Neocon Jennifer Rubin is trying to settle down those conservatives who got out of line during the faux shutdown:
During the shutdown many conservatives would wisecrack that the government should stay closed or that no one missed the government when it was shut.
Does this sound like you? Do you consider yourself a conservative? Then kudos!Libertarians were saying the same exact thing, but they weren’t “wisecracks”. We’re serious.
Liberals often accuse the GOP of being “anti-government,” and at times Republicans surely play to type.’
This is nothing but a horrendoes two-party ruse. When Republicans are out of power, they play the small government rhetoric game. Likewise, when Democrats are out of power, they play the anti-war rhetoric game. Yet when in power, they both ramp up the size and scope of government as much as they possibly can.It always appears that Americans have a choice, but there really is no choice. Take a look at any chart of the the federal budget, the federal debt, and the size of the military empire. It always goes in one direction only: UP.This is why democracy is so popular with the elites. All they need to do in order to rule (apparently without limits) is to give the appearance of choice.There’s one caveat though: “anti-government” is not a choice, as Jennifer Rubin points out when she corrals those renegade and “wisecracking” conservatives back into the pen.The shepherdess continues:
As a conservative friend and think-tanker joked, were these conservatives “raised by wolves”?
If you are one of those wise guy conservatives, the above line shows what happens if you ever decide to think on your own. The name-calling comes out right away! Get used to it.
But unfortunately some of the anti-government sentiments you hear from extreme libertarians has seeped into the conservative playbook. Rather than reform or limit government, they imagine a pre-New Deal or pre-Progressive era government can be reinstated in the 21st century…There is zero appetite for this among all but a smidgen of voters.
Reform? Limit?It’s 2013!…Look around!…Conservative thought has been around for centuries. How has the reform/limit game plan turned out?Rubin doesn’t want you reading about Liberty…or letting those ideas “seep” into the “playbook”. She also tries to paint libertarian thought as being much smaller than it really is, by using words like “extreme” and that there is “zero appetite,” but for a “smidgen” of voters.Guess what? There many many many many more people in this world that don’t vote versus those who do. And almost all who do, are looking to get the government to do their bidding. Reaching “voters” is hardly even a goal for libertarians.Learning the truth yourself first is paramount. Then sharing it with those who have open minds comes next. There are legions of people who have open minds, and thirst to understand why things are falling apart. Those numbers are only going to increase as the government keeps heading towards the abyss. Rubin can keep her “voters.”
Moreover, the problem is not just that rolling the clock back 80 years is not going to work, it is that it is a really bad idea.
She doesn’t say why it’s “not going to work” or why it’s a “really bad idea.” Rubin is a raging warmonger, so we can deduce why she thinks it’s a really bad idea.Man-made laws and institutions are not permanent by any stretch of the imagination. Governments like to believe that they are. I always chuckle when I pass a government sign on the road that proclaims “This land is permanently set aside and protected by the (some department)”. So they really do believe that their edicts are permanent.Getting back to liberty can happen just as easily as running away from it for the last 100 years. Just abolish the tyrannical laws. Presto!And, guess what? It’ll really “work”!
Maybe we shouldn’t take the “Keep it closed!” voices too seriously…But conservatives would be smart to come to terms with reality. We are not going to have a pre-New Deal federal government. The vast majority of Americans want things like OSHA inspections and Medicare.
Did you laugh at that last sentence too?
Conservatives need to stop sounding like they are anti-government…
You’ve received your marching orders wise guy conservatives. Hopefully, there’s a part of you that gets upset with being treated like a child instead of a free-thinking adult.Here’s a suggestion. Dump this warmongering Neocon and check out sites like LewRockwell.com, Mises.org, as well as the site of this writer: EconomicPolicyJournal.com. Read For A New Liberty, Anatomy of The State, and The Betrayal of The American Right. Decide for yourself if the ideas of non-aggression, private property, free markets and peace are really as scary and “extreme” as the statists say they are. Don’t let Jennifer Rubin decide for you.You may be a libertarian after all.
Reprinted with permission from Economic Policy Journal.
