Strategies for the Battle Ahead

Govemment is once again the Grinch stealing Christmas, with family income still in long-term decline. But this year, the government’s tight control of the. economy, its blunt attacks on our liberties, and its appetite for power has everyone up in arms, sometimes literally.

But wasn’t the 103rd Congress a “failure” because it didn’t pass enough legislation? If only.

During the last days of the session, at the urging of the Clinton administration, the Senate scarfed up another 6.6 million acres in southeastern California and labeled it “protected.” Protected against what? Terrorists, invaders, the homeless? No, private property and economic development.

The land must be protected because “tens of thousands of people come,” said an alarined California Senator Diane Feinstein, speaking of the desert. “The scarring is enormous.”

Thanks to her bill, all this land is now owned by the central state, not without historical precedent. The Soviets collectivized land during the Bolshevik revolution. But at least they didn’t ban agriculture.

One of the miracles of capitalism is its ability to turn deserts into useful areas. No system but free enterprise could have made Las Vegas thrive. The same applies to much of the Southwest. Now we are supposed to believe that development, meaning human prosperity, is evil and a “threat” to sand, spiders, rats, and snakes.

The land nationalizers frequently contradict themselves. They also warn of overcrowding and overpopulation. But if we are really concerned about too many people in too small a space, we should open up these “protected” lands so people can do something with them, whether building another Las Vegas or showing off nature at a profit.

As we all know, however, the federal government can’t get enough, so it takes ever more, like a parasite devouring its host. What’s strange is that the California state government – which has to be at least a little more responsive to voters – would let the Feds get away with this land grab. One clue is an unheralded bill that passed that very day, doubling federal payments to states with heavy concentrations of government land, and indexing the payments to the inflation rate.

Property rights groups fought Feinstein for at least a year, but at the end of the session, amidst the pay-offs and the logrolling, they were powerless to stop the outrage.

That doesn’t mean they’re giving up. They’re angrier than ever, as is every liberty-loving American, and even more determined to topple the Leviathan. In this cause, some strategies are successful, others fail, and still others are a wash. As we enter the new year, it’s a good time to examine some of these strategies, and evaluate their relative merits.

Vote Republican. The elections proved this to be a popular strategy. But polling also suggests the much-ballyhooed Republican “Contract With America” did not inspire much enthusiasm. That’s probably because the “contract” included ten major pieces of legislation. How about a party that promises to repeal ten laws, or maybe abolish ten agencies?

Electing new Republicans to the House and Senate throws out bad guys, and that’s great. But we are also right to be skeptical about their replacements. After the fiasco of the eighties – lots of talk about cutting government while massively expanding it – the Republicans have lost some credibility.

Support a Third Party. The number of third parties is increasing rapidly, and that’s great. Even if the new parties don’t stand for all the right ideas, they can help break up the two-party cartel that enables the power elite to control government. An additional advantage: with a third party, you don’t waste your vote in a rigged system; a third-party candidate who gets any significant number of votes sends a very powerful message.

Even so, third-party politics is still politics, and the political grind offers little hope for stopping America’s decline.

Abjure the Realm. For serious pessimists, there’s no hope for reversing our course. We might as well drop out, take care of our families and ourselves, and forget the rest of society. I understand the point. At the same time, as Mises wrote, “no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle.”

The battle for civilization would have been lost long ago if people had refused to fight. Things are bad now, but we would be in a gulag by now if our forebears had not decided to sacrifice, even their lives, for the cause of liberty. Dropping out is a luxury none of us can afford right now. When the realm is repaired, only then can we safely abjure it.

Localize. Some people figure that influencing the central government is impossible, so why not make a difference where they can? They throw themselves into local politics, working to repeal regulations, taxes, and zoning ordinances. This is praiseworthy, but it addresses a smaller problem while leaving an immensely larger one untouched. Local and state governments can never be what they ought to be, so long as they are controlled by centralized tyrants.

Join the Militia. After the Brady Bill, citizens from Petoskey, Mich., to Stuart, Fla., are forming militias, and volunteering their time to drill in these historically grounded and truly American self-defense associations. This is a magnificent development, and one that scares the striped pants off the bureaucrats. The Founders won their liberty with militias, and our right to them is guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Today, there are more than a thousand informal militias, with more being formed every day. Americans are taking power into their own hands, thereby making total tyranny much less likely.

Enter the Underground. Business is so hamstrung these days by mandates and regulations that many owners and managers have decided to for- get about compliance, and do business as if the government weren’t there. Many independent working people agree, and so the underground is huge and growing, in cities and rural areas. Drugs are an un- fortunate part of it, but the vast majority of underground participants supply licit goods and services, often more efficiently than the official economy.

Secede. The government and the media still tell us that the “Union” is sacred, but Americans aren’t buying it anymore. Every chance they get, people are seeking to erect more political barriers among themselves. Suburbs want to leave cities, counties want to leave states, islands want to leave the mainland, and Montana and other states have serious secessionist sentiments. America was founded through secession from Britain. Who now wouldn’t like to secede from Washington, D.C.?

Move. More and more people are renouncing their citizenship and choosing to live in places they believe have higher prospects for liberty, or lower prospects for tyranny. It’s an understandable impulse, but the emigration option should be left for a real emergency. Even today, there’s no place like America. And if too many people who understand the problem leave, our side will be seriously weakened.

Wait. Is liberty an historical inevitability? Some think so, especially with the turn of the millennium approaching. According to this strategy, we should wait until the tide turns or the pendulum swings. But this ignores a central fact: history is made of human choices, so nothing is inevitable. The next century may indeed be a time of decentralization, de-politicization, free markets, sound money, and individual and community liberty. But surely we have no guarantee of that, especially if good people do nothing to bring it about. The next century could be even worse than this one.

Cultivate Sound Ideas. It’s not fashionable to put your faith in ideas. We are supposed to believe that only self interest and political power move history. But this confuses proximate with ultimate causes. When you read the Founders, you are struck by their wide and deep learning in philosophy, law, religion, history, and economics. The revolution they fought, and the liberty they established, was a product of this learning, and of the commitments that grew from it.

We all remember the person who led us to reject statist claims. For college students who face political indoctrination in every class, and much of their time out of class, one professor can make the difference. Sometimes it’s one book, one publication, one conference, or even one lecture. It makes so much sense that it feels like a mental fight switch.

Nothing apart from ideas can create this sensation. And nothing is as affecting. When we are given a really useful intellectual tool, such as an understanding of government and the market, we carry it for the rest of our lives.

From time to time, I meet even regulators or lobbyists for regulation who have read Mises, or encountered an article put out by the Mises Institute. They tell me how much they enjoyed it, and although they continue to do their jobs, it is with less enthusiasm. We have informed their conscience, and someday we may find them on our side.

Are ideas sufficient? No, but they are the essential starting place. Truth won’t always win, as we all know too well. But error has consequences that we can count on. The central state has made a mess of our economy and our society, and every day, that mess is more and more apparent. Now, more than ever, we need a body of thought that can turn what the media call “cynicism” into a new way of looking at the world.

We can make a difference. In the long run, we are certain to. In the process, we make plenty of people angry, and we can expect nothing else. As a minister once put it, light cannot be extinguished by any amount of darkness, while darkness can’t stand the least amount of light.

It is the right ideas, cultivated in the right people, that will eventually bring down the oppressors, and allow the flourishing of liberty and prosperity once again. At the Mises Institute, we dedicate our lives to that cause, and we are so grateful that you make that possible.

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