Isiah 1:17- Learn to do well. Seek justice, Relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, Plead for the widow.
America needs a new political party, one opposed to isolationism, protectionism, nativism, authoritarianism, and ecologism, and which supports free enterprise, Constitutional government, human equality, liberty, and dignity, and the defensive alliance of all nations committed to such ideals.Who knows? I've considered myself something of a classical liberal since reading Locke's 2nd Treatise of Government and it's time to read that again.
Some might call such a party “conservative,” and indeed, many of those who call themselves conservatives today would find themselves in agreement with its tenets. But these are the ideas of classical liberalism; they are the ideas that made the free world free, in as much as it is free. They have been misbranded by their “progressive” opponents as “conservative,” — a word associated with “servility” and the service of privilege — in order to make them seem reactionary. It’s time for the true defenders of real liberalism to take their proud title back.
America needs a new Liberal Party because both major parties have abandoned liberalism. Neither adequately supports international free trade or the defense of the West — the two pillars of the liberal world order since 1945. Both lack commitment to constitutionally limited government, separation of powers, free enterprise, and human equality and liberty under law. Each supports its own Malthusian antihuman collectivist ideology: for Democrats, it is ecologism, for Republicans, it is nativism.
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| Liberland.org |
On April 13, 2015, 31-year-old Czech politician Vít Jedlička announced the founding of The Free Republic of Liberland, a sovereign state with no taxes, no standing army, and all civil services provided on a voluntarist basis. It has a website, a flag, 4.3 square miles of land, a president (Jedlička), seven citizens, and hundreds of people signing up for citizenship. You can apply to become a Liberlandian yourself here.Imagine this a state founded by myself founded with my own philosophy involved. It could be a republic or a monarchy and perhaps a mixture of what we call conservatism or libertarianism. Perhaps marked by hypercapitalism with little to no regulation and with room to truly build. What a dream?
But Jedlička, a regional party leader with the Czech Free Citizens Party, is still living in the Czech Republic. No journalists have been permitted to enter Liberland, which is on land controlled by Croatia, (though Croatia doesn't claim the territory as part of the country); the Croatian border patrol has been turning all press away.
"Jedlička has a history of outspoken anti-EU activism, so a lot of Europeans have assumed this is an unusually committed stunt," writes Russell Brandom at The Verge. Thousands have applied online for citizenship, but "it's not clear what that actually means." And "since the country aims for minimal government, it's hard to tell if it's not doing anything because it's so libertarian or because it simply doesn't exist."
Trade-offs apply to our economic lives, as well as our political lives. That means getting more of one thing requires giving up something else. Let’s look at some examples.Over at my other blog, The Sixth Ward, I had recently posted an article about three Chicago families who elected to move out of the city into the suburbs. They did so with the idea that their children would thrive in suburban public schools. One takeaway from that piece showed how a school system full of mostly low-income children can prove to be a detriment.
Black congressmen and black public officials in general, including Barack Obama, always side with teachers unions in their opposition to educational vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools and other measures that would allow black parents to take their children out of failing public schools. Most black politicians and many black professionals take the position of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who is on record as saying, “We shouldn’t abandon the public schools.”
Taking such a political stance is understandable because black congressmen and other black elected officials are part of a coalition. As such, they are expected to vote for things that other coalition members want in order that those coalition members vote for things that black politicians want. There’s no question that these black public officials are getting something in return for their support of teachers unions and others who benefit from the educational status quo. The question not addressed by black people is whether what black politicians are getting for their support of a failed educational system is worth the sacrifice of whole generations of black youngsters, educationally handicapping them and making many virtually useless in the high-tech world of the 21st century.
Though many black politicians mouth that we should fix, not abandon, public schools, they themselves have abandoned public schools. They see their children as too precious to be sacrificed in the name of public education. While living in Chicago, Barack Obama sent his daughters to the prestigious University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When he moved to Washington, President Obama enrolled his daughters in the prestigious Sidwell Friends School. According to a report by The Heritage Foundation, “exactly 52 percent of Congressional Black Caucus members and 38 percent of Congressional Hispanic Caucus members sent at least one child to private school.” Overall, only 6 percent of black students attend private school.
