Libertarian Thoughts on Current Events

By Tom Rhodes

Do you believe in Liberty?

Mike Adams, professor at UNC, proposed two very interesting questions: “Do you believe in the inherent ‘goodness’ or ‘perfectibility’ of mankind?” and “Does man get his rights from other men?”

If you or anybody you know answered yes to either question, it is clear they don’t believe in or understand the concept of liberty. Man is inherently evil, even the elite in power, hence we instituted a system of government that spreads out the power, and limits what government can do and charged the government with the specific and sole mandate of protecting individual rights.

The entire founding of our nation was based on the idea that man has rights that pre-exist the government, are natural, and not subject to the whims and wants of those in charge. They firmly believed that one person’s rights ended when they infringed upon the same rights of another; that all people should have the same rights, and all should be treated equally. They believed that no person’s right obligated another person to provide the means of exercising that right. Your right to keep and bear arms does not obligate others to provide you with arms to bear. The idea that mankind has rights not just privileges granted by those in control. Coupled with a healthy distrust for men in power, because history has always proven that “power corrupts,” our country was founded on the idea that the government has limits, not the people.

This idea was clearly stated in the purpose document for the founding of this country, The Declaration of Independence, which eloquently states that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights - that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Lies about racism.

After the first presidential debate In South Carolina – the home of secession, John C. Calhoun, Strom Thurmond, and the long-fluttering Stars and Bars over the state Capitol building – a black guy, Herman Cain, won in a landslide with a nearly all-white focus group of local Republicans. This provides compelling counter-evidence to the tired Democratic charge that conservatives and libertarians, especially from the south, detest Obama primarily because he’s black. The truth is that they despise him because he’s an old-fashioned, socialist, big government, anti-liberty, free-spending, elitist lefty.

Free Speech Dead in Denmark.

Tuesday May 3, 2011 marked the end of free speech in Denmark and the acceptance of Shariah law. Denmark convicted, Lars Hedegaard, president of the International Free Press Society, for offending Muslims. This will likely be used to set precedence in the EU.

Federal Government Hates South Carolina.

Because South Carolina doesn’t exercise the socialistic control of labor and business that northern states do, our federal government is denying them the opportunity to create high-skill, high-wage jobs, President Obama’s labor board, namely the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has undertaken a direct assault on South Carolina.

The NLRB has told both Boeing and South Carolina that because South Carolina is a right to work state, that Boeing cannot expand its production to South Carolina. Boeing is not reducing or closing a plant in Washington, but expanding, so it is not cutting union jobs in the North for non-union jobs in the South. It doesn’t matter, the government has determined that Boeing is not allowed to expand to right to work states.

Obama’s fidelity to Big Union Bosses extends to more than just South Carolina. The NLRB has begun to sue states whose citizens voted to protect themselves from coercion and intimidation by adding secret ballot guarantees to their state constitutions. There is proof that states with right-to-work laws are more financially and educationally accomplished than states where unionization is forced.

The Facts are clear, unemployment is lower in right-to-work states and home ownership is higher. There are more highly-educated workers than in forced unionization states. The overwhelming majority of young professionals – 94.3% to be exact, choose to live in right-to-work states. The best example is the giant sucking sound of the mass exodus of people, jobs, companies, and opportunity from Michigan to right-to-work states.

South Caroline Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina powerfully summed it up, “America will not win the future if Washington penalizes workers in states that have discovered winning economic strategies.”

It’s a Spending Problem

Our national debt is not a revenue problem it’s a spending problem; because regardless of the government’s income (tax revenue) it spends in excess. Hence we see still another call for expansion in the debt ceiling. Some may argue that it's necessary to keep the markets functioning, but they won't function for long if the government keeps spending trillions more than it takes in. Look at Greece and explain how well this strategy has worked for them. Even after they were bailed out by the EU, they have continued to spiral into more debt. We’re bigger than Greece but will end up in the same place if we continue to promise and spend more, than can be reasonably extracted from the public in taxes.

The tens of thousands of pages of tax law, the obvious inequality of taxes as currently collected, and the unwillingness of the Federal Government to live within its means, has lead to a situation where the majority of people no longer consider cheating on their taxes as immoral or unethical. This cannot be good for the country. To gain credibility and the support of the American people, the government must curb its spending.

National Curriculum

There is a movement to standardize K-12 curriculum. The very same educational professionals who have so miserably failed our students over the past 40 years are now advocating a "common curriculum" that would supposedly engage the minds of all American students, aligning their performance with the latest thinking as to what's needed. The Albert Shanker Institute, named for the late head of the American Federation of Teachers, wants a "coherent, sequential set of guidelines in the core academic disciplines, specifying the knowledge and skills" expected of all students.

To a conspiratorialist this sounds like a way for the government to control the ideas and knowledge that we expose all children. I doubt that, it’s probably just based on good intentions of people who refuse to look at reality, and think that what sounds good and feels good must somehow actually be good. It’s a bad idea just because it will completely stifle innovation in education, and make teachers worth even less. How much do you really know to herd children, and review the pre-planned power point, and give the pre-designed work sheet, and administer the pre-conceived test, which has been so dumbed down so that even the dumbest student can pass with little or no effort?

The Reality is that we have the exact educational systems that post-modern America wants. Not the best, nor the worst, the logical product of our feminized culture that demands equality not excellence. As long as we are more worried about how students feel about themselves than we are the quantity and quality of the knowledge they posses, our schools will continue to give us what we want -- Students, who think they are smart and successful, but who in reality cannot perform, especially when compared to other cultures. Because the results of academic competition in schools ends up with some kids not feeling as good about themselves as others, most schools no longer have valedictorians, class rankings, etc. Forcing schools to focus extraordinary effort on academically inferior and poorly motivated students, rather than use those resources to build up and advance our most gifted, has resulted in exactly what we want, equality of outcome not opportunity. Unless as a culture we are willing to separate the wheat from the chaff (academically speaking), and acknowledge that just like in sports not everyone has the same natural talents in intellect, we will continue to see poorer and poorer education. Post-modern America wants everybody to succeed, and if some can’t, we’ll just lower the standard so we can claim they did. We demand success whether it’s real or manufactured. In academics we will accept the lie and ignore reality so we can feel good about our children.