Wednesday, January 23, 2013

We Need the Rollback Party

Sultan Knish says of a revolutionary right:  It would not do this in the name of conserving anything, because it recognizes that there is hardly anything left to conserve ...  Hit the link and read the whole piece.

We need to rollback seven or eight decades of federal encroachment on individual liberty.  If we are content to "conserve" the present situation, we are guaranteed that the eventual collapse will be both more cataclysmic and more inevitable.

Here's a quote from John in the comments yesterday:  Maybe this nation will just disintegrate with a kind of nation-wide ignoring of the Feds, let the Federal level die off and then re-integrate with a Federal Government at its Constitutionally mandated size.

Now that does not scare me at all because about the only thing I'm afraid of is an out-of-control government  Totalitarian governments kill their own citizens, in some cases, by the millions.  Weak, severely limited central governments do not do that.   

Conversely, there are probably millions of people in this country who would be quite upset at such a thought.  A lot of them probably consider themselves "conservatives".   

We must stop and ask ourselves what we expect of government, and what we expect especially of the central government.

The federal government can serve a legitimate purpose.  There are a few specific things it will do better than the several states acting individually.  One such function is clearly national defense, defense of the borders.  Federal courts should serve as a arbiters for individuals and groups who have been wronged and denied their rights in state courts.  The coining and issuance of a national currency is under the purview of the federal government.  Interstate commerce can be regulated, but this should be only actual interstate commerce and not potential commerce, nor should it be expanded to areas other than shipping of goods between states.

There is clearly no place for the federal government in areas such as education, energy, agriculture, housing, health care, and social services.  In some other areas we could see some possible benefit to cooperative, voluntary interaction between state, local, and federal governments --  trucking and road construction, the use of waterways, construction and use of railways, air transport.  I do not think the federal government needs to be involved in local law enforcement or regulating drugs or determining what kind of cars we can drive. 

The free market will take care of most things.  Local governments can pick up some issues, the state some other issues, and the federal government can leave us alone for the most part.

Ultimately that is the only way we can restore our liberties.  Unfortunately, it is unlikely to be implemented wisely or voluntarily.  It might happen in the wake of a debt default or a civil war or some other horrendous crisis that brings about the collapse of the federal leviathan.  We will just have to remember what we want if we ever get the chance to start over.

4 comments:

  1. Regrettably this state-of-mind is a relic that I can only still glimpse through sporadical episodes spoken and even more rarely enacted via the wires.
    The free market, like all things good fragil and free, is no more than fairy tales if not actively and honestly promoted by everyone.
    In the same line, if the federal government were to be, de facto, small, then it is likely that other ambitious entities darker and even more unaccountable would take its place, if they haven't already done so for quite some time...

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  2. Good food for thought, Jim. Thanks.

    It's true that the free market has been choked by bureaucracies and regulations. It's also true that a significant part of the population -- possibly an actual majority -- would rather not be responsible for themselves.

    Unfortunately for those folks, reality is still real. Argentina is still a mess and they re-elected Kirschner who is part of the problem. America has done essentially the same. Europe thinks it can muddle along.

    The three great enemies are always the same and always have been -- maliciousness, stupidity, and apathy.

    That one or more of these enemies attain ascendency from time to time is not surprising. Only the dead have seen the end of war, as George Santayana said (not Plato, apparently, despite the many attributions). That is true of flesh-and-blood war but even more of spiritual warfare.

    If you think about it, a powerful, centralized government actually makes it easier for the dark and unaccountable elements to gain ascendency.

    Fight on.

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  3. Fight on indeed.

    But like you said, it didn’t use to be like this so when did those people ‘decide’ not be responsible for themselves? and why?

    As far as bureaucracies and regulations are concerned, it’s sort of easy to understand. Ignore them and you get quietly, gradually, and thoroughly fined. Because there are no flesh-and-blood wounds, it’s ‘clean’ and ‘civilized’, it doesn’t arouse emotions and so generally other people don’t care or even notice. Despite being as hurtful and unempowering.

    I was referring though to buck power. And labor power. If people decide to buy from and work for a few, large, tax subsidized entities it is no wonder that eventually the market turns sour and the market is free no more.
    It might be that, on freer places, people spend the same money for lower quality goods and receive less money for the same quality skills.

    Now how do you impel people to pay for the price of free markets? Or, better put, resist the bribe of dependency.

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  4. Buck power -- yep, by buying into "big", we have embraced a voluntary submission to a fascist system -- which is really what we're dealing with given the intimacy between central banks, central governments, and large corporations. That's a good insight.

    I think there is a possibility -- given Japan's situation, for example -- that we will all be impelled that direction in the not-too-distance future. I think the system will break down because the political powers, in the EU, here in the States, and Japan has all decided to have a War on Arithmetic. Arithmetic will win.

    You're seeing some moves toward "austerity" by Cameron, right? I don't know if that is serious or if they are really making headway. But if nations won't do it voluntarily -- like Iceland and Estonia -- we'll have to do it involuntarily -- like Greece is about to.

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