Yesterday the United States chose a new administrator for its programs of control. Perhaps Obama and Biden will be less horrible for the world than their chief rivals, but the important thing for radicals is to figure out how to best attack the system when it is headed by Democrats.

Rad Geek recently opened a discussion on this topic. Sheldon Richman thinks that an Obama presidency will be popularly associated with the free market less than the Republicans would be, so government failures that will take place under his regime are less likely to be blamed on free market ideas. I tend to agree with him, and I also think that when Obama shows his true colors as a member of the warfare state establishment, left libertarians will have greater opportunities to reach out to disaffected leftists. Of course, Obama’s nature should already be clear to anyone who has been paying attention and not enthralled by his grandeur, so opportunities already exist. People who voted for him simply because they found him slightly less evil than McCain are unlikely to be enthusiastic about his presidency, and we ought to extend their dissatisfaction to the office of the presidency in general.

Another good thing about this election is its potentially crippling effect on the Republican Party. McCain’s poor showing is further evidence of general resentment toward the way Republicans have damaged the country over the past eight years. Many have seen how far the establishment went to suppress Ron Paul, and hopefully will not be fooled by the Sarah Palin fake working class image. I’m not expecting a total downfall, but maybe there will be enough of a shake-up to convince libertarian-friendly folks that the GOP is not the way to be. If this ends up pushing the Libertarian Party in a more conservative direction, other organizations, like the Alliance of the Libertarian Left, will need to be busy saving the face of libertarianism.

The Libertarian Party can be proud that their total abandonment of principle got them a full one percent of the vote, and a little closer to complete irrelevance. Anyone serious about gaining liberty ought to give up on the proven failure called the LP.

If there has to be a president, it’s nice that one identified as black can be elected. But there doesn’t have to be a president any more than there has to be a war in Iraq. It is the result of the choices of millions of Americans that we are stuck with the disastrous burden of empire. To free the people of this country, we must convince them to choose liberty. A consistent pro-free market, anti-establishment activist organization like the Alliance of the Libertarian Left is in a unique position to do this. It has the ability to undermine the system theoretically and physically by presenting logical reasons for opposing the state, and true alternatives to coercion. Now is the time to build counter-institutions and networks to starve and displace the state.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 10:08 am and is filed under current event, election, libertarian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.