Libertarians Eat Babies, And Other Myths

I generally like Progressives on the grounds that they've more respect for the truth than the other guys. But as a group they seem have the persistent, unfounded belief that libertarians are the spawn of the devil. Maybe I need to take up a new calling, become an evangelist of sorts, and try to convince these otherwise decent folks that there's merit to certain libertarian propositions.

Like limiting the power of the government, for instance. As far as civil liberties go there's no functional difference between this administration and the last. Republicans violated civil liberties when they were in power and now Democrats are doing the same, which suggests to me that such abuses are not a function of party affiliation. Rather, recent history seems to bear out the observation that power corrupts regardless of whose hands its in. If we can't trust those who hold the reigns of power not to abuse it then the rational response is to limit the amount of power they have in the first place.

Or how about stronger property rights... progressives seem to think that "property rights" are some sort of stalking horse for the further enrichment of the wealthy. Balderdash... the wealthy, by virtue of their wealth, have direct access to the levers of power; they don't really have to worry about having their property expropriated. The people who get fucked by a lack of property rights are the disempowered, the disenfranchised, the marginalized... all the classes of people whom progressives want to help. Neither Susette Kelo nor Linda Dorman are banksters; they, and individuals like them, are most at risk of having their money and/or property unjustly seized by the government.

And, finally: there is no libertarian church and Rand Paul is not its libertarian messiah. He speaks for himself; he doesn't speak for me.