When it comes to alliances in the fight for liberty, I am not one who subscribes to the "Politics makes strange bedfellows" way of thought. I often butt heads with my fellow libertarians on this issue when fiscal-sanity/smaller government "alliances" are proposed with groups like the Glenn Beck 9/12ers, The Constitution Party, Republican Tea Partyists, Meetup.com groups like the Texas Liberty Campaign, and yes, to some extent, The Campaign for Liberty, aka Ron Paul Republicans.
Why? All of the above groups(some CFLers) seem to insist upon injecting their Christian beliefs into the fight-for-liberty equation. Case in point: this meetup posted by the Texas Liberty Campaign. In what universe does Christianity have ANYTHING to do with responsible fiscal policy and limiting the size and scope of the federal government?
"But why not ally with these groups in order to win the battle for fiscal sanity and smaller government? Strength in numbers, you know."
Simple. I do not want to trade one form of tyranny for another, i.e. Big Government for Big Theocracy.
"Well, aren't you injecting your atheism into the same equation?."
No. Take the inane meetup linked to above. Did you see the text of the signs being proposed for the "liberty sign wave"? Here they are:
Side 1:Be Free in Christ
Side 2:Christian Libertarian (or Christian Constitutionalist) ETC
Side 1: I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.
(Psalm 120:7)
Side 2: Jesus Christ: Prince of Peace
Side 1: No King but King Jesus
Side 2: Resistance to Tyranny=Obedience to God (Debbie's personal favorite!)
Side 1 and Side 2: Fish swimming against the tide/school of fish image
Side 1: It was for freedom (Galatians 5:1)
Side 2: that Christ set us free
My desired ommission of the Christian nonsense proposed above is NOT "injecting my atheism". Read up on the burden of proof fallacy if that's what you were thinking.
Now, if this were MY "Celebrate Freedom Sign Wave", I'd at least keep it honest. You'd never see something like "Freedom From Religion", "The Bible is Bullshit", or other non-fiscal policy/smaller government sayings on the flip side of my liberty signs. THAT would be injecting atheism into the equation.
Again, what the hell does any of the above Xtian signage have to do with liberty?!? (I especially love the contradictory "Resistance to Tyranny=Obedience to God" proposed sign.) Yeah, I know, the meetup specifies that it wants to "Spread the Liberty Message to Christians..", but it's doing this at the "Celebrate Freedom Sign Wave"! And to boot, this meetup is posted on a religion-neutral sounding meetup called "Texas Liberty Campaign"! How in the name of Jeebus can you possibly "Celebrate Freedom" in one breathe then brag about "Obedience to your imaginary master" in the next?
Anyway, I believe all of these pseudo-libertarian groups don't give a crap about true liberty. Their ultimate goal is a Christian Theocracy, and as I said earlier, I will not ally myself with people trading one form of tyranny for another. I will not exhaust my energies in the battle for fiscal liberty, only upon victory to have to fight again for social liberty.
So to all of the above groups, stop calling yourselves "libertarian", you are nothing but refried neo-conservative sore-losers. Leave your religilous idiocy out of the fiscal sanity/smaller government equation, and I'll be happy to chat with you about alliances.
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Image from here.
