The Guardian has pulled together five pieces from conservatives and libertarians who are critical of President Donald Trump's authoritarian tendencies and policies. I'm happy to be represented in the mix (for my commentary about Trump's awful, inhumane, and idiotic ban on refugees and travelers from seven countries tied to terrorism). It's a good mix of people, including some conservative critics (The New York Time's Ross Douthat, National Review's David French, Commentary's Noah Rothman) and Steve Horwitz of Bleeding Heart Libertarians along with yours truly. Here's a snippet from my piece:
That's certainly the case with Trump and his orders on sanctuary cities and on immigration and refugee policy. The laws were not just poorly phrased and timed, they clearly will not work to address the basic issues they ostensibly are meant to ameliorate. As Anthony Fisher noted here earlier today, the US embassy in Iraq has said that Trump's action is a recruitment tool for jihadists, as pro- American Middle Easterners realize they're being hung out to dry. As for keeping America safe from terrorists entering the country as refugees, the fact is the country has an incredibly safe record.
Read the whole collection of pieces here.
Because no good deed or kind word can go unpunished, I'd like to add a bit of nuance to the way the writer, Jason Wilson, encapsulates his piece. Here's the headline and subhed:
Burst your bubble: five conservative articles to read as Trump riles libertarians
Yet the confusion is right there in headline: The "conservative articles" are the product of Trump "ril[ing] libertarians"? Wuh?
I just don't get the slowness with which people are fully grokking that libertarianism is as distinct from conservativism as it is from progressivism or leftism. I'm not trying to be pedantic or coy here, but there's a reason why libertarians (certainly those at Reason) were intensely critical of George W. Bush's executive branch overreach and Barack Obama's too, while conservatives and liberals generally stayed silent when their guy was doing the power grabbing. And so it makes total sense that libertarians are leading the attacks on Trump's attempts to be a one-man (or at least one-branch) government. Libertarianism is nothing if not the antithesis of authoritarianism. Always has been, always will be. Be sure to check out Reason's attitude toward whoever eventually replaces Trump. The minute he (or she) starts down an authoritarian road, we'll be on the case.
#29: Gatlin To: Deckard, A K A Stone, misterwhite (#15)
Probably not
Gatlin posted on 2017-02-15 13:34:52 Reply Private Reply
#30: Vicomte13 To: misterwhite (#26)
Correction: I want the government to continue to force you to pay taxes, along with everybody else, so that we can, as a polity, continue to help people. That's right.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 13:35:59 Reply Private Reply
#31: misterwhite To: Vicomte13 (#30)
"The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government."
-- James Madison, speech in the House of Representatives, January 10, 1794
misterwhite posted on 2017-02-15 13:47:44 Reply Private Reply
#32: Deckard To: Gatlin (#29)
Go genuflect before your statue of St. Donald slave-boy.
...effort to support your fanatical anarchist agenda to destroy America?
You neo-con pricks already did that with your support of Dubya.
Deckard posted on 2017-02-15 13:48:02 Reply Private Reply
#33: sneakypete To: Gatlin (#0)
Good mix of people for what,pop up targets?
BTW,*I* consider myself to be a Libertarian in the model set forth by Thomas Jefferson. Shitheads like YOU are "Libertarians" in the model of Hitler. The only viewpoint you consider to be acceptable is your own.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 13:59:30 Reply Private Reply
#34: sneakypete To: Deckard (#1)
Wake up,dummy! It ain't tryanny if it is harmful to the current police state and helpful to setting America back on a Constitutional basis.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:01:01 Reply Private Reply
#35: sneakypete To: misterwhite (#3)
Well,it's understandable that a natural-born slave that longs for the boot heel of a dictator on the back of his neck to think that no one else values freedom.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:02:45 Reply Private Reply
#36: sneakypete To: misterwhite (#6)
FOP union meeting?
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:03:52 Reply Private Reply
#37: sneakypete To: A K A Stone (#11)
So what?
You DO understand we are all free to think for ourselves,right?
WTH would I or anyone else care about what Johnson thinks?
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:05:51 Reply Private Reply
#38: Gatlin To: Deckard (#32)
You are what you are .and Ted Bundy was what he was!
Gatlin posted on 2017-02-15 14:07:00 Reply Private Reply
#39: sneakypete To: A K A Stone (#17)
WRONG X 2.
Drug use is NOT immoral,and Libertarians do NOT "champion" it.
What Libertarians stand on is the ground that says all free adults have the right to live their own lives in peace as long as they are not harming others.
What is TRULY immoral is some witch doctor telling the sheep in his flock what is moral and what is immoral,when clearly THEY have no idea of what morality means.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:10:00 Reply Private Reply
#40: sneakypete To: A K A Stone (#18)
Do you base your opinion of all members of a political party on the public utterances of ONE of them?
Does John McLunatic or Lady Lindsey speak for you?
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:11:29 Reply Private Reply
#41: sneakypete To: misterwhite (#20)
Really? Find me ONE prominent actual Libertarian that claims murder,rape,slavery,etc,etc,etc are all just peachy-keen.
Either that,or STFU about things you don't understand.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:13:15 Reply Private Reply
#42: sneakypete To: Vicomte13 (#21)
Be slaves to the Pope?
Teach little boys to bend over and grab their ankles when Priest enters the room?
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 14:14:42 Reply Private Reply
#43: Gatlin To: Deckard, A K A Stone (#15)
Ronald Reagan was not talking about what you fanatical Paultard assholes call libertarianism.
You need to quite trying to use Ronald Reagan to support your anarchist cause.Get that through your thick skull
Gatlin posted on 2017-02-15 14:17:52 Reply Private Reply
#44: Vicomte13 To: misterwhite (#31)
James Madison, the slaveholder, is dead.
In America today we have rejected James Madison's slavery, and we have also rejected his view on public charity. We have decided that poverty relief is an object to which government at all levels is properly engaged in combating.
Madison would have opposed this, and you still do.
But I think that poverty relief is a proper goal of government. And my view is in the majority, so it's the law of the land.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 14:21:47 Reply Private Reply
#45: Vicomte13 To: sneakypete (#42)
No, Jesus didn't tell us to be slaves to the Pope, or to teach little boys to bend over and grab their ankles for priests.
The Catholic Church doesn't teach those things either.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 14:23:34 Reply Private Reply
#46: misterwhite To: Vicomte13 (#44)
And what happens when the percentage of those in poverty reach 51%? What's to stop them voting themselves all the money of those who work?
"In total, the Census Bureau estimated, 151,014,000 Americans out of a population then estimated to be 306,804,000 received benefits from one or more government programs during the last three months of 2011. Those 151,014,000 beneficiaries equaled 49.2 percent of the population".
-- Oct 23, 2013
misterwhite posted on 2017-02-15 14:44:09 Reply Private Reply
#47: A K A Stone To: Vicomte13 (#44)
Vic is alive too.
Vic would vote for HIllary the baby Killer if she ran against Cruz the christian.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-02-15 15:23:03 Reply Private Reply
#48: A K A Stone To: Vicomte13 (#45)
The Catholic Church doesn't teach little boys to bend over. But they did cover up quite a bit of it for quite a long period of time.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-02-15 15:24:08 Reply Private Reply
#49: A K A Stone To: sneakypete (#42)
You know very well that that isn't the teachings of Christ.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-02-15 15:25:00 Reply Private Reply
#50: jeremiad To: Gatlin (#0)
jeremiad posted on 2017-02-15 16:26:01 Reply Private Reply
#51: Vicomte13 To: misterwhite (#46)
Common sense. The filibuster. The Courts. The whole system of checks and balances in our system. The fact that Congressmen and Senators and state legislators are themselves all people of means who won't vote for that because it won't work.
Truth is, there's no risk of that happening.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 16:41:03 Reply Private Reply
#52: Vicomte13 To: A K A Stone (#47)
That choice was not on offer.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 16:41:53 Reply Private Reply
#53: Vicomte13 To: A K A Stone (#48)
And it was disgusting that they did so, and is a reason why Catholics do not docilely do whatever the Church says. In the Middle Ages, many did, but men in power, whether in government or in the Church, sometimes grotesquely abuse that power.
Which means that men in power, including men of the Church, cannot be completely trusted and always have to be watched. One of the 12 Apostles, handpicked by Jesus, was a scumbag.
The priestly pedophilia cases, and the Church's coverup of them, teach us what we all should have known already: you cannot completely trust anybody with your kids - you have to be vigilant.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 16:44:23 Reply Private Reply
#54: Deckard To: Gatlin (#38)
Anyone who does questions authority, demands accountability for cops, is against the drug war, criticizes Trump and exposes corrupt criminal government actions.
Deckard posted on 2017-02-15 17:00:49 Reply Private Reply
#55: sneakypete To: Vicomte13 (#45)
Hard to believe after looking at history.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 17:01:27 Reply Private Reply
#56: sneakypete To: A K A Stone (#49)
Yes,I do,but we both know very well that might as well have been the teachings of the Catholic Church for hundreds of years,and for hundreds of years they were the only Christian Church.
It was the corruption and evil done by the Catholic Church that led to the revolution that created Protestantism,and it was started by Martin Luther,a Catholic Priest himself that was fed up with the corruption from Rome.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 17:04:26 Reply Private Reply
#57: Deckard To: Gatlin (#43)
The fact remains - what he said about "...the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism" is true.
BTW, your obsession with sodomy is just a bit bizarre - do you think you could keep your fantasies to yourself?
This place doesn't need another homo like yukon defiling the character of this site.
Deckard posted on 2017-02-15 17:04:37 Reply Private Reply
#58: Vicomte13 To: sneakypete (#55)
Yes, yes, you detest the Catholic Church. We know.
You needn't worry. Catholics make up maybe 20% of the population of the US, and half of them are only nominal Catholics, not real practitioners. So there's zero danger of them doing anything that will interfere with your life.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 17:05:26 Reply Private Reply
#59: sneakypete To: jeremiad (#50)
I'm betting that he has told Melina at least once to "Shake it,baby!"
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 17:05:58 Reply Private Reply
#60: sneakypete To: Vicomte13 (#53)
I think the Prime Lesson learned from that is more universal,and has been expressed many times by the saying "Power corrupts,and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
None of us are entirely immune to those temptations,but I AM willing to bet more than 90 percent of us have no trouble not molesting children. That's a special kind of sickness that goes beyond normal temptations.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 17:09:39 Reply Private Reply
#61: misterwhite To: Vicomte13 (#51)
misterwhite posted on 2017-02-15 17:35:57 Reply Private Reply
#62: misterwhite To: A K A Stone (#48)
"The incidence of sexual abuse by teachers in public schools today has been estimated to be "more than 100 times" that by Catholic priests, and there is alarming evidence of school officials covering up abuse and failing to report suspected cases to authorities."
misterwhite posted on 2017-02-15 17:42:53 Reply Private Reply
#63: Vicomte13 To: misterwhite (#61)
You have a reading comprehension problem.
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 18:04:02 Reply Private Reply
#64: Gatlin To: Deckard (#57)
Gatlin posted on 2017-02-15 18:44:43 Reply Private Reply
#65: A K A Stone To: sneakypete (#56)
That isn't true.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-02-15 18:46:04 Reply Private Reply
#66: Gatlin To: Deckard (#54)
Your specialty.
Cant you ever do anything but make up lies and post them?
Obviously not
Gatlin posted on 2017-02-15 18:47:49 Reply Private Reply
#67: A K A Stone To: Vicomte13 (#52)
True. But you did say that if Cruz got the nomination you would vote for Hillary.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-02-15 18:48:00 Reply Private Reply
#68: A K A Stone To: misterwhite (#62)
Sounds like you are saying since Muhammad molested hundreds of little kids it is ok if mistergreen molests one.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-02-15 18:58:58 Reply Private Reply
#69: A K A Stone To: sneakypete (#56)
But you said it anyway.
A K A Stone posted on 2017-02-15 19:00:53 Reply Private Reply
#70: Hondo68 To: Gatlin, lies most (#64)
Your fake news team/alternative facts/lies specialists.....
ISIS Gatlin, and FireIsland
Hondo68 posted on 2017-02-15 19:02:50 Reply Private Reply
#71: Vicomte13 To: A K A Stone (#67)
I probably did that, at a time when I was furious at Cruz for his attacks on Trump. I also said I would not vote for W after his goons took out McCain in South Carolina by insinuating that he had had relations out of wedlock that fathered a black child, when in fact he and his wife had adopted a child from India (I think it was).
I was so disgusted with W that I said I would not vote for him.
But come election time, I held my nose and voted for him anyway.
Same thing with Romney. With Romney I said it was the LAST TIME I would hold my nose and vote, and I meant it.
But the world moves on and new situations arise, and given that it was Hillary Clinton running, and her campaign reminded me just how odious she was, had Cruz been the nominee, or Jeb, or probably any of them, I very probably would have gone and angrily and sullenly voted for the nominee and then bitched about it forever afterwards, pretty much like most of the "NeverTrumpers" did, in the end, go vote for Trump - and hate it.
But yes, in the heat of the primary battle, I said I would not vote for Cruz, and at that moment in time I really truly meant it.
I had a girlfriend once in California who was just not my type, and I kept saying at the end of each weekend "I am NEVER doing that again - I've got to break this off..." But she had other...qualities...that overrode the personality incompatibility.
Sometimes we do what we don't want to do, even though we really meant it when we said "Never!" or "Never again!"
Vicomte13 posted on 2017-02-15 20:19:32 Reply Private Reply
#72: buckeroo To: Gatlin (#0)
buckeroo posted on 2017-02-15 20:38:52 Reply Private Reply
#73: GrandIsland To: sneakypete (#39)
Let me guess, you're one of those asshole faggot loving libtards that call drug addiction a disease?
Illegal drug use IS immoral and prescription drug abuse is also immoral.
GrandIsland posted on 2017-02-15 20:48:04 Reply Private Reply
#74: buckeroo To: GrandIsland (#73)
You make no sense. Clearly, you mean to write: "drug use is immoral" but some how you are convinced about some maegikal POWER of GOVERNMENT interference. Why?
buckeroo posted on 2017-02-15 20:57:18 Reply Private Reply
#75: sneakypete To: A K A Stone (#65)
Really? Who else was there?
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 22:41:41 Reply Private Reply
#76: sneakypete To: A K A Stone, misterwhite (#68)
Read that same way to me,too.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 22:43:09 Reply Private Reply
#77: sneakypete To: A K A Stone (#69)
No,I wrote that was the teachings of the Catholic Church,and various Priests.
AFAIK,Christ was never a Catholic.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 22:44:29 Reply Private Reply
#78: sneakypete To: GrandIsland (#73)
If you are anything,it is consistently wrong.
sneakypete posted on 2017-02-15 22:57:37 Reply Private Reply