Why I am a libertarian by Harry Browne
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28024
This past Tuesday, WorldNetDaily publisher Joseph
Farah told us why he is not a libertarian
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27981
While I respect Mr. Farah and appreciate his
allowing me to voice my opinions here each week,
I must respectfully disagree with some of his
reasoning.
The borders
He begins by telling us why the federal government
must make our borders "sacrosanct." But his
arguments against open borders are based on an
understandable -- but critical -- error that is
widespread.
He tells us why the government should keep the
borders closed. But he doesn't tell us how the
government will do that. Governments have been
trying for millennia to keep people in or out of
their jurisdictions with very little success.
Libertarians understand a very simple fact of
life: Government doesn't work. It can't deliver
the mail on time, it doesn't keep our cities safe,
it doesn't educate our children properly. But
people love to play a gigantic game of "let's
pretend": Let's pretend the War on Poverty really
does help poor people. Let's pretend the War on
Drugs really does reduce drug abuse and crime.
Let's pretend the right government program can
keep the wrong people out of the country.
Too many people who recognize the terrible
threat that government poses to their liberties
and to the economic health of the country still
act as though government can achieve whatever it
sets out to do -- just so long as it's trying to
achieve something they want.
Rather than pretend government can keep
undesirables out, libertarians work to reduce
the welfare state -- so that only those who are
looking for freedom and opportunity will want to
get in. Libertarians know that a free country has
nothing to fear from anyone coming in or going
out -- while a welfare state is scared to death
of poor people coming in and rich people getting
out.
Those awful drugs
In the same way, Mr. Farah agrees that the federal
government has made a mess of the Drug War but he
upholds the right of state and local governments
to outlaw drugs in their jurisdictions. In that,
he's constitutionally correct, and most
libertarians would agree with him.
But here again, libertarians recognize that
wherever you try to enforce victimless-crime laws,
you will see an increase in violent crime, an
increase in civil-liberties intrusions, and an
increase in law-enforcement corruption.
Libertarians instead support non-government
programs to help addicts shake the drug habit,
while recognizing that drugs were far less
dangerous when they were completely legal in
the U.S.
Offense and defense
As I did in this publication three weeks ago,
Mr. Farah points out that this country has an
overwhelming national offense but practically no
defense. I think most libertarians agree with us
that what we need is not a bigger offense budget,
but less offense and more real defense.
But libertarians have also been pointing out for
years that the inevitable consequence of
America's fearful national offense would be
retaliation by foreigners who are fed up with
America's bullying. Would that more people had
recognized this before Sept. 11.
Morality
Mr. Farah says, "Libertarians make a fundamental
mistake about the nature of man. Man is not
inherently good."
Precisely: Man is not inherently good.
Thomas Jefferson recognized that when he said,
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted
with the government of himself. Can he, then, be
trusted with the government of others? Or have we
found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?"
Because men are not angels, we have a Constitution
to limit government strictly to just those
functions that most people can't comprehend being
handled outside of government.
But libertarians aren't the ones making a
fundamental mistake.
Government is force, pure and simple. There's no
way to sugar-coat that. And because government is
force, it will attract the worst elements of
society -- people who want to use government to
avoid having to earn their living and to avoid
having to persuade others to accept their ideas
voluntarily.
And so libertarians don't want to leave the
governing of our morals to society's basest
members.
When Mr. Farah says that too few libertarians
understand that "a laissez faire society can only
be built in a culture of morality, righteousness
and compassion," I think he has it backward. It
is a society in which politicians possess power
that could work only if morality, righteousness,
and compassion were universal. Until such a
culture exists, we need to keep all matters of
morality, economics, and business practices away
from the politicians.
Consistency
Libertarians are the only ideological activists I
know of whose actions are consistent with their
own principles.
They don't say that government is too big and then
propose ways to make it bigger.
They don't say our government shouldn't meddle in
foreign countries and then demand that it run to
the aid of some foreign nation.
They don't criticize government programs on
fundamental grounds and then propose that
government give them something they want.
And that's why I'm a libertarian.
--------------------
Harry Browne's weekly column appears each Thursday
on WorldNetDaily -- one of the most popular
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Web. And it's not uncommon for Mr. Browne's
commentaries to be re-printed elsewhere.
Harry Browne is Director of Public Policy for
American Liberty Foundation. Thanks to your
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