Comments (9)

• Jonathan Finegold Catalán

  While the right does use the supposed "enemy" as a reason to put off the "return" to laissez-faire, it's both sides of the political spectrum that create and use these enemies (i.e. the Democrats, Roosevelt, and the Japanese/Germans and the "threat of invasion").

  Published: November 7, 2009 4:47 PM

• fundamentalist

  I try to avoid politics as much as possible, but I couldn't avoid looking at Sarah Palin when she was on TV, and while looking at her I couldn't help but hear some of what she was saying. While proclaiming her love of free markets, she would immediately follow up with something about the federal government solving some problems. She never saw the contradiction in the two. So I got to listening a little more to other Republican candidates (not McCain because he never pretended to be pro free market) and they all make the same mistake. They honestly can't see that having the state solve everyone's problems is totally incompatible with freedom.

  Published: November 7, 2009 5:33 PM

• Ohhh Henry

  "While proclaiming her love of free markets, she would immediately follow up with something about the federal government solving some problems. She never saw the contradiction in the two."

  When you read the speeches of GWB and BHO you will find the same internal self-contradiction. The American Party (no point pretending there's anything other than a single party) has a stock speech in which the politician praises free markets (if Republican) or denies being a socialist (if Democratic) and then spends the remainder of the speech reading a long shopping list of new and expanded government interventions they wish to implement.

  If it makes you feel any better, in other places like Canada and Europe they don't even dare to praise free markets or deny being socialist. To do so would be political suicide.

  Published: November 7, 2009 7:00 PM

• JD

  That is so terribly true. Lip Service of Freedom, as long as we are in charge should be both motto's of the single party we have.

  I absolutely love this assessment here as well:

  Among the intellectual leadership of the Old Right, Frank Chodorov vigorously set forth the libertarian position on both the Cold War and the suppression of communists at home. The latter was summed up in the aphorism, "The way to get rid of communists in government jobs is to abolish the jobs." Or, more extensively:

  And now we come to the spy hunt — which is, in reality, a heresy trial. What is it that perturbs the inquisitors? They do not ask the suspects: Do you believe in Power? Do you adhere to the idea that the individual exists for the glory of the state?… Are you against taxes, or would you raise them until they absorbed the entire output of the country?… Are you opposed to the principle of conscription? Do you favor more "social gains" under the aegis of an enlarged bureaucracy?…

  Such questions might prove embarrassing to the investigators. The answers might bring out a similarity between their ideas and purposes and those of the suspected. They too worship Power.

  Under the circumstances, they limit themselves to one question: Are you a member of the Communist Party? And this turns out to mean, have you aligned yourselves with the Moscow branch of the church?

  Power worship is presently sectarianized along nationalistic lines… each nation guards its orthodoxy.… Where Power is attainable, the contest between rival sects is unavoidable. If, as seems likely, the American and Russian cults come into violent conflict, apostasy will disappear.… War is the apotheosis of Power, the ultimate expression of the faith and solidification of its achievement.…

  The case against the communists involves a principle of freedom that is of transcending importance. It is the right to be wrong. Heterodoxy is a necessary condition of a free society.… The right to make a choice … is important to me, for the freedom of selection is necessary to my sense of personality; it is important to society, because only from the juxtaposition of ideas can we hope to approach the ideal of truth.

  Whenever I choose an idea or label it "right," I imply the prerogative of another to reject that idea and label it "wrong." To invalidate his right is to invalidate mine.… If men are punished for espousing communism, shall we stop there? Once we deny the right to be wrong we put a vise on the human mind and put the temptation to turn the handle into the hands of ruthlessness.

  That should be the logical conclusion govt. cannot be harnessed by good, it only allows evil to thrive.

  Thus the debate of Classical Liberalism vs. Anarcho-Capitalism, which the latter is the ultimate conclusion of Freedom for mankind!

  Published: November 7, 2009 9:28 PM

• T. Ralph Kays

  Leave it to Rothbard to get to the heart of the issue, see falacies no matter who originated them, the man was uncanny in his ability to see bullsh*t.

  Published: November 7, 2009 10:16 PM

• observant

  Bullsh*t

  It's what's for dinner

  Published: November 8, 2009 1:11 PM

• D. Saul Weiner

  Murray could provide a guided tour of all of the smoke and mirrors like nobody else.

  Published: November 8, 2009 3:06 PM

• PirateRothbard

  This analysis definitely seems intuitively true.

  Think about it this way: from 2000 to 2006 the Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches of the government. Most of the Scotus judges had been appointed by Republicans.

  And what did they do for capitalism? Sure, the tax cuts were nice. There was some deregulation here and there. But it was very underwhelming.

  Worse, their record on cutting spending is very, very, very poor.

  And of course they do not have a soft spot in their heart for one type of capitalist: those in the narcotics industry.

  Published: November 8, 2009 5:44 PM

• In Restraint of State

  That quote is spot-on. We even hear it today. Of course, the term they use is so broad that we'll never run out of enemies. Now they just say "terrorists" and everyone is expected to hide under blankets while the government takes more control over everything under the sun.

  Published: November 9, 2009 2:54 PM