LibertyActivism.info has the latest issue of ALLiance available for web viewing or downloading as a pdf. It includes a short essay by myself concerning elections. I look forward to reading the rest of the issue.
Kevin Carson’s Making the State Irrelevant commentary is another good read on the topic of political action.
Ron Paul is urging New Jersey residents to support Steve Lonegan’s gubernatorial campaign. Supporting Lonegan would be an error with potentially disastrous consequences for liberty.
You might remember Lonegan as the mayor who tried to have a McDonald’s sign changed to remove the Homeland-incorrect Spanish language.
Lonegan’s campaign website describes his position on people without proper paperwork:
There are close to 500,000 illegal aliens residing in New Jersey and that population causes additional strains on our schools, health care systems, economy, and way of life. To make matters worse, Jon Corzine has rolled out the red carpet and made New Jersey a magnet state for illegal aliens. It is our responsibility to reverse this course.
I object to providing drivers licenses to illegal aliens, and I will not permit illegal aliens to obtain the benefits of in-state college tuition rates.
New Jersey has also unfortunately seen the tragedies perpetrated by some who commit crimes after entering the state illegally. These crimes can range from petty theft to homicide, as we saw with the execution of promising young children in a Newark schoolyard. I oppose sanctuary cities and support the Federal 287(g) program that allows properly trained and supervised local law enforcement officials to help fight the ever growing problem of illegal immigration.
The campaign site also says:
A strong and prosperous government must be based upon those core fundamental rights that were firmly rooted in religious and family values.
The liberty of immigrants who lack government stamps is not something to be traded for promises of lower taxes and fewer gun laws. Especially when those promises are made by a nationalist politician who considers it a sacred duty to aim the guns of government by his religious values.
Considering that people have been killed in Immiration and Customs Enforcement custody, including detainees in New Jersey prisons, this isn’t some idle rant by a guy attached to the “purist” epithet. The freedom to move is a matter of life or death for certain individuals, and helping government kill is a terrible move for anyone concerned about freedom.
Are we to be accomplices to the violent confinement of innocent people to dire economic conditions? Are we to parade the sanctity of government gang turf or applaud the business of social control? Are we to ignore that border security is a major claim behind the United States police state, or are we to pretend that this is less important than property tax rates?
For those obsessed merely with establishment notions of practicality and keeping up good appearances, how will you look when you are found to be pushing state terrorism in the name of liberty?
And since institutionalized Christianity has led primarily to social and mental crucifixion of peaceable individuals who do not fit into orthodoxy, why put faith in someone who wants his religious and family values to govern you?
A lot of good people like Ron Paul and I hope they are not persuaded to trade liberty for the promises of a politician. If they are looking for things to do this campaign season, New Jersey Alliance of the Libertarian Left has a list, some theories, and some examples. Any activists available on May 19 are invited to meet with us.
Let’s work with each other for liberty, not for the political ambitions of statists.
The fact that a black man will tomorrow swear on the Bible to officially become emperor of the world says much about how far America has come, and how far we have yet to go.
Dismantle the empire in ‘09! Downfall to all who would rule us, and death to all the structures they build to do so!
I came across an interesting video about Obama and Emanuel on “civil service.” It carries some right-wing baggage, but is worth the two minutes.
Speaking of Obama, don’t forget that Inauguration Day stickers are still available at The Department of Horrible Stuff
It’s definitely optimistic to say the forty-fourth president will be the last. But “forty-four and no more” has a great sound and expresses a great sentiment. I give the US government as we know it 2-5 more decades of existence. That doesn’t necessarily mean anarchy across the continent. Maybe some kind of Balkanization that right wingers cry about so much will first occur, though I doubt that immigration will have much to do with it. An endless number of contingency plans could be made about such a scenario by those interested in such things.
Having a black president is an indication of social progress, as it proves that racism is losing its hold on the country, and Obama’s rise to power had the benefit of dragging underlying racism out into the open. However, true progress would be no president, nobody to decide whose lives the tanks and bulldozers of public policy will roll over, no establishment savior we are told to sacrifice our desires for, nobody to put a friendly face on crime and speak grandly of its glory. Black or white or any color, we don’t need a fucking ruler!
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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.
Here are some things worth looking at:
Those of you interested in petitions should take a look at the petition to drop charges against the RNC 8. A large number of signatures will hopefully demonstrate public support for the accused and pressure the state to drop the obviously politically-motivated charges.
Rad Geek posted a detailed tutorial on encrypting your email.
Though Justin Raimondo is a little hard to take seriously, his article on Barack “Change Incarnate” Obama provides worthwhile political information.
Two weeks from today a political spectacle will take place in America. Thousands of people will register preferences for how the ruling system will be run, in the culmination of millions of dollars being spent for political influence that could have been put to vastly more productive uses.
I choose to boycott the ballot. The miniscule influence that my vote would have will be instead counted as a vote against the system, a firm “no” to the collective that my allegiance is supposed to be reserved for.
To those who would call me apathetic I say that I care too much about liberty to care which tyrant presumes the title of our leader. I will not be lead. Leaders ultimately lead to leaders, and the system of suppressing humanity leads inevitably to crisis, collapse, or mass death.
What is needed are not leaders, and not working within the system. When you play a game with the system as rulemaker and referee, the winner is predictable. What is needed is anti-establishment organization to empower the people against the state – market against politics. Call it counter-economic, counter-cultural, mutual aid, co-op, underground, networking, contacts, or whatever else you want, but build now. Rulers only care about you so far as they can insure your allegiance or acquiescence. Voting will not change this. Free market action has the ability to displace the state, making it crumble as people withdraw their dependence and allegiance.
I don’t consider myself a moral non-voter, but a strategic non-voter. The marginal influence that each vote has is not enough to count as moral complicity in the actions of government. It is simply more useful to use that miniscule influence against the system.
The objection could be raised that not voting will simply be read as apathy, not as activity. It could be, but that is still better than casting a vote against McCain-Palin that is read as a vote in support of Obama-Biden, which is how such a vote will be read. A vote for a “third party” will be read as support for the idea that your voice is represented in elections, when in reality the game is rigged so one of the big guys will win. Essays like this one will hopefully change the perception of apathy to a perception of anti-state activity, and the only way to start down a road is to begin. Boycotting the ballot can be used as a springboard for further rhetorical attacks on the system when questioned about it, which will happen if you broadcast your intentions.
My experiences in activism and political science studies have convinced me that electoral strategy is rarely useful for lasting positive change. There is a political system in place that is deliberately and explicitly designed to perpetuate itself, satisfy the lust for power of its administrators, and ensure the stability of its benefactors’ fortunes. Whatever political-class candidates say, they are inextricably part of the political class, their first allegiance is to the political class, and their first duty is to work for the dominance of their faction of the political class and drive the tanks and bulldozers of public policy to their faction’s benefit.
Whatever usefulness the Libertarian Party ever had, it is now clearly counter-productive to the libertarian cause. It now promotes candidates who advocate taxation, national language law, militarized borders, government schools, drug regulation, government control of social services, and “state’s rights” over individual rights. Clear opposition to the United States military empire, the most powerful violator of liberty in the world, is not seen as too important either. This result should have been predictable for an organization dedicated to being let into the system to make government operate better. The political means of ballot access, campaigns, meetings, leader costumes, and the inner workings of governance became the political ends, and radicals (those who are consistent in thought) were either driven out or wasted their efforts trying to explain why they didn’t really support the status quo that they were desperately trying to become a part of. The joke was on us all along.
It is also important to remember the vast superiority of creative expression to political action in influencing the world. That which is supplied by politics is demanded by the dominant culture. When libertarians make the dominant culture ungovernable or smash the idea of dominating culture entirely, we will have greater success than if we controlled all the voting machines in the world. Drawing a cartoon or uploading a video can be a vastly more influential act than voting. A person who scorns creative expression in favor of immediate power gains demonstrates his level of apathy for a better future. Such a person would do well to drop his plans for other peoples’ lives and realize that individuals are not resources for his dream collective.
I don’t have a grand plan for society, and that is what makes my political philosophy humane and rational. Society is after all just a large number of individuals who can usually best make their own plans. I am an individualist, I am an anarchist, and I am a libertarian. Voting will not bring about any result I will be content with and it is therefore a useless strategy. The most productive thing I can do with my ballot is to discard it. I urge everyone to do the same.
I note that my signature on the Americans United Behind Bob Barr petition has finally been voided. I note also that there are many other voided lines, meaning that there are fewer than 50 signatures on this piece of shit.
I guess one of the petition admins finally figured out who my pseudonym referred to:
Augusto Pinochet
High Bridge, New Jersey
Libertarian Republican
Yes! Time to make the state more efficient at pushing around the undesirables. I’ve decided this is what mainstream Americans want!
When a group of right-wing swindlers works to associate libertarianism with streamlined oppression, heterosexism, militarized borders, state bloodstream regulation, and the post-9/11 police state, there is every need to bury them in as much mud as one can sling. The weaseling and argumentative knots they tie themselves in do not detract from their guilt. I feel especially obligated to undermine them, as I have in the past worked with the party that now attacks what I believe. The fact that I should have seen this coming enhances my zeal.
I also note with due snideness that the title of the petition implies putting Bob Barr first and the individual second. Were I to unite for someone, I would not position myself behind him.
So screw the Chicago Boys and the Washed-up Authoritarian Republicans. ALL efforts for the Grand Alliance!
“The Alliance of the Libertarian Left is a decentralized alliance of radical individualists, left libertarians, agorists, market anarchists, mutualists, voluntary socialists, and others on the libertarian left. We’re organizing local activist groups to fight for individual freedom, peace, and social solidarity in our communities, the tools of education, nonviolent direct action, and cooperative counter-institutions—not petitions, party politics, or symbolic protests. And we’re asking you to join our fight.”
Yeah, it’s a Louis XIV reference.
When people who want to be in charge of the nation say that we must serve the nation, what they mean is that we must serve them. My first duty is to myself. Therefore I will help others only when it makes me feel good, and never because a person who makes his living through crime says it is the right thing to do. Grand calls for centrally managed national servitude are just the latest scam to direct people and resources politically instead of voluntarily (ie through government instead of through the market).
Let’s try for real solutions: free trade and mutual aid! Rulers need not apply.
