From: dos@panix.com (Dave O'Shea)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections
Subject: Re: Libertarian Party (was Re: Ross Perot)
Date: 14 Apr 92 22:27:49 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: PANIX - Public Access Unix Systems of NY

In article <1992Apr14.171738.11424@midway.uchicago.edu> mss2@midway.uchicago.edu writes:
>In article <1992Apr14.162043.28529@acsu.buffalo.edu> blayda@acsu.buffalo.edu (Danger) writes:
>
>>I thought it would be nice to know where the LP's "dogma" originates 
>>from.  Consider friend:
>
>[excerpts from the Constitution deleted]
>
>There are significant overlaps between my philosophy and that of the
>LP.  However, I think it's fair to post some other constitutional
>provisions which are not as congenial to it:
>
>Article I, Sec. 8
>
>The Congress shall have power
>
>1. To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the
>debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
>United States; but all duries, imposts and excises shall be uniform
>throughout the United States;
>...
>3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the
>several states, and with the Indian tribes;
>...
>7. To establish post-offices and post-roads;
>
>And of course there's the infamous Sixteenth Amendment.
>
>I'll grant that the US government has gone far beyond the limited
>powers originally intended for it, but I remain unconvinced that a
>government which did not lay and collect taxes would be capable of
>protecting its citizens from other concentrations of power with _no_
>accountability to its citizens.  For example, I don't see the
>distinction, assuming there is no public police force with superior
>firepower and legitimate authority derived from law, (which is what I
>suspect would happen if police forces had to be funded from voluntary
>contributions) between "private security services" and mercenary
>bands, nor what's to stop a security service from forming an alliance
>with other security services, then coercing their clients into
>serfdom.  The retaliatory threat of hiring another service drops
>markedly when the guys with the guns start threatening their clients'
>life and those of their families and friends.  It's the Libertarian
>platform's apparent attitude that there isn't anything that our police
>forces and military defense is protecting us _from_, despite the fates
>of so many countries in this bloodstained century, that makes it
>difficult for me to take the party seriously.
>
>Mike
Frankly, if you look at most of the mass murders of recent history -
The Holocaust, Stalin's purges, Tianenmem Square, and untold others -
All of these were perpetrated *by* the government that was supposedly
the protector of these people. Given the alternatives of defending
myself against the occasional mugger, or an entire government, I'll
take the mugger - at least *he* doesn't have the power to disarm me
before he seizes my property.


>-- 
>Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS	"Never let your sense of morality prevent
>mss2@midway.uchicago.edu	 you from doing what's right!"
>mike.schiffer@um.cc.umich.edu	 --Mayor Salvor Hardin of Terminus
>mss2@usite-next.uchicago.edu     Isaac Asimov, _Foundation_
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections