Anthony Gregory On Why Libs Despise Libertarians

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – “Anthony Gregory, who is a friend of mine, is one of the better young libertarian writers out there.  He has a piece that was posted in June of 2011 that is making the rounds again.  I revisited it because his points two years ago are more relevant today than they were in 2011.  The title is “Why the Left Fears Libertarianism.”  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  I want to share something with you all for just a moment here.  Anthony Gregory, who is a friend of mine, an acquaintance, let’s say, is one of the better young libertarian writers out there.  He’s very thoughtful.  He’s got a great book out about the history of habeas corpus and how it started in English common law and we still have it today.  It’s part of the Constitution.  Well, it was part of the Constitution.  He has a piece that was posted in June of 2011 that is making the rounds again.  I revisited it because his points two years ago are more relevant today than they were in 2011.  The title is “Why the Left Fears Libertarianism.”  He writes about how Jacob Weisberg had declared that the age of libertarianism was dead, only to find out, [mocking] “Wait a minute, we need to write something else about libertarians called ‘The Liberty Scam.’  Libertarianism is everywhere.  It’s becoming ubiquitous and this is dangerous.”  Gregory writes:

[reading]

“Funny, I thought libertarianism was dead. Now it is an insidious scam worthy of multiple articles exposing the danger that lurks beneath the façade. In 28 months our defunct ideology has resurrected into a ubiquitous threat.

If only. Despite the leftists’ hysteria that libertarianism is permeating the Tea Parties, defining Republican politics, and central to the message espoused by Glenn Beck, this is so far from the truth, so paranoid a delusion, that it makes Beck’s most incoherent sketches upon his notorious chalkboard appear like plausible, sensible political analysis by comparison.

Weisberg was wrong in 2008 when he predicted the demise of our philosophy after an era of major influence, and his fellow-traveling writer at Slate is wrong now when he thinks he sees it everywhere. It is telling, however, that when they choose to go after the Tea Party conservatives, the beltway think tanks, and the GOP rightwing, they do not generally attack these people for their many unlibertarian views (views that the left claims to oppose as well): Their love of the police state, their support for the drug war, their disregard for the Fourth Amendment, their comfort with torture, their demonization of immigrants and foreigners, and, above all, their unwavering penchant for warmongering. No, you see, these positions, while unfashionable in some liberal circles, are at least within the respectable parameters of debate. But if some conservative ever mentioned the Tenth Amendment favorably, questioned the legitimacy of the welfare state, or said perhaps the budget deficit should be cut by at least a third this year—horror upon horrors! This is far beyond the bounds of reasonable discussion.

The fact is, most left-liberals do hate and fear libertarianism more than they oppose modern conservatism. It makes sense. For one thing, the conservatives and liberals seemingly agree on 90% of the issues [Mike: Folks, I talk about this all the time.], certainly when compared to the views of principled libertarians. They all favor having a strong military. We tend to want to abolish standing armies. They all think the police need more power—to crack down on guns, if you’re a liberal, and to crack down on drugs, if you’re a conservative. We libertarians think police have way too much power and flirt with the idea of doing away with them altogether. The conservatives and liberals all want to keep Medicare, Social Security, and public schools intact, if tweaked around the edges. We see these programs for what they are: the parasitic class’s authoritarian and regressive programs to control the youth and foment intergenerational conflict.

Second of all, conservatism is a much better foil for liberals to attack than libertarianism is. They can deal with the friendly rivalry between red-state fascism and blue-state socialism. With the central state as their common ground, the two camps enjoy hurling insults at each other, playing culture war games, vying over power, doing what they can to expand government knowing that even should they lose control, it will eventually come back to them. This might explain why when leftists condemn conservatism for its hypocritical claims to libertarianism, they seldom follow up by saying true libertarianism would in fact be preferable. To the contrary, the argument is usually that since the conservatives are collectivists after all, they should warm up to the liberal flavor of collectivism espoused by Democrats.”

[end reading]

Mike:  This is exactly what I talked about in the first hour and it’s why I bring it up.  Why don’t we all just convert?  Just give up.  Just take the advice of David Frum and others, who shall not be mentioned, in the conservative movement, who just want us to get along, who want us, who want conservatives to manage the federal leviathan and the state leviathans.  If we just would only get passionate and excited about it, we can make a more brighter future out of the less bright one that the progressives have us on course to enjoy, or suffer under, depending on whose side you’re on.  Then the part about new bureaucracies and the size and scope of the State expanding every year, larger and larger and larger, folks, we see this everywhere we turn, everywhere we turn.

I just want to bring this up real quick.  I was watching the Clinton News Network at 4:30 this morning.  It was John what’s his name.  It was Zoraida Zambolin and John Berman.  In any event, the package piece that was delivered by Dana Bash, one of the contributors, said [mocking] “This Congress is going to go down as the most gridlocked Congress ever in the history of mankind.”  Folks, they were lamenting.  I want you to understand we we’re up against here, we [r]epublicans.  They were lamenting the fact that this Congress this year has passed but 60 laws, new ones, this year.  [mocking] “Oh, my God, they only passed 60.  Run for the hills.  We’re all gonna die!”  Wrap your head around that for a moment.

Our elite media ruling masters and those that write their teleprompter scripts wanted them to lament, to cry into their weak tea that the Congress had only saddled the American population with but 60 acts in this calendar year.  [mocking] “It can’t be.  We’ll never survive.  Oh, my heavens!”  James Madison wrote Federalist No. 10 that one cannot possibly be expected to live under and abide by laws that he or she does not know exist because they are so numerous.  Would any of us be able to keep up with 60 acts of Congress in this year?  Would you be able to keep up with six new laws that were passed by your local yokel mayor in your hamlet or township?  I think not.

End Mike Church Show Transcript