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February 22, 2006

QotD: Galloping Fascism

As my regular readers know, as far as I'm concerned, they represent two not-terribly-different wings of exactly the same political party: the Boot on Your Neck Party. If it isn't George Bush with his boot on your neck after 2008 — if George isn't there any more to steal half of everything you make, and enslave your kids for military and other purposes, and dog your steps, and lowjack your phone, and read your mail, and ransack your medical records, and censor your radio and television, and search your home, and probe your bunghole — it'll be Hillary.

Or somebody just like her.

Neither of these phony antagonists will offer not to do any of those evil things. Instead, they're competing on the basis of who can deprive us all of more of our rights faster. Standing on the shoulders of would-be tyrants like Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Johnson, Bill Clinton did his damnedable best to make the state stronger and more unaccountable to the people. George Bush stands on Clinton's shoulders today.

Any "progress" made by Republicans in converting America into a dictatorship will be absorbed by the next Democratic administration before they go on to make "progress" of their own. The "no-fly" list will become the "no-ride" list, then the "no-drive" list, then the "no-walk" list, and finally the "no-breathe" list. Why anybody should think that it matters which wing of the Boot on Your Neck Party is doing it to us at any given moment is — and always has been — beyond me.

L. Neil Smith, "Time for a Boynout ", Libertarian Enterprise, 2006-02-19

Posted by Nicholas at February 22, 2006 12:09 AM
Comments
Not meaning to be too snarky, but - And people wonder why Libertarians aren't taken seriously? I read this, and I think that Mr. Smith is rather out of touch with reality. I mean, really: "no-ride"? "No-walk"? "No-breathe"? I'm just...my mouth is agape. People who are living daily life in a rather free (certainly freer than anywhere else on the planet) society, getting along fairly well, reasonably happy - these people are never going to consider someone who routinely flings about phrases like "Boot On Your Neck" Party with any genuine attention. For someone (like me) who leans libertarian, it's all rather depressing. Posted by: Austin at February 22, 2006 01:25 AM
That last paragraph is hilarious. Bush does "X" which is over reaction so the only way a loyalist of sorts can deal with it is that the opposition will make it much worse...even though it is not a policy of theirs to do anything of the sort. Good one. Posted by: Alan at February 22, 2006 07:42 AM
And people wonder why Libertarians aren't taken seriously? I read this, and I think that Mr. Smith is rather out of touch with reality. I mean, really: "no-ride"? "No-walk"? "No-breathe"? I'm just...my mouth is agape.

He's over the top, but not as far as you'd think. Before 9/11, did anyone expect to see "no-fly" lists (from which, once you've been added, it's apparently nearly impossible to get corrected . . . unless you're a congressman). The "no-ride" list is already in court: a woman in Denver was arrested for refusing to show ID to a federal agent while riding a public bus.

I'm not as panicked by the measurable decrease in civil liberties as Smith, but only because I'm still hopeful that the trend can be reversed.

Posted by: Nicholas at February 22, 2006 09:55 AM
the only way a loyalist of sorts can deal with it is that the opposition will make it much worse...even though it is not a policy of theirs to do anything of the sort.
I don't remember the Tories campaigning on the issue of imposing a new national ID card, do you? It was a Liberal proposal which got shot down in committee, yet here is Stockwell Day, proposing it as a new "public safety" measure. It's a damned rare thing for a government to give up a power, once acquired. I'd rather not encourage them to expand their already vast range of powers, thanks very much! Posted by: Nicholas at February 22, 2006 09:58 AM


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