Why Politics Is So Acrimonious

If we wish to understand what's wrong with today's politics, we ought to consider something F. A. Hayek pointed out long ago. It should have been obvious, but it escapes many people: namely, the more power government officials have over our lives, the more people will fear its falling into the "wrong" hands, that is, the hands of those who disagree with them. In response to a growing fear, they will be willing to undertake ever-more-extreme measures to wrest power from those hands or retain it for the "right" hands.

Who can deny this? Government is force. It is imposition -- not merely on people who really abuse others, but also on perfectly innocent people who mind their own business. Since that is so and since few people like having things jammed down their throats, as government officials control more and more aspects of life, including and perhaps especially cultural matters (through schooling, for example), people realize they have two only choices: be a victim or be an aggressor. Many people will choose the latter and be willing to go to great lengths, even street violence, to protect themselves and their families. (Note well: This is not an excuse for violence.)

If you wonder why zero-sum politics has become so acrimonious, therein lies a clue. (Other factors may explain the timing, etc.) You want less acrimonious politics? Strive for less politics. And that means replacing government with freedom, consent, and markets. We really have no other choice.

Our Foolish Politicized Era

It's ridiculous to think you can divine people's politics merely from their views on the pandemic or any given policy response to it. Similarly, it's absurd to rebut a view by referring to the holder's politics.

How to Panic the Public

1. Disseminate worst-case scenarios, taking care to ignore the dubious assumptions that go into modeling while vilifying anyone, no matter how well-qualified, who refuses to ignore them.
2. Emphasize the (alleged) benefits of a draconian government response, taking care to ignore the costs while vilifying anyone, no matter how well-qualified, who refuses to ignore them.
3. Repeat as necessary, preferably often.

TGIF: My Most Excellent Election Day Experience

Last Tuesday, special day that it was, I awoke early and prepared to go out. By 7 a.m., I was where I always go on this special day, eager to do my duty and exercise my sacred right to choose.

Read TGIF at The Libertarian Institute.

TGIF (The Goal Is Freedom) appears Fridays. Sheldon Richman, author of America's Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited, keeps the blog Free Association and is executive editor of The Libertarian Institute. He is also a senior fellow and chair of the trustees of the Center for a Stateless Society and a contributing editor at Antiwar.com.

Become a Free Association patron today!

Intentions versus Results

We can argue about a given politician's intentions from now until doomsday. What must not be forgotten is that without sound social-economic theory good intentions count for zilch. We know what the road to hell is paved with.

Recent Scribblings

TGIF: “Cleaning Up After the Elephants (and Donkeys)”

Op-ed: “How to Get Money Out of Politics”

Why the Latest WikiLeaks Leaks Matter

Why should anyone care about diplomatic cables? So what if State Department bureaucrats say unflattering things about other world “leaders"? Some people may be asking this in response to WikiLeaks' latest disclosures. Okay, they say, leaks about atrocities on the battlefield (such as the first WikiLeaks disclosure, “Collateral Murder,”) tell us something we should know about – the gross misconduct by U.S. military forces, condoned by the command all the way up to the president of the United States.

But diplomatic cables? Who cares?

We all should care. The 250,000 documents serve as a timely reminder that the people who call themselves “the government” are professional liars. Lying is what they are paid to do. The biggest lie of all is that they do it in the people's interest. U.S. government officials have reacted to the latest document dump as though Julian Assange has struck at the very heart of the State. No surprise there -- because he has! When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the disclosures are an "attack on the world," she is really saying it's an attack on her world -- the world of power, of legal murder and plunder.

When American (mis)leaders profess confidence in the Afghan president and his government, while saying privately they are incompetent and corrupt -- stealing hundreds of millions of Americans' dollars -- that’s the people’s business – at least as long as they are compelled to bankroll the government’s lethal adventures.

When American (mis)leaders praise and encourage the Mexican government’s efforts in the criminal “war on drugs,” while privately believing they're practically worthless, that’s the people’s business – at least as long as they are compelled to bankroll that evil crusade, which harms Mexicans and Americans.

When American (mis)leaders bomb Yemen while conspiring with the Yemeni dictator to portray the murderous campaign as the act of Yemen’s government in order to make it more palatable to the Yemeni people, that’s the people’s business – at least as long as they are compelled to bankroll that imperialist policy.

When other countries' officials implore American (mis)leaders to bomb Iran, that is the people’s business – at least as long as they are compelled to bankroll militarism and suffer the “blowback” such an action would produce.

And on and on and on.

Sure, the American people already “know” at some level that their (mis)leaders and (mis)representatives are liars. Everyone laughs at the riddle asking how you know when a politician is lying: “His lips are moving.” But that knowledge too often fades deep into the background as the people are distracted or put to sleep by the solemn mendacity that issues from the politicians mouths on a daily basis.

So WikiLeaks performs a critical service by reminding us what those sanctimonious mountebanks really are. (The Guardian lists the key points of the cables here.)

Some will say that government couldn't exist without duplicity. I take them at their word.

The State of the Union Address

Sorry. I don't do theater reviews.

The Art of Politics

Politics: the art of seducing people to cooperate in their own exploitation.

Setting the Bar Awfully Low

The news media are saturated with paeans to the peaceful transition of presidential power that takes place today. Aside from the fact that this is a preoccupation with the superficial (see below), it is also an awfully low setting for the bar. So the great American achievement is that no one will be killed or jailed as power passes from Bush to Obama? Amazing! But last I checked, peaceful transitions have been occurring for years in Canada, Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and a long list of other places.

Isn't this pushing American exceptionalism to absurd lengths?

Contradictions in Terms

Some of my favorites:

• Paid vacation -- why would one person pay another person to be idle?
• Free election -- how can it be free when voters are under the duress of taxation and other impositions?
• Keynesian economics -- how can the rejection of economics be a form of economics?

McCain for President

No, I'm not endorsing him! I'm predicting he will win. In elections I usually predict wrong. It's a hex. We're all doin' what we can.

We Will Be Fooled Again

It is appalling that Barack Obama apparently will go through this campaign without once tearing into George II's Unitary Executive Theory, under which a president may launch preventive wars unilaterally, eavesdrop and gather information on people without warrant, issue signing statements announcing he'll ignore parts of legislation he doesn't like, send detainees to foreign lands to be tortured, declare detainees "enemy combatants" and hold them in perpetuity, etc., etc., etc., -- all without check by another branch of the state. (John McCain seems to have no problem with this theory either.)

I wonder if Obama doesn't want the smorgasbord removed before he's gotten to the table. The Fuhrer Principle must be enticing to any presidential candidate.

Some peace candidate. "We won't be fooled again"? Sure we will.

The Scariest Thing I've Ever Seen

It's Sarah Palin's ABC interview here. It really is all about winning (power), isn't it?

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Update: This link now goes to the segment of the interview in which she discusses domestic policy. It originally went to the foreign-policy segment, which I cannot find now on the ABC site.

McCain's Self-Righteous Fakery

If John McCain keeps up that self-righteous fakery about wanting to be our servant, we’re in for two rather tedious months until election day.

First of all, he also says he wants to be our leader. How can he be both our leader and our servant? We know what’s really going on here. The servant shtick is phony humility intended to soften us up. He has no intention of being our humble servant and every intention of being our know-it-all Great Leader, our commander in chief.

The rest of this week's op-ed, "McCain's Self-Righteous Fakery," is at The Future of Freedom Foundation website.

Politics Turns the World Upside Down

Didn't anti-PC conservatives once mock the sensitivity of women and people of color and ethnicity to allegedly harmless jokes? So why do they think it's good politics to feign offense at Obama's "lipstick" remark? A better question: why have the American people not barfed and sworn off Republicans and Democrats?

Priorities -- Please!

It is curious that people who obsess over a $400 million "bridge to nowhere" favor spending $10 billion a month in Iraq -- indefinitely. That bridge probably wouldn't have killed anyone.

Non Sequitur

Defenders of Sarah Palin say her maverick temperament is demonstrated by the fact that she beat an incumbent Republican in her bid to become governor of Alaska. Why isn't that just proof of her ambition for power?

Servant or Leader?

John McCain says he wants to be our servant. But he also says he is uniquely fit to lead. Which is it? We know very well which it is. Just ask who will be giving orders and who will be taking them.

Repression in St. Paul

Many bloggers have been keeping closer tabs than I on how the "authorities" treated protesters at the Republican National Convention. It appears the treatment was outrageously heavy-handed. Rad Geek's post on the subject is here. Follow the links!

Come and see the violence inherent in the system!