What do you mean no Helicopters and McNukes?

In usual fashion I have come across some inspiring material to write my own article on. I’ve been thinking recently about what the ends of a libertarian party or movement would or should be. In this blog I consider the means of getting there. I’m always pushing steps toward a libertarian society. These steps seem to never make any progress. I have always viewed the libertarian society as an idealist notion. I think to some degree its true. On the other hand, I feel like its entirely possible that a libertarian society is achievable. The problems are numerous and the solutions are few. One main problem and probably the biggest one is the lack of education of outsiders on the libertarian values and beliefs. People tend to misinterpret or misunderstand what libertarians stand for and what we want to achieve.

I’ve recently said on social media that I believe I’m in the minority of libertarians that believe that achieving the ultimate goal of a libertarian society will come instantly once it happens. I feel that many libertarians, anarchists, anarcho-capitalists think that once we overthrow the current government then we can just easily transition to that libertarian society that we all agree is the goal. I don’t believe its so easy or fast. I think there is a number of factors to consider about means and ends of libertarianism.

The first and foremost is that the way to change the government is to vote for politicians who hold the same beliefs, values and morals as libertarians.  We can all agree politicians of this caliber don’t exist right now with the exception of Rand Paul, maybe. After voting for Gary Johnson in two consecutive elections I have realized that we are going too big. (Nothing wrong with him, just a walking meme.) We need to find libertarian congresspeople. I know of 3 libertarian leaning congresspeople, Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, and Justin Amash. Once we can turn the Congress into a majority of libertarians then we can work on the white house.

The second factor is education like I mentioned before. A lot of people have misconceptions of libertarians. Even I used to subscribe to these common myths. For example: Libertarians are both Republican and Democrat because they support a little of each. It might be true that we hold similar positions but we are actually against both parties. The two main parties are a snake with two heads. They don’t care about you. They care about their interests and their money! We need to educate the masses on libertarianism. The essential thing is liberty and freedom. The government shouldn’t play much if any role in our everyday lives. The government doesn’t need to over regulate and get involved in everything we do. The government doesn’t need to tax our hard earned income. For over 100 years, the US government collected no income tax. Who will build the roads? Private corporations that need to ship things by truck. Businesses that need to drive around. My point is that if we can educate people then eventually will lead to more people accepting and more importantly voting for libertarians.

The third factor of the means is simply cohesive-ness among libertarians. We have to unify our ideas. I know we all agree on certain things. But we have to compromise on other things. Example: Abortion. One of the hottest button issues because there is no stasis for argument. Pro Life or Pro Choice? For me, I’m torn between both because choice is guaranteed by the 14th amendment. Yet I’m also catholic so I can’t possibly support the killing of something that is alive. My position is Pro-Adoption. It gives a choice and saves the life of the baby. Also there are many parents out there who can’t have kids. My point here is that a compromise takes a little bit from each side and makes palatable to everyone. Compromise is something that our country was founded on. I strongly believe we should get back to that.

The forth factor is concerning the ends. I find it hilarious but helicopters and McNukes are a standard must have in any libertarian society. But lets all be honest its a little far fetched. I do believe that no taxes, open carry (guns), NAP and very small government are possible to have. I think we all have to be realistic about the ends. The ultimate goal is for everybody to live their life without the interference from government. But I think we miss the point that libertarian is also one of the most charitable types of societies. Its not fake charity like socialism and communism. In a libertarian society, you would give to the poor, give to the sick and give to government if you felt like it was worth it. Thats the wonderful thing about it, its your choice to give your money or not. Government is ineffective at helping people. But there is a million examples of where everyday people throw their support at something and get it done without government.

My conclusion is that we need to educate, vote, come together and be realistic about our ultimate goal of a libertarian society.  We can do it all once too. My inspiration was an article that basically said no more Libertarian party but we need a movement. In order to achieve a movement, we have to educate people on the benefits of joining this movement. We have to vote in politicians who reflect our positions. Its not going to be easy. The steps towards a libertarian society will be methodical. All I hope is that I see this libertarian society come to fruition before my time is up. I’m still young so I got hope.

Just remember kids, Taxation is Theft.

Thanks For Reading!

 

Debates, Candidates and Polls

The third Republican Debate is coming soon on October 28th on CNBC. The amount of candidates still in the running will force a JV debate to occur once again. I came across a few interesting pieces on FiveThirtyEight. One of these highlights who might be in the JV debate or who may not make it. It seems that Lindsey Graham may not make it to the debate stage at all.

CANDIDATE	CNBC’S POLL AVERAGE FOR THE DEBATE
Donald Trump	23.8%
Ben Carson	18.7
Carly Fiorina	9.5
Marco Rubio	9.3
Jeb Bush	8.3
Ted Cruz	7.2
Mike Huckabee	3.5
Chris Christie	3.2
John Kasich	3.2
Rand Paul	3.0
Rick Santorum	0.7
Bobby Jindal	0.5
George Pataki	0.3
Jim Gilmore	0.0
Lindsey Graham	0.0

These are the polling numbers as averaged by CNBC. The rules for this debate are that you need to have at least one percent in of the national polls.  Jim Gilmore and Lindsey Graham both have big zeros. I have never heard of Jim Gilmore. So who cares? However, Lindsey Graham seem to perform strong in the last debate.  So I am a little surprised that he might fall off the debate stage. (Not literally) I just want to comment on how interesting this chart actually is.  It shows a good rundown of each candidate is doing. Of course, Trump is leading with Carson trailing by about 5 points.  My horse (candidate) in the race is doing good old 3 percent. Typical for a libertarian conservative.  Unfortunately, the best candidates aren’t even close to the top. Moving on…

I found another interesting piece on fivethirtyeight call “Stop Comparing Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders”. I recommend reading it. The quick summary of it is that Trump will not have staying power or experience to win a republican nomination. Meanwhile, Sanders is a veteran of politics and has a better staff and more experience. They also point out that Trump is going up against a large field of candidates. Bernie only has one to two opponents, one being Hillary Clinton. If Joe Biden were to run then he would have two. It’s a really interesting narrative to look at despite the vast differences.

I think that the author, Nate Sliver is correct in saying that they should be compared. However, despite their huge differences in one-one political experience, they are microcosms of their respective parties. Let’s first take Bernie Sanders. Sanders is a self proclaimed Socialist. He votes democratic on nearly on bill. He is a Washington insider being a senator since 1991.  He has been in politics his whole life. The democratic offers much of the same with each candidate. If you look at Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or even some of the other candidates they all have years of political experience. This is what the democratic party is basically brought to the election. Now contrast their candidate profiles against the profiles of the leading Republican candidates.  Donald Trump is a business man. Never run an election campaign. Trump has never been in politics. He is an outsider. The same could be said for second place Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. All the candidates with political experience like Jeb, Cruz, Rubio, and Paul are all failing to get voter traction.

Of course, this a generalization of all candidates so its bound to have inaccuracies. But my point is that each party is aiming something different with the candidates put forward. It seems to me that typically the parties will go against in each other or in the opposite direction. Republicans want an outsider to win the Presidency. Democrats want an insider to win the Presidency. As a libertarian, I see that their both after the same thing, control. It doesn’t matter who becomes President from what party because either way its given that congress will be elected mostly in the opposite party.

I have talked about Congress and their ability to stop bills from making any progress. Congress also makes the government seemingly non-productive. People always wonder why President Obama turns to executive actions? Congress refuses to help him pass anything. So in a way I can’t blame Obama for using executive orders. (although I may disagree with the laws that are passed) I think that regardless of who wins this election, we should really look at congress. I can only hope that if an republican gets elected that their will be a republican controlled congress and vice versa. Otherwise I believe that things will continue to be as they are.

Let’s face the reality that comparing Sanders and Trump may be futile as many doubt they will get the nomination. Not to say that Sanders cannot overcome Clinton. Also not saying that Trump could gain staying power. Stranger things have happened in elections.

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I always look forward to these debates. I remember last election watching Obama and Mitt Romney debate. I thought it was the most intellectually entertaining event. Right now, I feel like the Republican debates are just a circus because of sheer number of candidates. So I’m hoping that maybe a few will drop out between now and next year. Its hard to make good predictions and comparisons with so many candidates. Its also hard to gauge who is doing good and bad. I found that with the dem debate it was easier to see who was doing well and who was falling on their face. Also a smaller number of candidates means more focus on issues. (With Republicans this is a shaky point)

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Looking to do a historical piece about an past election. Obviously it will require some research. So keep on the look out for it. I want to see if theres any historical precedent for this election. With 44 presidents there has been a lot of races. If you have any suggestions on what I should write then drop me a line gsmit006@plattsburgh.edu.

Thanks for Reading!!!!

Socialist Fundraising and Second Amendment Rights: Bernie Sanders rise to the top

You may or not have heard that Bernie Sanders is on a roll. He recently just became a fundraising legend–supposedly hauling 26 million dollars. He does it without any help from super PACs. The only other candidate to roll without super PACs is Sanders’ exact evil twin, Mr. Trump. Despite Sanders massive monetary support he still lags behind Hillary according to this recent CNN poll. I will say that Sanders has become an impressive challenger for the presidential race. I admire his ability to say he wants something then actually stick to his morals. Not a common quality in many ANY politicians. Sorry about that typo. I have on multiple occasions criticized Sanders for his “cosmetic economic” policies and the like.

I wanted to look some of his other policy positions because of the recent tragic event at a community college in Oregon. This tragedy has occurred in many different instances with different circumstances. It continues to be a problem in American society. Gun violence seems to be constantly popping up. My Condolences go out to the families and the college community that lost 10 friends and colleagues. This should not be happening and hopefully one day we can end this kind of horrible massacre. 

I am a moderate supporter of second amendment rights. I have shot guns and enjoy it. However, I find it unthinkable to ever turn a gun on a person or people. It’s events like one in Oregon that keep us coming back to what to do about gun violence. Logic tells that the extremes almost never work. Before I go into my own strong opinions lets see what Bernie Sanders’ would do about guns? After all, he is a senator from Vermont. In case you don’t know Vermont loves guns. If you have ever been to Vermont, its beautiful, and they love their nature and guns. So I would expect Bernie to have a decent, not too extreme plan to have deal with this problem.

So in his twitter reaction to Oregon tragedy, Sanders tweeted two things:

“We need sensible gun-control legislation which prevents guns from being used by people who should not have them.” – Bernie Sanders

As a nation, we must do everything we can to put an end to this awful epidemic of senseless slaughter. – Bernie Sanders

@SenSanders (twitter name)

I happen to agree with both statements. However, let me point out that extremes such as taking away all guns or letting everyone have guns is a crazy idea. I hope when Sanders says he wants gun control legislation that he means more intensive background checks and psychological evaluations. The problem with most democratic gun control plans is that they don’t actually fix the problem.

The simplest way to explain it is with the 1920 experiment of prohibiting alcohol. The 18th amendment was passed in 1920 that ban alcohol. The result became an increase in crime and drinking. It only led to more people wanting to drink. Drinking could be eliminated especially with invention of smugglers getaway cars. We now know those fast cars that smugglers used as race cars. (Side note: Drinking and NASCAR are like peanut and Jelly for good reason) The 21st amendment repeal prohibition and after that crime decreased and drinking stay the same due to the depression. Regardless of the circumstances, drinking alcohol never really disappeared. The same can be said for illicit drugs which also have laws banning them outright.

So I don’t understand where democrats get this crazy notion that banning guns will solve anything. I believe it was Marco Rubio who put it perfectly: Gun laws won’t work because criminals ignore laws. This was Rubio’s one great shining moment. Anyway, the basic argument can be used for letting everyone have a gun. Many memes on the internet compare it to a war zone and the safety that war zones are not well-known for. It’s a very funny but very lame point. Let’s be realistic that no amount regulation or laws or anything can prevent people from shooting people. (In fact, call me sick but overpopulation could be a problem with lack of drinking water just saying sometimes people have to die…cycle of life) It’s a moot point really to say that we eliminate all violence.

However, the negative outlook doesn’t mean there isn’t positive hope. I believe the best way for Sanders or any presidential candidate for that matter to approach the gun violence would be installing regulations and psychological evaluations. The next step would be to increase gun safety education in schools. Instead forcing kids to do useless math problems or read fairy tales maybe teach them about the dangers of guns. I remember being in middle school and having the ill-effects of marijuana and alcohol drilled in my brain. The alcohol warnings apparently didn’t stick that well, I love drinking. The former however, stuck well as I have never touched marijuana. (weird fear of trying it, don’t ask) Back to my point, I believe that education is the great prevention. It seems to have work with sex. Everyone has had sex education and knows that drill. In the end, you can’t rely on regulations and laws its always about PEOPLE!!!

Let me save the whole sex thing for another post. That’s become quite a big headline with planned parenthood. At the beginning of this post I went over some Bernie Sanders campaign numbers. I highlighted some issues on the second amendment. I gave my strong opinion about the gun violence. I also have felt sorrow for the victims of these tragedies. Something that I am looking to forward to on a more positive note is the democratic debate. I really want to hear Bernie battle the already embattled Hillary Clinton. I haven’t been so excited for a debate since last election. I have been reading different articles and finding that Bernie has a legitimate shot to win the primaries. I don’t like all his policies and refuse to vote for a mainstream candidate but I rather have him win than Clinton. My bias is obvious.

The most important point in this post is that people commit the crimes and people die in the crimes. In the end, its the people who end this violence. We are the People! So vote wisely. Thank you for reading.