Apparently I open up this site with a post about politics. Politics isn’t really on my list is it?
Well it is you just don’t see it. I don’t care about red versus blue (unless of course it’s THE Red v. Blue). I care primarily about freedom. I suppose you could call me a Constitutional Libertarian. I use both of those terms carefully. Constitutional can be ambiguous because it seems you can interpret the Constitution any old way you want these days. However, I use a conservative hermeneutic with the Constitution – a very similar hermeneutic to the one I use for the Bible. I believe it should be interpreted and mean exactly what the writers meant and nothing else. I also believe that for the most part things that were left out were left out for a reason (such as what the government must do on your behalf). I believe strongly in the 10th Ammendment.
Libertarian can be ambiguous because there are all kinds of libertarians out there. You have the level headed rationalists out there, of whom I consider myself one, but you also have the wackjobs. There’s the anarchists, and there’s the conspiracy theorists (the Orwellians). I simply believe that all men were created (not born) equally. That in the realm of civil affairs[1], all men have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that the main functions of government are three fold:
- Punish those who intentionally infringe upon the rights of others. This makes things like murder and theft crimes. However, driving at 75 mph as opposed to 55 mph should not matter.
- Reward those who uphold and defend the rights of others.
- Provide certain necessary public resources. This gets a little blurry here. There’s a thin line between what’s public and what’s not. I simply believe that a public necessity is something that most everybody needs equally, nobody on their own (except maybe Bill Gates or Donald Trump) could provide, and from which everybody benefits. A prime example would be roads. Another would be defence. We can debate about a war in Iraq. College educations, however? No. Wealth redistribution? No.
I also firmly believe that the government gets into trouble when it tries to do something that private industry would normally do on its own – like finding alternative sources of energy. Car seat laws are the ones that really boggle me on this one. If you have a company making car seats, what responsible parent won’t want to buy that to keep a kid safe? We don’t have laws about buying those colorful cabinet locks, yet responsible parents get those don’t they?
So after that brief intro to my political framework, here’s my analysis of this video. Essentially, this is just a pendulum shift of the Michael Moore documentaries. These are the wacky libertarians. There was very little supporting evidence throughout. There was a whole lot of speculation and conjecture. They violated Godwin’s Law. They cited the JFK assassination. These are classic flaws.
The reason I like politics is because I think it’s a venue in which good philosophy, reason and logic can bring about much good, but what we see most today is rhetoric and sound bites. This is what drove me nuts about Obama. His speeches were filled with empty statements that either meant nothing at all or promised something outlandish without giving a real reason to believe he could do it.
I agree that President Obama has lied. But every president has lied. I agree that there are socialistic elements to his policies. But that doesn’t make him a Nazi. I acknowledge that there may be such groups as the Trilateral Commission, the Military Industrial Complex and the Bilderberg Group who really exist and may have questionable motives and agendas. But the way this documentary tries to piece them together and show some sort of comprehensive plan and strategy that they have been and are carrying out is tenuous at best. They didn’t show one single shred of real evidence. All they had was conjecture. It smacks of Fahrenheit 9/11.
This is what bothers me about a lot of the conservatives today. I went to down town Dayton on tax day and stood in Courthouse Square with the rest of the tea baggers. I believe in things like the Fair Tax and in limited government. I just don’t think you have to resort to name calling, rhetoric and this kind of smear film to get it. I don’t like the Nazi signs. I think it’s tactless and baseless. I’m disappointed.
[1] As opposed to the spiritual realm, in which man has no rights before the Creator with whom he is not an equal and against whom he has transgressed. However, before other men who are his equals, he has certain rights.
Truth & Liberty 