Democratic Platform for 2020

"When one observes the nightmare of the desperate efforts made by hundreds of thousands of people struggling to escape the socialized countries of Europe, to escape over barbed wire fences, under machine gun fire - one can no longer believe that Socialism, in any of its forms, is motivated by benevolence and by the desire to achieve men's welfare."

Ayn Rand - The Monument Builders - 1964


Just when you think the Political Left can't get any more radical, they somehow manage to come up with crazier schemes to "help" the American people.

So, with a few additions, the Democratic party has strengthened their resolve to bring the reforms they think we all deserve.

Open Rebellion

Here's an idea that hasn't been tried since the 1860s; open warfare. Brute force disguised as compromise. Compromise usually means that both sides make concessions. One gives a little to get something in return. But there is nothing offered in return. You either go along with the plan or you are an enemy to be crushed.

A Living Wage is a Right

An unearned benefit for the worker and an unchosen obligation for the business owner and increased costs all around for the consumer. Inflation would rise and the "living" wage granted by government would just even out by the increased costs. Government imposing a price rise is not a market force and the market will react quickly and naturally to restore equilibrium. And loads of people and businesses will be hurt in the process.

You don't have a right to an income. The Founding Fathers only state that you have the right to the pursuit of happiness, not happiness itself. You have the right to take the steps you feel necessary to make you happy. This does not mean others must make you happy.

The Green New Deal

One doesn't have far to read into this "Thing" to find that it means Confiscation, Appropriation and Re-Distribution. It's great if you're the one taking, not so great if you're on the other end. And oddly, the "Poor" never seem to see a dime of it. Ask all those dead Bolsheviks who spent 3 lifetimes waiting for the payoff of the Glorious Revolution that never came. Ask all the dead Chinese who were told that abundance was just a little bit further but further than they lived to see. Ask all those stupid-assed Chavanista's who are fending for food in the daytime and trying to hold onto their misled lives at night. All easily pusueded yet stubbornly hard to convince in regards to who led them down the primrose path of good intentions and copious pools brackish water.

Climate Change is REAL! Really! It Really is!

No, it isn't. Never was. The only people who say they believe in it are the ones who foolishly think that they will be among the people who stand at the top of the heap in power. Little do they know that assassination is more likely their fate. The higher they think they'll climb the more hurt they'll feel when they realize they've lost the game. If you really do believe it's true, you basically have a weak mind and can't tell the difference between a truth and a lie.

Just the collusion between NASA and NOA exposed by WikiLeaks should have been enough to show the world how much of a hoax it all was but since Climate Change has become a religion unto itself, there's no talking to these people now. They are just insufferable, intolerant crazed berserkers.

Retroactive Birth Control

That's right folks, a woman can choose to terminate her pregnancy right up until the child is ready to start Junior High School. After that, it would be murder.

Abortion on Demand has morphed to abortion any time regardless of viability. Just kill 'em if they want. We'll make it the law.

The Rights of the State vs Individual Rights

And this is the crux of the whole thing. Does the Individual have rights to do what they desire in life or does the State have the right to tell them what their desires are and that they must sacrifice their dreams for the good of the many. To the Socialists, there is always a payoff just up the road. All your sacrifices will be worth it...later. But it's coming...just a little bit further.

Not to worry, you'll never live to see it.

Conclusion

So the 2020 election objectives are pretty darn clear. Collectivism or Individualism. In the latter, you carry the burden for yourself. In the former, you carry the burden for others.

You can give up the fruits of your labor for the greater good or you can put your sweat and efforts into providing for you and yours and expect your neighbor to do the same for himself.

There is a word for someone who toils but does not reap the benefits of their own labor. We call that person a SLAVE.

So, for whom do you want to bear the burden? Your family or someone else's?

Vote!

Has-Been Warmonger Republican Bashes Rand Paul, Tea Party

Former member of the President George W. Bush administration and interim ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton was quoted as saying that Ronald Reagan would be "rolling over in his grave" to hear Rand Paul praise him.

This is over-the-top grandstanding for the Republocratic Party on his part and he is, after all, a Republican Party loyalist. But his real point in the interview strikes home at what I feel has plagued Libertarians since our modern conciousness and that is: We just have a hard time expressing our core beliefs to the public.

I've heard Ron Paul stumble over the "So you want to legalize drugs, even heroin?" question many times. This is most likely a result of being called "nuts" over and over again for decades because up until recently most people actually thought the War on Drugs was working and making things better. Well we all know how that turned out. I've heard Rand Paul answer the same question with an emphatic "Yes".

There should no longer be any ambiguity as far as telling the world where a Libertarian's principles lie. At least we HAVE principles. And the world is coming around more to our way of thinking because, let's face it, they can see the failures of the Republocrats and the Demlicans. Our ideals, no, they are not perfect but they are far closer to what a free people need. Freedom works everywhere it is applied.

When it comes to Iran and Nukes. It's a hard question to answer on the grounds that our allies do not want Iran to start making Nuclear bombs. But it's going to happen. My answer to that question is: If Europe, Saudi Arabia and Israel do not want Iran to have The Bomb then they better get busy and do something about it.

Why is it up the the United States to bomb Iran? Because that is just what we do?

Or how about the UN? Phhhbt! I make joke! Man, I crack myself up.

They ALL have the bomb over there in case you haven't heard. France, Syria, Israel, Russia, China. Nobody is stopping THEM from doing something about Iran. It's their neighborhood.

As far as John Bolton is concerned, he has done some creditable service and is, for the most part, a conservative but he is part of the "old guard" of the Republican party that has become the biggest obsticle to the Tea Party and it's candidates. He is for the status quo of the Republicans which is now part of the problem rather than the solution.

The Left Wing press will have him on every screen since he's bashing Rand Paul and the Tea Party. He will willingly become their useful idiot because there's one thing both parties hate more than each other and that's the Tea Party. I don't ever have to listen to this guy again because I already know what he's going to say.

Iran is going to get the bomb because nobody is going to stop them. Niether party has done so up to now so how is a prospective candidate supposed to say he's going to bomb Iran when the present administration isn't going to bomb them either.

Bolton the War Monger just longs for the old days when we could just go in and bomb another country "because we said so." Well that was before we've wasted political capital, boatloads of taxpayer money and America's youth on wastesful "make work" wars for well over a DECADE.

Oh, and by the way, We're Broke!

Now we're going to bomb Iran? Get real. If we as a nation had kept our sword sheathed until we really needed it, we wouldn't be in this situation.

And THAT's a Libertarian principle.

Libertarians Unite

Yes I know that’s what is known as a Libertarian oxymoron since Libertarians are notorious non-joiners.

But the many individuals that make up the Libertarian consciousness have made an impact on this presidential election. It wasn’t an election that the Democrat won or the Republican would have won, it was an election where both parties lost.

Let’s take a look.

We had an incumbent president with a below 50% approval rating, presiding over a nation with a real unemployment rate of around 15% and whose wanton patronage of the Public Sector has now all but guaranteed the bankruptcy of this nation. The only boon to the economy president Obama has presided over is that the sale of guns has gone through the roof.

Then there is Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts who, as a businessman, managed to balance the state budget and put in place the Rainy Day fund that the now Governor, Deval Patrick, will rely on to keep the budget in balance since his management of the state has been less than stellar. But for all the good Romney has done with business and saving the Salt Lake City Olympics, he has tried too hard to be everything to everybody most of the time. His image as one sympathetic to big business did not help him and he never rose above a 50% approval rating either.

It was the Republican Party that has most resisted change this election cycle. Instead of embracing the masses of Tea Party groups that sprang up with the passage of the National Healthcare Initiative, the GOP fought them tooth and nail and even abandoned Tea Party candidates who were voted in as GOP candidates.

Neither did they embrace the Libertarians out there especially Ron Paul who, as the pillar of Libertarian principles, was branded a “Kook” and out of step with the mainstream. Dr. Paul was dismissed by mainstream conservative media and even had to withstand a withering attack by so called conservative radio talk show hosts across the nation.

And yet the Republican Party wonders out loud why they lost.

It has now come to light that the election wasn’t won or lost because of women’s issues or because the welfare nation has grown or even the rise of the Hispanic voting bloc. It was because 3 million registered Republicans stayed home and did not vote. It has also been reported that 8 million registered Democrats did not make it to the polls either. Also the voter turnout was less that the previous presidential contest featuring Obama vs. McCain. Looks like many voters just stayed home.

So how can you say a candidate would be a winner of such a contest?

There is no people’s mandate in this election. It only serves to prove that people wanted neither party.

Why? Because they are the same party, there is no difference.

I wonder what the vote would have looked like if "None of the Above" was on the ballot.

Why Ron Paul?

There is yet another resurgence of Ron Paul as a candidate for President of the United States. Why? Isn’t he an open borders America hating kook with a cult following? The media doesn’t want you to hear his ideas. The political left and the political right don’t want you to hear his ideas. So why is he so popular?

Maybe it’s because the citizens of the United States are sick of the same candidates over and over again. There is nobody but the same candidates to vote for and no matter what they call themselves, either Democrat of Republican, they are on the same team. Taxes always go up, we’re always at war and we are in everybody else's business more than our own

The people of the United States are tired of constant war and sending our best and brightest children to fight them. War isn’t something a nation reaches for at the drop of a hat. War is something to be pondered and reasoned and VOTED UPON by the US Congress. Yet each President has their wars: Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Panama, Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq again, Libya and Somalia and now they want Iran.

But we as a nation have grown tired of war. Witness the revelations of our men and women returning from Iraq. I have yet to read that ONE of them believes it was worth it. And you know what? It wasn’t worth it. It was a waste.This is not the fault of the people we send to fight, it's the responsibility and the fault of the people who sent them ie: The President of the United States and the US Congress.

The other trouble with always being at war is that when a real nation defending conflict comes along, nobody wants to fight it. We should save the swords for when we really need them.

This is why people are getting behind Ron Paul. The Libertarian credo is “Free trade and non-intervention”. How radical is that?

People are tired of trying the same wrong things over and over. Boom, Bust, Boom, Bust, bank bailouts, a ceaseless drug war, foreign aid to countries that hate us, the government aiding the support of an illegal alien workforce and then going after states that try to defend themselves from the onslaught. The list can go on. This is not how a nation is supposed to work. What we have passing for a fiscal policy and taxation is not Capitalism nor is it a Free Market. We have lost the expertise and knowledge on how a real free market is supposed to work. So much so that people don’t even believe it works any more. They’re actually frightened by the notion.

Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to take a different approach to how we see ourselves and the world we interact with. It is time to respect the workings of sovereign nations that have ideas different from our own? Is just merely being a trading partner enough for us? Should we make sure we’re secure here at home and that our economy is strong?

We’ve tried it the other way, with huge bureaucracy, armies of government workers, costly national programs for education, health, social welfare and commerce that don't really provide a benefit to the people they’re supposed to help and have actually made things much, much worse.The history of these programs is deficits, overruns and cutbacks.

People are wising up to the diversions, the subterfuge, the politics and the out-right lies we’ve been hearing for decades. Times up.

It is no surprise to a Libertarian that US citizens are tiring of the same people becoming president and trying to “Pass a Law” that will solve the nation’s ills. People are finally coming around to the idea that just passing a law isn’t going to do it. We the people have to be behind it.

This election is no different from past ones. We have a Marxist president and a two left-leaning Republocrats to “challenge” him. Once again we have nobody to vote for.

The American people deserve more than this. Time for a change.

Nine Myths About Libertarianism

Myth #1 Libertarians are Isolationists.

This is trotted out every single time some radio wag is asked to comment on either Ron Paul or Libertarians in general. Libertarians are decidedly not isolationists. What they call for is Free Trade and Non-Intervention in sovereign nations. How can you trade with another country if you isolate yourself? You can’t. It is apparent that the current regime that has been in power in the U.S for decades always wants to either buy influence or intervene overtly (militarily) or covertly (politically) with any country they choose to as a matter of policy. Libertarians find this to be a really bad idea in the long run and history proves this to be true.

Myth #2 Libertarians are Anti-War Peaceniks

Another fib boasted mostly by right-wing hawks. Libertarians believe in a time to fight and a time for war. Was it not that noted founding Libertarian; Thomas Jefferson himself who sent the Marines to smash the Barbary Pirates of Tripoli in 1804? Yes it was! Why did he do it? To stop them from interfering with U.S. shipping and commerce, that’s why. That’s the free trade part of Myth #1 for those not paying attention.

The difference is that Thomas Jefferson did not want to make an industry out of war which has been the case for the last oh, 50 years! I don’t know who made any money on Korea but the US armament factories have reaped a bundle ever since. The U.S. exports twice as many weapons of war as the second place country (Russia). Anybody born after 1956 will tell you that we as a nation have been in a virtual state of war since they’ve been alive: Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Panama, Gulf War I, Gulf War II, the Arab conflicts and now Libya and beyond. No price can be put upon the agony these endless military conflagrations have caused. 

These wars never end. They are no longer meant to be won. Libertarians see this as a colossal waste of lives and national resources. Free trade and non-intervention would have caused many of these conflicts never to be started. The U.S. has 700 military bases world wide. Why? Can’t Greece, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Europe take care of themselves? Libertarians think that it’s about time these countries take an interest in their own defense.

Yes, Libertarians prefer peace but if it comes time to fight, it will be time to win and the full force of a United States of America should be felt. Without the will to win, a war should not be undertaken.

Myth #3 Libertarians Want to Legalize Drugs

This is no myth. The Drug War is a pronounced and utter failure which has turned our inner cities into hell-holes and has corrupted our system of government. Nobody believes that it is working; nobody believes that we are better off since the drug war began (with the exception of FOX’S Sean Hannity). Time to legalize them and instead of paying Billions of dollars to government corrections and enforcement, we should instead turn this massive amount of money to treatment and education. I have a more detailed rant in the archives of this blog. It’s worth a look.

Myth #4 Libertarianism Have Visions of Utopia

We all know Utopia is not an option. There is no perfect world there is no perfect system. But neither is the welfare state! Libertarians know that welfare isn’t about compassion or helping people when they’re down. It’s about State Control. The State taxes, transfers and decides who gets the money. Welfare is a disincentive to work.  Self-Reliance is self-fulfillment. The people on the left are well aware of this yet they continue with this policy. Why? 

Now we’ve always had to pay somebody for protection, either the King, the Overlord or whoever was in power at the time. These “taxes” paid for the protection of the “taxpayers” by the overall power of the Feudal Lord/State so nothing has really changed in that regard.

The problems come when the State becomes unwieldy, over bureaucratized, ineffectual at it’s basic functions and takes too much money out of the economy so that the people who pay start to falter. Libertarians believe that government has its hands in too many pies and is using taxpayer money to buy the vote. This is something to be stopped.

Myth #5 Libertarians are Anti-Tax, Anti-Government Nut-Jobs

Although I’ve met a few ah, “Overly Committed” folks who describe themselves as Libertarians, I can’t say there are any more of them than there are of Left-Wing Welfare State Loving Nut-Jobs or Right-Wing Warmonger Nut-Jobs. Probably less since Libertarians are a smaller group that the previously described. They do seem to stand out in a crowd though since they tend to dress in fatigues and either carries a big flag or “Don’t Dare Take My Gun” sign. God love ‘em. But by and large, Libertarians are just regular working people who are educated and in tune with how our current system of government is working. Libertarians know that wealth does not come from government and they tend to see the issues a little differently than those on the Left or Right side of the political spectrum. There is another way of looking at things.

Myth # 6 Libertarians are Racists

Libertarians love anybody with a job or who is looking for a job. As a matter of principle, they are decidedly color-blind. In fact, Libertarians feel that highlighting race at all in the way government functions ie: inquiring about race on government forms or societal segregation or the awarding of benefits based on race is bad policy. It is as Martin Luther King has said: “Judge not a person by the color of their skin but by the content of their soul.” Time to walk the talk like MLK did. I swear some of the scenes of our inner cities and the people who profit by “speaking for my people” should have MLK spinning in his grave at 100,000 rpm. Just like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

Neither side has taken any steps at ending this practice when they had their chance to do so.

Conclusion: Libertarians have well defined principles but individuals interpret them as they see them. Libertarianism is not really a party since it is made up of individuals in the pursuit of their own dreams. When there is commonality, there is consensus. We all want the same things: The pursuit of happiness, safety in our homes and businesses, to raise our children in a safe and open environment, to have a level playing field for business and to have equal opportunity for all to prosper. We cannot guarantee results or success but people deserve the best chance to succeed without government intervention.

 Myth #7 Libertarians are for Big Business and are Anti-Environment

There is a big difference between free-enterprise and the collusion of large businesses with government to artificially procure for themselves a larger market share over their competition. Libertarians regard this collusion, as seen most recently with Bank of America, CitiBank and General Motors as Un-American and would be illegal in a Libertarian governed United States. Libertarians do not believe in Stimulus or Bail-outs. In fact, there would be no GBEs (Government Business Entity) in a Libertarian administration like Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. These were doomed to fail from the start since there was never any incentive to curb lending since the government guaranteed all mortgages they purchased. We still have yet to find out just how much Fannie & Freddie has spent in public funds but the final tally will be staggering.

Libertarians believe that by putting money back into the pockets of the people to spend the way they wish will we as a society have the opportunity to achieve the things we want in life. Not utopia, just better.

As far as the environment goes, we have had government watchdogs for decades and still the environmental disasters continue. Libertarians believe that what is bad for the environment is bad for business. Libertarians are as environmentally conscious as anybody else out there perhaps a bit more so since our natural resources are linked to our individual pursuit of happiness. But we also acknowledge that resources, especially renewable resources like trees are to be used and harvested. The setting aside of lands and forests to not be used or to prohibit the clearing of brush for the purpose or fire-roads and fire-breaks is counter productive. Nobody is for cutting old growth forest but trees are being cut down and replanted all the time. Excessive fees and over regulation of any industry will lead to illegal and unregulated activity such as wildcat clear-cutting of forest and illegal dumping in wildlife areas. We’ve all seen it. Libertarians believe that by making it easier to recycle materials and waste will the environment stay clean.

Myth #8 Libertarianism is a Cult

Although Ron Paul seems to have a cult-like following, so does President Obama. Is Liberalism therefore a cult? It’s hard to shake a person’s beliefs but at the very least Libertarianism is about the individual and not the collective. If I want what you have, I’ll work for it. I will not petition the government to pass a law to make you give up what you have for me. If belief in the individual’s ability to achieve and in the right of personal ownership is a cult then yes, Libertarianism is a cult. It is a cult of self reliance instead of the reliance on the State. It is freedom or at least the closest belief system to freedom. Libertarians believe they can provide for their own retirement better than the government can. They believe that they themselves know better than government what to do with the money they earn.  If the economy is indeed 75% consumer driven, then how come government is always taking money out of the hand of the consumer?

Contrary to popular belief, people got along just fine for centuries in this country without a Social Security system or a Graduated Income tax. You cannot get married today without permission from the State. The church can’t just marry you. That would be illegal.

Myth #9 Libertarians Are Against Assisting the Poor

There is more than one way to assist the poor. You can hand them a fish in the form of Welfare or you can really help them by having a job for them to go to.

Unemployment used to last 26 weeks when I started working. When did you get a job? When Unemployment ran out! Well now Unemployment never seems to run out. Some have been on extensions for 3 years. When’s that person going to find a job? When Unemployment runs out!

Libertarians also know there are many charities that help the poor. The biggest and most efficient in the United States is The Salvation Army. But they don’t give out checks. They give you three hots, a cot and work. You still have to earn it. The Salvation Army is by far more efficient with the money they take in than the government. And therein lies the answer.

Without the government confiscating so much of our cash, we would be free to give to the charity of our choice. Americans already are the most giving people in the world but with private charities we have the best way to get help to those who truly need it on a more intimate community level rather than a nameless, faceless state that doesn’t know who’s money they’re throwing around.

Ron Paul VS. Fox News...

Ron Paul won the Iowa debate but you would never know it from the deafening silence that eminates from the Government Media. Fox News, supposedly the bastion of truth in an otherwise sea of propaganda, is actually part of this machine. The tip off for me was when they used to have Alfred Sharpton of NY on and would always refer to him as "The Reverend Al Sharpton" when he has never been ordained and has no church. Yet Fox Media has never once questioned this snake oil salesman about any of the dirty deeds he has been a part of in the past and has seemingly accepted him as he is, which is as the charlatan he is. They have frequently done the same with that known embezzler and race-baiter, Mr. Jesse Jackson. These are the people Fox News chooses to represent the voice of Black America. This is Fox News. Did they look for anybody else? Fox is just another TV "news" channel with an agenda.

Now we know Fox's Sean Hannity, a previously noted right wing war monger, does not like Ron Paul's ideas. Linear thinkers like Sean Hannity are incapable of understanding such things and he doesn't even pretend he comprehends them. The chorus against Ron Paul is always the same: that he is "too radial" too "out-there", that he is a "whack-job" for thinking the way he thinks. This is the tune Fox News and the Government Media has played and the song grows more tiresome the deeper this country sinks into chaos.

Ron Paul is absolutely right about what our many foreign entanglements have brought us. He is absolutely right about Iran, which if anyone has given it one moment of thought, has every right to distrust and dislike the USA for supporting with money and armaments a brutal Shah who kept the Iranian people under the heal of his boot for so long. But it was a boot made in the USA. All to keep the oil flowing when whoever was in charge of the country would've sold us the oil anyway. Once the Shah was finally overthrown how would you expect the Iranian people to react?

Ron Paul's ideas of returning to the free trade non-intervention policy, avoiding foreign entanglements and a more solid monetary policy are steps in the right direction and that the failure of rethinking any of the failed strategies of the past by people he has labeled "Status Quo Politicians" has brought us to a precipice. And his long time desire to audit the Federal Reserve is just common sense. The Fed has never been audited, ever. We don't even know how much debt the country is in.

But you will never hear it unless you can see the debates for yourself. The media has always been selective of who they want you to hear. You will have to work to hear Ron Paul speak. Fox News is not your friend and they certainly aren't fair and balanced. They're part of the Government Media Gang.

The Left does not like Libertarian thinkers because the Left wants to pedal it's influence by making dependents. Libertarians believe in self reliance. The Right does not like Libertarians because the Right pedals it's influence by military buildups and spreading the "American Way" at the end of a gun barrel. Libertarians know that this does not work in the long run. We see first hand what happens when the State makes dependents in London, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philidelphia and we see the waste of resources that has become of our 10 year war on three fronts.

You may also see a similarity of the Left and the Right in that it doesn't matter who's President, we still have non-stop war and non-stop dependency. Unless you have something to gain from all this, how would you condon such action? The Democrats and the Republicans, with the exception of the Tea Party candidates, are the same side, the same people. And they're equally on the wrong side of the solutions.

If people could look beyond the retoric and listen to the ideas, Ron Paul is not that radical a figure. His ideas and direction are similar to what other Republican candidates are saying. It's how we arrive there that is different. Things are going so swimmingly now after all.

Ron Paul is not talking about Utopia. He is talking sense and perhaps it's been so long since we've heard any we can't immediately recognize it. Think about it and find your voice. This is no time to be sitting on the sidelines.