Libertarians Must Face Race
The front page of VDare today is my review of Ron Paul’s The Revolution. Although Ron Paul is, of course, right about most things, no serious political movement can ignore race.
If America’s political elite was immoral, corrupt or just plain wrong on one or two issues, the country might have some hope. But reading Ron Paul’s The Revolution however, one gets the idea that we truly are doomed. This is despite the author’s optimism, and his assuring us that “the Revolution” is just around the corner.
First of all, there is the “choice” we are offered every few years. A “fiscal conservative” wows audiences with his stand against a “bridge to nowhere”. That’s all fine and dandy, but how about the other 99.99999% of the federal budget?
An “anti-war” candidate might advocate that we get out of Iraq within a year. But how about the other 129 (not a typo) countries the US has troops in? Paul rightly compares the debate in this country to the political dissent allowed in Pravda…
On the National Question, Ron Paul is certainly better than just about anybody in the mainstream. He draws the connection between immigration and the welfare state—you can’t have both, as Milton Friedman said. [Forbes Magazine, December 29, 1997]. Paul opposes birthright citizenship and has called for a constitutional amendment to end this demographic takeover via the womb.
Despite all this, I get the impression that the congressman doesn’t really understand how things have changed since he began the good fight. Debating economics and government philosophy is a luxury of living in a homogenous country. But if the supporters of an expanded state use race as their justification, then the defenders of smaller government can’t ignore the issue, no matter how much they’d like to. Sometimes our battles choose us, not the other way around…
But Paul grew up in 1940s America. It’s easy to see how he could’ve gotten the naïve idea that ethnicity might be made not to matter. If 99% of your town shares your race, language and religion you may end up believing that the biggest difference you could have with a human being is over what the tax rate should be. However, this is not the experience of Americans since the disaster of 1965 Immigration Act.
8 Comments
Nov 9, 2009 11:23 pm |
Ron Paul sucked for that one reason. Thats why his movement had to many losers who play wow all day. A surprising number of wow players are political correct libertarian types, that are unlikely going to build a constructive movement anytime soon. It was neo-nazis and conspiracists that made the movement cool, until it was highjacked by wow players. Hoste, you are one of the cool ones.
Nov 10, 2009 1:24 am |
Congratulations, and great article. Hope to see more from you on VDare and other sites. You’re really getting around!
Nov 10, 2009 10:20 am |
Excellent article. I remember that when the newsletter issue came up during the campaign, Ron Paul went on CNN and said Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were his heroes, called drug laws racist, and praised the so-called civil rights movement. The same “civil rights movement” that gutted freedom of association.
As you say in your review, libertarians, like the tea party movement and conservatives in general, are doomed to failure if they do not deal with the issue of race.
Nov 10, 2009 11:08 am |
Your excellent article is the best statement of the flaws of libertarianism I’ve seen, and you got paid for it too! Way to go! I hope we’ll see more of your writing on the pages of VDARE.com, and elsewhere.
Nov 10, 2009 4:22 pm |
The libertarians at Reason Magazine may not have thought much about the long term impact of immigration (or much else) but paleolibertarians who cheer on Ron Paul are aware of the argument that more immigration means less freedom. For example Justin Raimondo in 1994 said:
“That open borders would ensure the demise of liberty in this country matters not one whit to left-libertarians: all that matters is that the state should immediately stop interfering with the right of every single living being on the planet to take up residence in the United States.
Today, the typical libertarian is as politically correct as any leftist: To him, Dr.Martin Luther King is a hero, religion is dangerous nonsense, and tolerance is an essential libertarian virtue-tolerance, that is, of everything and everyone but the Relgious Right, Pat Buchanan, and those whose cultural roots predate Woodstock…
…The idea that there might be something unique about the American nation-some ineffable and perhaps unrepeatable quality or context in which liberty is nurtured-strikes him as sheer mysticism, if not outright racism. For all his polemics against egalitarianism in economics, he does not object to cultural egalitarianism. He therefore does not mind voting in the same election as a recent Nicaraguan immigrant who once cast his ballot for Daniel Ortega.”
So what has changed Justin’s mind? Ridiculing “Dr” MLK was a regular feature of early 90s Lew Rockwell libertarians – including, I believe, the now infamous Ron Paul newsletter. Nothing has changed to discredit their previous arguments that MLK and immigration were bad for liberty.
Perhaps now that the internet has helped make libertarianism better known (antiwar.com, lewrockwell.com, etc) and more profitable, they wish to distance themselves from those who may offend the PC sensibilities of new libertarians and potential new recruits who are used to the MSM. Just a guess.
Nov 10, 2009 7:15 pm |
Try http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch- I am no longer a libertarian, but still an informative site. Have been HBD-realists from the beginning.
Nov 12, 2009 7:28 am |
Calling Reason Magazine libertarian is a bit of a stretch. Mostly they peddle the same politically correct crap Western governments have been trying to shove down the throats of their reluctant electorates for decades, with a veneer of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll to sex it up and give it a rebellious edge. A government couldn’t ask for better propagandists than Reason and the Cato Institute.
You can have any flavor of Enlightenment you want, as long as you’re Enlightened.
Nov 18, 2009 7:05 am |
A Lew Rockwell writer responds to your article with the usual libertarian cant, saying blacks “more than anyone” ought to be libertarians.
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