During the past few years, the Tarrant County Libertarian Party has:
1) Participated in an anti-Federal Reserve protest at the Dallas Fed.
2) Snagged some great speaking gigs at DFW NORML meetings. (National Organization For The Reform Of Marijuana Laws.)
3) Sponsored 2nd Amendment/Gun Rights debates, hosted NRA activist meetups, staffed tables at gun shows, and participated in “Open Carry” events.
4) Participated in Gay/Lesbian pride parades in Dallas and Fort Worth. (And won twice!)
5) Staffed literature/recruiting tables during at least 3 Tea Party rallies
6) Participated in 9/12 marches and had speakers at 9/12 meetings
7) We would’ve participated in Peace Marches, but the Peace Movement doesn’t really exist during Democrat administrations, and we don’t have the numbers to shut down the streets by ourselves.
8) Supported anti-Eminent Domain candidates for our regional Water Board. And won!!
Stuff like that makes for a diverse group off allies. But those groups have something in common....
Economic conservatives generally fearthe Fed the government.
Pot smokers fearthe police the government.
Gun owners fear theanti-2nd amendment lobby the government.
Gays and Lesbians fearthe influence of religious conservatives the government.
Tea Party activists, supposedly neutral on social issues, fearthe national debt the government.
The 9-12 groups, as best I can tell, fearsocialists the government.
The Peace Movement fearsthe military-industrial complex the government.
Eminent Domain opponents fearthieves the government.
Most members of these sub-groups will tell you that they oppose Democrats. Or Republicans. This is like declaring your loyalty to The Crips because if you stop supporting The Crips, then The Bloods will take over. Republicans and Democrats might go at each other like cats and dogs, but at the end of the day, neither group is going to endanger the oppressive system that makes their leadership (and their leaches) very, very wealthy and very, very powerful.
Our challenge, as Libertarians, is to convince those who fear the government to merely oppose the government in all its unholy acts, instead of trying to kill off Dr. Jekyll while saving Mr. Hyde. On almost every issue, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi are different in degree, not in kind. And I'm struggling to think of any issues (maybe guns?) where Bush/Obama differ by a significant degree. (No, I take that back. They don't even differ on guns. Barack approves of giving guns to Syrian rebels, and to Mexican Drug Lords via Operation Fast And Furious.)
When government gets big enough, it prints money, oppresses non-conformists, confiscates citizen weaponry, determines who can and can’t marry, racks up a lot of debt, nationalizes industries, starts wars, and confiscates property. That's all part of the package.
Any government big enough to abuse the group you dislike is big enough to abuse all the rest.
Let’s stop talking about Red vs. Blue. Let’s reframe the debate as Free vs. Slave.
.
1) Participated in an anti-Federal Reserve protest at the Dallas Fed.
2) Snagged some great speaking gigs at DFW NORML meetings. (National Organization For The Reform Of Marijuana Laws.)
3) Sponsored 2nd Amendment/Gun Rights debates, hosted NRA activist meetups, staffed tables at gun shows, and participated in “Open Carry” events.
4) Participated in Gay/Lesbian pride parades in Dallas and Fort Worth. (And won twice!)
5) Staffed literature/recruiting tables during at least 3 Tea Party rallies
6) Participated in 9/12 marches and had speakers at 9/12 meetings
7) We would’ve participated in Peace Marches, but the Peace Movement doesn’t really exist during Democrat administrations, and we don’t have the numbers to shut down the streets by ourselves.
8) Supported anti-Eminent Domain candidates for our regional Water Board. And won!!
Stuff like that makes for a diverse group off allies. But those groups have something in common....
Economic conservatives generally fear
Pot smokers fear
Gun owners fear the
Gays and Lesbians fear
Tea Party activists, supposedly neutral on social issues, fear
The 9-12 groups, as best I can tell, fear
The Peace Movement fears
Eminent Domain opponents fear
Most members of these sub-groups will tell you that they oppose Democrats. Or Republicans. This is like declaring your loyalty to The Crips because if you stop supporting The Crips, then The Bloods will take over. Republicans and Democrats might go at each other like cats and dogs, but at the end of the day, neither group is going to endanger the oppressive system that makes their leadership (and their leaches) very, very wealthy and very, very powerful.
Our challenge, as Libertarians, is to convince those who fear the government to merely oppose the government in all its unholy acts, instead of trying to kill off Dr. Jekyll while saving Mr. Hyde. On almost every issue, John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi are different in degree, not in kind. And I'm struggling to think of any issues (maybe guns?) where Bush/Obama differ by a significant degree. (No, I take that back. They don't even differ on guns. Barack approves of giving guns to Syrian rebels, and to Mexican Drug Lords via Operation Fast And Furious.)
When government gets big enough, it prints money, oppresses non-conformists, confiscates citizen weaponry, determines who can and can’t marry, racks up a lot of debt, nationalizes industries, starts wars, and confiscates property. That's all part of the package.
Any government big enough to abuse the group you dislike is big enough to abuse all the rest.
Let’s stop talking about Red vs. Blue. Let’s reframe the debate as Free vs. Slave.
.
2 comments:
" Let’s reframe the debate as Free vs. Slave."
A more accurate comparison is Free vs. Little Siblings (of Big Brother). Little Sibs aren't slaves. They're ignorant (unwittingly or willfully), infantile, malleable, uncreative, and mentally lazy. It's hard to convince Little Sibs that liberty and freedom are important, because they prefer a paternalistic government that lets them be irresponsible.
You might have a point there.
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