In Browne's book "How I found freedom in an unfree world" which was
published in the 70's if I recall correctly he did not seem to
advocate being involved in electoral politics. I could be wrong by I
seem to recall that being the case. I do seem to recall reading
things writen by anarchists during Browne's runs for office criticle
of Browne and refering to Browne as a sell out because he was a
candidate. I sellected Browne's name on the ballot as my choice of
the candidate that I wanted the electors in my state to vote in the
2000 election. I regret that I did not select Browne when I went to
the polls in '96. I considered it but I selected Dole instead. I was
not a member of the LP back then btw and was in fact either a
Republican or Independent. I am not sure if I had at that time
switched from Independent to Republican.
$
--- In [email protected], "Thomas L. Knapp"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Stop and hold. Harry didn't say that taxes are "necessary." He
wanted
> to get rid of them (and of government) entirely, and he said so
> repeatedly.
>
> However, after 1994 he was doing a particular thing in a particular
> context: He was
>
> 1. Running for president;
>
> 2. In a particular society, with a particular system.
>
> That system doesn't allow for itself to just be crumpled up and
thrown
> in the trash. Only a violent revolution could likely accomplish any
> such thing, and Harry Browne wasn't fomenting violent revolution --
> even his pre-1994 anarchism was of the individualist/personalist
type
> that emphasized escaping, rather than smashing, authoritarian
systems.
>
> What Browne hoped to accomplish _in electoral politics_ was to
> _reduce_ the size of government to its constitutional parameters,
and
> to force that reduction by eliminating the income tax (actually, he
> was forced to go that far -- in _Why Government Doesn't Work_ and
> throughout the early part of his 1996 campaign, he touted a low-
rate
> flat income tax proposal, until LP "purists" tantrumed him into
going
> further).
>
> He never advertised his reduction proposals, including but not
limited
> to the continuation of a low, uniform tariff rate, as a libertarian
> end state. He very specifically pointed to them as prerequisites
to an
> environment in which a libertarian end-state could become plausible
> and people could decide whether they wanted to preserve some shred
of
> government or take it all the way.
>
> Tom Knapp
>
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