If it was only that easy to get around these Freedom crushers! Once in a while, I am directed to a site that is definitely NOT Right-of-Center and this time the tipster sent me to Miscellany: Blue, a rather progressive site. The occasion was an interview done by Dave Ridley with Progressive NH State House Rep Raymond Gagnon who made a statement that enforces a stereotype of Progressives that Progressives themselves have given to the Right:
Ridley: Any vote for a government program is a vote for violence against your neighbor because you’re going to force them to pay for it through threat of violence.
Gagnon: Forcing people to pay for things is not aggression…. [But] if you continually choose to not pay your taxes, year after year after year, there will be a consequence to that action. Yes, that’s true.
Ridley: They will drag you out of your house. They will kill you if you fight back.
Gagnon: That’s because you’ve chosen not to pay your taxes…. You’ve chosen not to be part of the team, the collective.
Now, Dave is more the Libertarian and certainly makes sure that the Progressive he is interviewing know that his main stance is that Government IS Force. I agree in principle but not in the intensity that Dave employs; it is not how I would put it. However, Dave IS right in that at the end of the day, aggression will be used if payment to the Government is not made – no one can deny that either either one’s property is taken or one’s Liberty is taken (er, jail).
However, my eyes did a double take – Gagnon falls right into the moral pit.
