The Liberator Today

I started this blog to champion the principles upon which our nation was founded, as informed by my Christian belief. I intend to champion free markets, free trade, and freedom of speech, equal justice for all human beings and a constitutional republic with powers of the government strictly limited. I will propose paths forward for those who believe that expanding government is the chief threat to the freedom and wealth of the world today. Today, government expansion is championed in America primarily by the left, (or liberals/progressives) and in the world in general, by progressives’ cousins, the socialists.

All forms of socialism, whether Communism, Fascism, Nazism, Peronism or more recently, Iranian style Islamic-Socialism have been a blot on human history and the progress of freedom. Today, in America, the left wing advocates positions that are at best, a stone’s throw away from socialism and is imbued with the socialist ethos. They have hijacked many of the symbols, institutions and even the vocabulary of liberty. “Liberal” once defined a movement supportive of free-trade, free-markets, free-speech and industrialization. On its face, “progressive” might seem to describe an individual who favors progress. Yet it is a prominent feature of today’s progressive movement that it is populated by Luddites who openly oppose advances in technology.

In choosing the title of this blog, I am mindful of history. The Liberator was the premiere newspaper of the abolition movement in pre-Civil War America. (I have placed a picture of their masthead on this blog.) The publisher and editor, William Lloyd Garrison, took an uncompromising stand against slavery, the leading evil of his day. Unfortunately, slavery is still with the world. After the Civil War and passage of the 15th amendment, Garrison, thinking the work of the abolition movement to be done, shut down The Liberator. His son Wendell was the literary editor of a new magazine, “New York Nation,” founded at the end of the Civil War. Ironically, one of the leading voices of socialism in America, “The Nation,” is it’s direct descendant. However, I believe that small government conservatism, libertarianism, if you will, is the rightful heir of Garrison's ideals.

Unfortunately, the left is not the only enemy of freedom. One of the reasons for the Obama victory was the failure of Republicans under George Bush to champion limited government, see prescriptions for seniors, “No Child Left Behind” and caving on steel tariffs. This failure was the result of ignorance, lust for power, and corruption. Further, the Republicans became identified as the “party of big government.” I believe that voters are rational; given the choice between two big government parties, the people voted for the party more ideologically committed to making big government work. Dean has more on this in an election post-mortem.

The intellectual underpinnings of limited government always face an uphill fight in the war of ideas. Advocates of bigger government point to some problem, and there always is one, and say, "we can solve this if we have the will," not adding "and your tax dollars." That the solutions then cause more problems is only gravy on the turkey for the left, because new problems have been created to "solve." It is a challenge to propose less intrusive solutions or to defend the position that no solution at all is really needed.

Ultimately this is just a blog by a guy whose main talent might be something other than writing. I hope to be entertaining, though it is tough to measure up to the standard set by Dean on BwD, but I'll let you be the judge of that.