LIBERALISM AND VIOLENCE

One of the most pernicious and popular myths in the landscape of American politics is that individualists, commonly called conservatives, Tea Baggers, or right-wingers, are prone to violence, and are a real danger to the safety of our republic.  Well, that’s baloney.

Who is more likely to become violent:  someone who wants to be left alone and leave others alone, or someone who is convinced that his omniscience and moral superiority requires that he force others to do his bidding?

Historically, violence has always been initiated by the statists, commonly called Liberals, Progressives, or the Left.   (Democrat and Republican aren’t really valid terms because there are a few Democrats who are more individualistic, and a great many Republicans who are statists.)

In general, the position of the statists is that only government can do certain things, such as take care of the poor.  It is their contention that, if left to our own devices, We, the People of the United States, would not take care of our poor, so the government must seize our assets and redistribute them.  This is a critical point!  Statists do not claim that government control of the economy or of the people would generate more wealth.  They claim only that it would generate more tax revenue.  The government, even by their own admission, cannot create wealth; it can only move it around.  A pithy bumper sticker says, “The government can’t give you anything it hasn’t taken from someone else,” and the statists have never, to my knowledge, denied this.

Therefore, it is at the very core of the statist philosophy that force is morally acceptable if used against those who have wealth.  A free citizen, if approached by a beggar, would have the choice to help or walk away.  History has proven, over and over and over and over and over (can you tell I’m getting tired of having to point this out?) that the American people are the most generous on Earth.  Even in dire times, they have supported their chosen charities to an astonishing level.

But, you see, that phrase in italics tells the story.  Free people will choose what they wish to support, and it may very well not be what the statists would choose.  And this is precisely, solely why statists always – ALWAYS – initiate force against the people:  their view of how a country should be run cannot be achieved unless the government has the authority to seize wealth from those who have it and give it to the chosen ones.  “If only,” they wail, “those selfish, rich, white people would just give us their money, we wouldn’t have to take it by force.”

Statists often claim that the government can do things the people, collectively, can’t because it has more money than the people.  This idea is utterly preposterous, and here’s why:  The government cannot have more wealth than its citizens because it cannot create wealth.  Any wealth the government has must be seized from the people, and it can’t seize more than is there.

Not kindness, but naked, armed force is the heart of statist/liberal politics.   Not empathy, but pathological arrogance and ego-centrism are liberalism’s motive force.  Simply put, the liberal dream cannot be achieved in a free country, or in a country where the people have the means of meeting force with force.

Rebsarge

8 Feb., 2014