson; I get that. But at the same time, NOT getting Obama out ALSO means all of these other Progressive Administrators and policies he has put into place will be etched in stone – just like the unConstitutional policies first cast during the New Deal AND the Great Society, they will never be undone.
Libertarians have made a lot of strides with Conservatives; both have made common cause in these political wars these last few years. But I will warn and promise you – if Conservatives (and I’m not talking RINOs here) see Libertarians voting in a way that does allow Obama to stay in office, they will have nothing to do with the Libertarian movement for years and years and years. Why? You will have deliberately destroyed ANY trust that may have been built up. Look, I am one of those folks (made common cause with Libertarians with few reservations) and have considered myself a Conservative with small “L” libertarian leanings. That said, I will be blunt and say that IF Libertarians totally screw this up (NOT putting Obama into unemployment), *I* will not and cannot trust the Libertarian movement again – because I will always wonder “when will they do this again?” just on the cusp of ridding the country of one of the most dangerous men in history with respect to anti-Constitutional values and philosophies. Many will believe the analogous situation with you in respect to Bush when he said that he had to destroy the free market in order to save it. He pretty much did the former and failed on the latter (as Obama took that near-fatal stab and is trying to actually kill it – just look at the coal industry).
Sadly, many Libertarians will vote for Gary Johnson (a nice guy, interviewed him a number of times) or will write in Ron Paul. I shake my head in disbelief, as what chance do either have (under the absolute wishing beyond disbelief that either would get in) given that neither could even win a majority of Republicans in the Primaries?
Back to Dave Mamet – consider the effects of not getting Obama out of office. I have listed some already – and I do believe without the constraints of re-election, all of the regulatory deluge will descend upon us (as, once again, Obama has ignored the law that mandates that forthcoming regs be disclosed!) and the Progressive State will continue to march forward. And Libertarians, like it or not, if the race is as close as it seems to be, what will you tell your children when they ask the Ronald Reagan question:
“Where were you and what where you doing on that day Freedom was lost?“
Your only answer can be: “I voted my absolute principles for a guy that could never make an actual difference.”
