The supporters of Hillary Clinton, the poster woman for unbridled statism, are distraught over Donald Trump’s victory.
Sore losers.
The supporters of Donald Trump would’ve been just as distraught if their poster man for unbridled statism of a different flavor had lost. In fact, Trumpers were just as distraught eight years ago over the election of Barack Obama, another poster person for unbridled statism, who won over the statist John McCain.
Sore losers.
Before Barack, the supporters of statist Al Gore were distraught over their candidate losing the hanging chad count to statist George W. Bush. And before that, over the course of the twentieth century and much of the nineteenth, statists of both statist parties had alternated in their despair over the election of a statist from the other party.
One exception was the election of Calvin Coolidge, who was the least statist president of modern times. The statists of both parties despaired over his presidency.
Not surprisingly, the statists in academia and the media don’t give Coolidge high marks in their ranking of presidents, preferring instead to give their highest accolades to super-statist FDR.
The losers get no sympathy from me and other libertarians. We lose every election to either a statist Democrat or a statist Republican.
Maybe that’s why we’re seen as losers.
No, that’s not true. We’re seen as losers because of our political and moral philosophy, which the statists characterize as utopian.
Unwittingly, the statists are also labeling the Founders as utopian losers, because the Founders’ classical liberalism was very similar to modern libertarianism.
Like libertarians, the Founders were anti-statist. They didn’t believe in highly concentrated government power over the economy and society. Instead, again like libertarians, they believed that government power should be restricted to protecting life, liberty and property—that it shouldn’t be exercised for imperialistic purposes, or to take stuff from Peter and give to Paul, or to control the price and supply of gall bladder surgeries or anything else, or to otherwise reorder society in the image of egotistical and corrupt politicians.
Yeah, reflecting the mores of their time, some of the Founders were a bit lacking in classical liberal principles with respect to slaves and Native Americans. And right out of the gate, George Washington conducted the first war on drugs, with his use of force against the moonshiners of Western Penn. And he engaged in early cronyism, with his support of government expenditures on making the Potomac and its tributaries navigable, which would have made his extensive landholdings more valuable. But recognizing that all men aren’t angels, including themselves, he and the other Founders developed a political system to keep devils from usurping power from the people.
Well, that hasn’t worked out so well. Not only have devils usurped power from the people, they have duped the people into erecting statues and monuments to themselves and other usurpers in the Capitol Rotunda and Mall.
It would be over the top to suggest that instead of statues and monuments, the heads of usurpers should have been put on pikes on both sides of the Mall for the ravens to peck on, as a warning to any politician who thinks of usurping power from the people. Since it’s over the top, I’m not going to suggest it.
On the other hand, come to think of it, if heads of usurpers had been put on pikes all along, there would not be the Vietnam War Memorial on the Mall, because 55,000 Americans would’ve died in Vietnam due to politicians overturning the nation’s founding principles. A few heads versus 55,000 unnecessary deaths would’ve been a good tradeoff.
Now I’m sounding like a libertarian; that is, like a whacko and loser.
Makes me proud.
