liberty

A primer on Trumpism for libertarians

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty on by

It shouldn’t be necessary to write this. The way Trump is running the presidency is so obviously hostile to liberty that libertarians should be unanimous in opposing him. Some people who call themselves libertarians, though, don’t quite get it. A few actually support him.

The Democrats aren’t good, but the issues with them aren’t as urgent. The first thing is to stop the country from sinking into dictatorship, then we can worry about excessive regulation and runaway deficit spending. Let me outline the main reasons Trump is a major danger and requires unequivocal opposition.

A lot of this will be familiar to many of you. I’m sorry that I have to belabor the obvious. Even if it’s all familiar, you might find some value in having all these items in one place.
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Reclaiming the American narrative

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged history liberty on by

Narratives are a powerful thing in shaping a culture or a political movement. Narratives are patterns of explanation that turn a series of events into a story. They ascribe a consistent purpose to actions and show one event leading to another. Sometimes narratives stray from the facts, but they don’t have to. What makes a narrative is an underlying direction and a causal chain.

They’re often more powerful than facts for influencing people. Convince people of a narrative’s validity, and they’ll ignore or reject what doesn’t fit it. They’ll accept even implausible conclusions that fit with it. They’ll admire people who promote it and dislike ones who contradict it. To persuade large numbers of people, it isn’t enough to muster facts; it’s necessary to assemble them into a story.
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“Its hour come round at last” 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty on by

My mind keeps coming back to Yeats’ 1919 poem, “The Second Coming.” He wrote it shortly after World War I, knowing that nothing had really been resolved. In retrospect, we know the answer to his question, “What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?”

We also know the answer to that question today in America. We see again that “the best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.” There’s plenty of noise opposing Trump, yet too little broad-based opposition. Congress is, with a handful of exceptions, divided between the Minion Party and the Coward Party. Outrage should be building to the point of besieging the White House, but as far as I can tell, it’s declining. People’s idea of opposing Trump is to put “#Resist” into a social media hashtag.
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Words for defending freedom

This entry was posted in Writing and tagged liberty writing on by

Here’s a list of suggestions for effectively opposing Trump’s power grab. I don’t claim to do all these things well; some of them could be notes to myself. Feel free to quote from here, but consider linking back to this post.

Promote principles, not factions.

Focus. A few well-made points are better than a laundry list.

Anger weakens your case, and cursing rarely persuades.
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The Democratic Party has abandoned America 1

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged law liberty New Hampshire on by

I am furious at the Democrats. They are cowards who won’t stand up to a president grabbing as much power as he can. To a man who has literally portrayed himself as king and pope. To a man who says he doesn’t know if he needs to uphold the Constitution.

To be precise, I mean the office holders and leaders in the party. Voters have to choose a party if they want to vote in primaries, and they choose where they think they’ll have a positive effect. They don’t necessarily like what the leaders are doing. But I have utter contempt for nearly all the Democrats in Congress.

The Republicans in Congress are despicable, with rare exceptions like Rand Paul. They’re actively collaborating with Trump to enable abductions of people and maintain a fake “emergency” so he can impose ruinous taxes on us. But that’s not the topic here. The Democrats are supposed to fight this. They don’t feel like it.
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Some vandalism and a look at the MAGA mindset 3

This entry was posted in Commentary Personal and tagged liberty Massachusetts on by

My rear windshield has a decal with the text, “My cat is smarter than your president.” On Monday I noticed that several letters were no longer on the windshield. Some were still on the car, in the gap between the windshield and the trunk lid. Given that so many letters came off at once, It was most likely vandalism. I don’t think any of my neighbors did it. The day before, I parked in a large public lot in Massachusetts for several hours. Most likely it happened then, and I didn’t notice till the next day.

Windshield sticker with missing letters indicated by brackets: "My [c]a[t] is sm[art]e[r] than your president"
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ICE: America’s Gestapo

This entry was posted in Censorship Commentary and tagged censorship ICE liberty on by

“Geheime Staatspolizei” means “secret state police,” usually shortened to “Gestapo.” It was the Nazis’ enforcement bureau, the ones who snatched people without charges and sent them away to prisons or execution. In the United States, it’s shortened to “ICE.” Its masked thugs have snatched people off the street, not presenting any criminal charges, and shipped them to offshore hellholes. So far I haven’t heard of its intentionally killing anyone, though people have died in its custody.
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Why is Trumpism still popular?

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged liberty psychology on by

In less than three months since he’s taken office, Donald Trump has imposed huge taxes by decree, harassed lawyers and judges, brought federal agencies into chaos, had people abducted from the streets without charges or access to legal counsel, antagonized America’s allies, and hinted at several acts of military aggression and conquest. The economy is already suffering from his actions and is likely to get a lot worse. In spite of this, his approval rating stands at close to 50%. Nearly half of registered voters, according to polls, approve of what he’s doing. Why?

In the past, I’ve discussed a couple of reasons. News media have abandoned objectivity. It’s hard to get just the facts. A second reason is the miserable state of education in the US. Schools turn out students who seldom read and lack critical thinking skills.

Here I’d like to talk about a third factor: the attitudes of the left.
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Trump goes after voters 1

This entry was posted in Commentary News and tagged law liberty on by

Donald Trump’s latest decree takes his power-grabbing to a new level. He has commanded the states to alter their laws to require proof of citizenship for voting. He has no legal authority at all to do this. The Constitution lets the states run elections; Congress has a limited ability to set requirements, and the president has no authority without an act of Congress. He is relying on intimidation of state officials and federal judges to get his way. Claiming the personal authority to decide who can vote is the action of a dictator or would-be dictator.
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Increased risk to visitors to the USA 2

This entry was posted in Commentary and tagged conventions liberty on by

Just a few weeks ago I wrote, “I don’t think — though I might turn out wrong — that Trump will be able to break down civil liberties protections enough to make a US Worldcon dangerous to visitors.” Now I’m not so sure. The fannish world is talking about the ICE detention of Becky Burke, a British comics creator.

Here’s the situation, as I understand it. Burke was visiting the US and Canada on an extended hiking trip. She lodged with some families along the way, doing chores in return. When she tried to enter Canada from the United States, she was turned away on a visa issue I don’t know the details of. Going back to the USA, she was detained because of her chores-for-boarding arrangement, which I guess was taking jobs away from good Americans! ICE has held her in a cell under conditions like what a violent criminal would face. A GoFundMe campaign was run to finance her legal expenses, and she has been released, returning to Wales on March 18. She should never had had to experience all this.
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