Doug Kendall ("Libertarian News") wrote:
DK> "The Libertarian Party supports reducing the size, scope and power of
government at all levels and on all issues, and opposes increasing the size,
scope and power of government at any level, for any purpose." <DK
The Boston Tea Party's use of this language for its platform in 2006 was not
original. It presumably was inspired by a revised LP Pledge proposal from
Oregon LP Vice-Chair Phillip Schmitt of the Libertarian Reform Caucus. As I
described the proposal in 2005 at
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/knowinghumans?p=171, the Pledge would become
something like: "The Libertarian Party will always advocate increasing
liberty and decreasing government on every issue. As a member of the
Libertarian Party, I will not attempt to change this."
Schmitt's idea is a brilliant way to fix the Pledge, but it's clearly
inadequate as a replacement platform. It leaves too many unanswered
questions about LP policy on issues like pollution, freedom of association,
the rights (if any) of the unborn, immigration, etc. It doesn't even assert
our basic positions regarding property rights, contract rights, and the
force-and-fraud analysis of aggression. And it actually appears to revoke
some of our traditional support for the constitutional rights of the
criminally accused, which included by reference the Sixth Amendment right to
"have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor" -- i.e. to
coerce the attendance at trial of innocent bystanders who might be able to
testify to the innocence of the accused.
Yes, that's right, the Bill of Rights is void where prohibited by
anarcholibertarian dogma. The same goes for the right to assistance of
counsel, unless you believe the anarcholibertarian fantasy that voluntary
charitable contributions will always be able to provide such assistance --
and
<http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000423.html> a
pony. For a list of possible ways to raise revenue for such an endeavor,
see here <http://blog.360.yahoo.com/knowinghumans?p=400> . The only good
option here for an anarcholibertarian is to endorse the geolibertarian land
value tax, but the thinking required for that move won't fit on a "taxation
is theft" bumper sticker.
