This is addressed to the right-of-center folks here. I doubt it would interest progressives. Please read this interesting essay, and then comment: https://marginalrevolution.com/marg...ill-become-state-capacity-libertarianism.html I think it's the future for the liberty-loving forces in America. It implies a transformation of the Republican Party, along the lines proposed by F. H. Buckley in his The Republican Workers Party. I would be interested in anyone's comments, and doubly interested if anyone agrees with this approach.
It’s reads like he’s a liberal afraid of admitting he’s liberal or a Nixon era Republican. I’m liberal so neither the former or latter is intended to be an insult. I’d say he’s been influenced by the right wing bubble’s definition of our environment. For instance, from my view we don’t have “excess” regulation but rather bi-polar regulation: too little and too much. Also from my POV the “polarizing” faction is our right wing from Tea Party types to neoliberals to wing nuts that place winning political wars above facts. We’re having trouble with basic policy prescriptions because we can’t begin a discussion around a basic set of facts. The Republican Party has lost it’s freaking mind. I’m for anything that would tether the Republican Party to reality. The goal should be to balance the aspirations and objects of our political and economic systems.
He lost me when he stated this; "Many of the failures of today’s America are failures of excess regulation, but many others are failures of state capacity." The economy was killing it, regulations and all, before the virus. Had he instead written piss poor planning by the government he could have swung my vote.
First let me explain a few things. Libertarians call themselves libertarians because they are not liberals, regardless of their claims of roots in "classical liberalism". Core to liberal thought is and always has been the rejection of religious beliefs in the administration of government. There used to be liberals in the Republican Party, until the Republicans began to court Evangelicals. The so called "Southern Strategy" succeeded not nearly as much exploiting the racial divide, as is often claimed, as it did in luring the Bible Belt into their fold. An act that all but ensured that liberals would begin voting Democratic. Only about ten to fifteen percent of the US population are true liberals. Central to liberal thought is the idea that through scientific understanding and technological advancements that we, not a mythical god, but we could continually improve the human condition. It was that core set of ideas that lead the early liberals to propose a society where the people were not under the thumb of clergy and monarchs, but rather allowed to choose their leaders, and to decide for themselves what to believe, or not. It was liberal thought that brought us electricity, electrical lighting, moving pictures, recorded music, personal computers and smart phones. It also led the way to gaining voting rights for women and minorities and other civil rights, including same sex marriage. Libertarians tend to oppose abortion. Most Democrats tend to be Progressives because they lack the testicular fortitude of true liberals. The right wing and conservative Christians have long waged a war to sour the image of a liberal in the public's mind, and Progressives tone it down to get along. It seems to me the Republican Party has driven itself into a morass from which it can never recover. At least the Democrats are sensible enough to accept global warming. The problem with libertarianism is that it assumes we have rights and freedoms without realizing that we only have rights and freedoms because we have a government that is strong enough to grant us those rights and freedoms, and enforces them. Equalitarianism isn't about taking from one group to give to another but rather each given an equal serving. To this end, Frank Lloyd Wright proposed that every person, as they came of age, be given an acre of land.
That acre of land has to be taken from someone else these days. Who gets the better more valuable acres and who gets the crap acres? The idea that religious right wingers have any pull in this country anymore is laughable... John Lennon wrote the single worst song ever written because he imagined it in his very tiny little commie mind.. Well look around your imagination has come true. If you don't like it. Then maybe imagine reversing it.. If you don't like the world today, blame literalism.. it's not conservatives that did all this .
