Trigger warning:

This site may, in fact always will contain images and information likely to cause consternation, conniptions, distress, along with moderate to severe bedwetting among statists, wimps, wusses, politicians, lefties, green fascists, and creatures of the state who can't bear the thought of anything that disagrees with their jaded view of the world.

Sep 21, 2013

Praise for the Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm


In the wake of the election of David Leyonhjelm to the senate from New South Wales, the media were left scrambling for something to say.  Many commentators have called for reform of the voting system to ensure that minor parties cannot get elected in the future.
The Spectator has in the midst of this; interviewed David and come up with a remarkably positive take on him and the party as well.  I love the cover image with a brilliant caricature of David.  The artist must have known a bit about us as his belt buckle sports the Gadsden Flag image:
Electoral defeat of a disintegrating and duplicitous Labor government was a glorious event. But for Australians whose souls burn with the flame of liberty, that day delivered an additional and more important victory: the election of David Leyonhjelm to the senate. … 
… The only Liberal Democrat policy repeatedly referenced by the media — always out of context — was the party’s support of the right of citizens to own firearms for self-defence. This has long been dismissed by most Australian pundits as some loopy idea imported from the US by home-grown ‘gun nuts’. But when America’s Founding Fathers drafted the second amendment to the US constitution — unlike most of today’s commentariat — they were not operating in an historical nor an intellectual vacuum. The Founders were aware that the right to keep and bear arms was an ancient one, long established in British common law, and finally codified in England’s 1689 Bill of Rights. ...
… What struck me when I spoke to senator-elect Leyonhjelm this week was that like America’s Founders, he too was not living in a vacuum. His political philosophy had taken decades of thought — and decades of real world experience — to form. In youth, his nascent distaste for authority was further informed by the Vietnam era draft. Imbued with the bright-eyed socialistic leanings shared by many young men and women, he’d travelled behind the Iron Curtain and to communist countries in Africa. Witnessing the hideous realities of collectivism soon cured him of leftist delusions. Later in life, the works of free-market economist Milton Friedman helped cement his philosophical move to classical liberalism. … 
… They are the only party upholding the ideals of classical liberalism. They support your right to smoke what you want, marry who you want, gamble when you want, own what you want, trade with whom you want, run your business the way you want, defend yourself when threatened and pay as little tax as possible (so don’t worry Libs, Leyonhjelm won’t oppose the scrapping of carbon, mining, or any other taxes). The party’s website outlines an extensive platform, informed by a powerful philosophy: folks should be free to live unhindered by senseless and despotic government regulations. 
If you believe in liberty, you can’t pick and choose rights. You can’t just support those individual rights that complement your temperament and taste, but spit on those that don’t. Denying the freedom of others makes you a tyrant. This applies even in a democracy. Even if you are in the majority, if you disagree with a certain right and your vote helps outlaw it, that doesn’t make you justified, it just means you belong to the tyranny of the majority. Shame on you if you do. More so if you pay lip-service to the ideals of liberalism. … 
… Just as the once solitary figure of Ron Paul paved the way for what is now the only alternative in American politics, David Leyonhjelm may well spark a libertarian renaissance here. This is the real significance of his election to the senate. As George Washington once recognised, ‘Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.’
The full article can be read here.  Make sure you check it out as there will be a test next week. 

3 comments:

  1. This is really encouraging for a middle aged libertarian like myself. I've been longing for a libertarian style revolution for years and it finally appears to be taking shape, only meager shape at the moment, but at least the signs are there.

    I personally believe that the majority of people would identify as libertarian (if they actually knew anything about political ideology, which most don't).

    Unfortunately, most people confuse libertarian thought with left wing socialism and the like, thinking that collectivism is somehow equated with personal liberty.I believe one cause for this is deliberate obfuscation of political ideology, that's is to say, deliberately placing Fascism on the right of the political spectrum, when Fascism is clearly anything but right wing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are welcome Anon. If you are here in Oz I hope you will get involved if you are not already. Our website is http://www.ldp.org.au/ and we have a presence on Facebook and there is also the libertarian society as well.

    With the publicity we are now getting, especially the positive stuff, we expect to be a lot bigger and achieve better results next time around. We can use all the help we can get.

    If you are overseas, libertarian parties exist in most countries nowadays and are not too hard to find.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the little details in the carciature, for example the lipstick in the middle of the ammo belt (presumably a reference to support for same sex marriage)!

    ReplyDelete