Signal Intelligence About The LP

Loading Table of Contents...
 
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Prof. Long, what is the right party for me?

On July 13, Professor Roderick Long wrote to the members of the LP Platform Committee and LP National Committee to complain about ideological intolerance on the former committee.  In the subsequent days he and I have been debating topics like the meaning of the Pledge and the merits of anarchism.  Along the way, I cited 17 issues that none of history's toy anarchies have ever had to deal with, including:
BH) cities with densities >= 10,000/km^2, and the associated problems of: streets, power distribution, water distribution, sewage removal, conflagration risk (BH
Long replied:
RL)  Wait a sec.  Are you saying that you think government is needed not only for courts/police/law/defense but also for minor crap like streets and utilities?  Markets can't handle utilities?  Wow, are you ever in the wrong party. (RL
And there we have it: in just four days, Prof. Long (a recent candidate for Chair of his state LP) has gone from a) complaining about a vague report that the LPCO ousts unnamed anarchists to b) using the Pledge as an ideological bludgeon against non-anarchists and inviting them out of the LP.

Professor Long, I oppose all laws regulating prices, minimum wages, maximum hours, equal pay, plant closure, family leave, hiring, firing, occupational licensure, insurance policies, zoning, rents, product safety, drug efficacy, fuel efficiency, media copying technology, etc.  I favor completely privatizing America's socialized banking, education, health care, health insurance, agriculture, and retirement savings industries.  I oppose all regulations and bans on adults in areas like gambling, suicide, substance use, pornography, gay marriage, sexual services, reproductive services, and cloning.  I agree with every plank of the LP Platform (except perhaps for a quibble about late-term abortion).

So please tell us, Professor Long -- what is the name of the "right" party for me?  What is its web site?  Where can I read its platform?  The current LP platform is in fact largely unchanged from the "greatest hits" version I proposed at the very beginning of the 2008 PlatCom cycle, so it's quite odd for you to think that some other party might match my views more closely.

The "right party" for you is apparently an anarchist party.  Until LP anarchists muster the courage and votes to rename the LP to the "Anarchist Party" or the "No Government Party" or whatever, I'm going to keep working through the LP to unite voters who seek both more personal liberty and more economic liberty behind the choices available to them that will most move public policy in a libertarian direction.  You can swing the Pledge at me and show me the door all you want, but I'm not going anywhere.  Sorry.

And yes, since I'm not a market anarchist, I do believe in the existence of market failure for not only public goods (national defense, universal justice) but also certain club goods: specifically, those involving streets, pipes, and wires. A lot of my fellow Libertarians share this belief.  Are they all in the "wrong party" too?

Just how small do you want the LP to be?

No comments: