Save Yourself: Quit Politics

 

In Part II of my latest column at the Tenth Amendment Center I argued that just as governments can’t centrally plan individuals, individuals can’t plan government, and for the same reasons. Planning requires constant variables, which don’t exist in the social sciences, so individuals look for ways around the barriers erected by the state and new market systems and technological progress makes this possible

Government officials are no different, in that they look for ways around the barriers put in place in the form of laws, parliamentary procedure, or constitutions. They gerrymander the whole apparatus by establishing voter districts, party rules, campaign finance laws, and legal codes which are, paradoxically, both complex and vague, all to their favor. Then, after they’ve shaped the entire process and excluded any view point that deviates from Acceptable Opinion, they declare that “the people have spoken,” that “democracy works.”

If on the remote chance that enough Common Folk manage to get around the barriers and come dangerously close to beating the Establishment at its own game, they simply change the rules. Justin Raimondo explains how this process worked for the GOP this go around:

As for the rules governing the political process – they can be changed at a moment’s notice, and bent any which way, in order to facilitate this seizure. Ron Paul’s supporters in the GOP learned that the hard way, as the Romneyites used their control of the party bureaucracy at the state and national levels to retroactively change the rules in order to unseat duly elected Paul delegates. In Maine, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Oregon, Oklahoma, and elsewhere, the party bosses have disenfranchised Paul voters – closing down party caucuses, rejecting as delegates anyone under 50, and calling the cops when all else failed.

Barring something like this, they just ignore the rules, ignore the laws altogether, and do whatever they please.

This is why it’s always interesting when someone describes the changes they would make to the laws or to the constitution if they were put in charge. “If only we had term limits of X number of years on these particular positions,” they say. “There should be a law that says if you’ve been a congressman you have to wait Y number of years before you’re allowed to start lobbying,” they opine.

None of this matters. It will all be trampled and forgotten, assuming these plans are ever adopted by the same government they’re meant to limit in the first place. Arguing over legal minutiae can be an interesting thought experiment, but in practical terms it’s worthless.

Instead, as I suggested yesterday, efforts should be made towards finding ways around the state, rather than co-opting it. Developing alternate sources of media, new and innovative avenues for trading, teaching and learning, developing businesses that can compete with the state for defense services, legal adjudication, transportation and many other parallel institutions are far more productive and enriching.

Oh, and don’t vote.

A Fork in the Revolutionary Road

Mitt Romney was officially made the GOP’s nominee this week and now the Ron Paul revolution is over. After nearly thirty years in public office the good doctor is gracefully retiring from politics, and while it’s not following a term in the oval office, he’s no-less started what may be the greatest mental brushfire in American history. And now with millions of people inspired by the message of liberty, the obvious question is “what’s next” for the remnant?

A number of writers and activists have weighed in on this topic and below is a collection of these valuable essays and commentaries with some of my own thoughts for the Paulbots and revolutionaries.

Justin Raimondo, editorial director of the indispensable Antiwar.com, had this to say regarding the true nature of the republican party and their rules:

As for the rules governing the political process – they can be changed at a moment’s notice, and bent any which way, in order to facilitate this seizure. Ron Paul’s supporters in the GOP learned that the hard way, as the Romneyites used their control of the party bureaucracy at the state and national levels to retroactively change the rules in order to unseat duly elected Paul delegates. In Maine, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Oregon, Oklahoma, and elsewhere, the party bosses have disenfranchised Paul voters – closing down party caucuses, rejecting as delegates anyone under 50, and calling the cops when all else failed.

This description of how the convention was governed – and the primaries leading up to it – is precisely how the state works in general. It’s evil and corrupting, and ultimately founded upon violence and coercion. The GOP’s rules are in essence no different from the “Pirate’s code,” which is “more what you call guidelines than actual rules,” to borrow from the famous movie line.

Philip Giraldi, an expert in foreign affairs and vehement opponent of overseas intervention, asked “Where Do We Go Next?” His answer is that no matter which direction the revolutionaries take, if it’s not founded on a principled opposition to war and empire, it’s all for not. He chastises so-called liberty campaigns that eschew foreign policy discussions, either because they lack principle and are choosing pragmatism instead, or because the organizers secretly accept the warfare state. Any organization that claims to espouse liberty, and yet gives tacit approval of the military-industrial-congressional-complex, will one day take its rightful place in history’s dustbin.

From Jeffrey Tucker, editor of Laissez-Faire Books and former editorial vice president of Mises.org:

I hope the people who were inspired by [Ron Paul] now find productive things to do. They should start businesses, go to work in regular jobs, move abroad and do something wonderful, pursue graduate school, take up music or dance…anything but get involved in more political organizing. Politics leads to despair and does nothing to feed the soul. My fear is that the movement gave people a taste for politics and some will decide to make it their lives.
Politics is a dirty business, a ruse, an ideological cul-de-sac, a vast looter of intellectual and financial resources, a lie that corrupts, a deceiver, a means of unleashing vast evil in the world of the most unexpected and undetected sort, and the greatest diverter of human productivity ever concocted by those who do not believe in authentic social and economic progress.

His point is that politics is such a dirty endeavor, so corrupting and morally bankrupt, that it can consume people and pervert their sense of right and wrong. The only means by which to inoculate ourselves against that evil power is to avoid it altogether, and pursue other goals. This of course by no means that we shouldn’t seek to free ourselves and live outside the “statist quo,” as Tucker would say.

And finally, from last night’s episode of Tenther Radio, here’s Tenth Amendment Center founder Michael Boldin:

Liberty isn’t going to come by trying to take over Washington DC, or the republican party, or the democratic party, or your state caucus or a national convention. There is no “lesser of two evils.” They’re all evil.

Liberty will only advance by rejecting these people and the entire criminal system they’ve foisted upon us.

I want the government people to get the hell out of my life, and the only way that’s going to happen is if we work together to nullify all of them into oblivion. The next step for Ron Paul revolutionaries? If you want liberty – it’s not another political campaign. It’s right here.

So now it seems there is a fork in the revolutionary road. Two options exist, two directions for the remnant to take. The first isn’t really much of an option, it’s been tried and has not worked; the second can work, though it’s no easy endeavor.

For there are alternatives to politics, which can only be a short-term solution anyway, that are both more satisfying and enriching, as well as infinitely more effective than political campaigns. The plain truth is that using the political system, to try and change the political system, is fundamentally the same failed policy of politely asking the government to restrain itself, or to release already-usurped power – it does not work. Not only is it flawed pragmatically, as history can amply demonstrate, but it’s immoral to boot.

Instead, proponents of liberty should reject the government’s foolish games and quit trying to beat them on their own terms. The kabuki theatre that passes for elections is an enormous drain on the efforts of those who would have a free society. Rather than recycling these ideas that aren’t working, let’s return to something we are comfortable with and know can work remarkably well. I mean nullification, peaceful non-compliance, and a root-and-branch withdrawal of consent.

The LRP Week in Review 08/26/2012

The Liberty Restoration Project (LRP) has started a new weekly recap of current events. The report, which I’ll write (at least for now), will feature three topics from among the categories of local, national, and international news items. Here’s a link to the first “Week in Review.”

Repeal It

Go check out my newest column at the Tenth Amendment Center, “On Repealing th 17th Amendment Part I: Agreement.” Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald hates the idea, but doing so would likely be move in the right direction, though it’s no panacea.

An excerpt:

 

Now, the means by which senators are chosen isn’t really the issue so much as where their loyalties lie. When “the people” elect senators the very purpose of the senate is lost. Contrary to Seitz-Ward’s opening paragraph, in which he extols the virtues of democracy, at least some purpose is served when not every function of government is dependent on a popular vote. When authority is assigned through a popular vote power is actually vested in fewer hands than when a competing entity, such as a state, has a role in the decision. For when states are vested with a share in authority, the federal government must be willing to include their collective wishes or be barred from acting.

 

Something the founders counted on was a jealousy of one branch’s own power, such that one entity wouldn’t be so willing to cede control and allow any other branch to become too powerful. This clearly didn’t last, hence parties are always competing to hold the White House, Congress, and stack the Supreme Court in their favor, so that they can control the direction of the federal government. Having states hold a portion of that power may not put the brakes on every piece of onerous legislation that comes from on High, but if enough states are divided on the issue it could put a stop to some bills that otherwise would pass.

 

Seitz-Ward asks “Why would anyone want to take away people’s rights to elect their senators?” His answer is that “if state legislators elect senators, Congress will be responsive to the needs of state governments, and thus preserve states’ rights and prerogatives.” There is no explanation as to why this might be a positive thing, simply more condescending rhetoric about the Right’s “fetishization of a revisionist view of the Founders,” and “glorification of the past that didn’t exist.” What he fails to understand or admit is that federalism is a far better way to protect individual rights than consolidated power. When a national government founded on democracy holds all of the power, the rights of minorities are more easily repressed than when member-states exercise some autonomy.

 

 

Read the rest here.

‘Voices with Vision’

Today I was interviewed by Nefta Freeman, a producer of the program Voices with Vision, on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington D.C. We discussed my latest LRC article, “90 Million Americans Can’t Be Wrong,” non-voting, the 2012 elections and other subjects. It’s scheduled to air sometime in the next few weeks and I’ll post more information when it becomes available.