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About Those Candidates

About Those Candidates

Let me tell you about the presidential candidate that was closest to my ideal: Ron Paul.

He is a classical liberal, monarchist (small government supporter), advocate of total freedom of markets, advocate of institutional respect for the individual and his property, opposed to inflationism and to subsidies, opposed to corporate privilege, opposed to the military industrial complex, eager to end America’s warlike adventures, isolationist in this respect, but an enemy of tariffs or protectionism and an advocate of international free trade, yet a foe of state-sponsored immigration, a Christian and cultural conservative but open to freedom of association among people of all kinds, a gynecologist opposed to abortion but understanding the difficulty of the issue and offering the solution of delegating the problem by way of subsidiarity to smaller states or communities, in short, a man of the establishment, a Libertarian and then Republican Party politician, a congressman, a member of various committees and commissions.

When he ran for President of the US, the establishment lynched him, from neocons, to socialists, and even liberals who ideologically were ostensibly his own. Because he was anti-establishment and a true sovereigntist, i.e. for the sovereignty of the individual over the state.

Trump is a pale copy of him, even a caricature. Ron Paul is the true champion of America’s greatness and Trump’s inspiration, minus the latter’s protectionist and inflationist aberrations.

If someone like him were running for President in the current round of Romania’s elections, I’d vote for him with both hands, I’d press that voting stamp with all my power and conviction.

But what we have is nowhere near that. Călin Georgescu, for example, even if now lynched by the state, is the practical opposite of everything Ron Paul stood for. Leaving aside all suspicions of lying and imposture, we know for sure what ideas are driving him and his governing program.

He advocates for the Big State confiscating companies deemed important, the trampling of property and freedom of contract in the name of protectionism, he calls for the abolition of much of the capitalism built in our country, imperfect as it is. He calls for increased taxes and state banks to run inflation at will, to then use the printed money to subsidize various oddities, primarily among them a set of collectivist measures inspired by the depopulationist ideas of the Club of Rome and by newer climate-change manias. He doesn’t give a damn about individual liberty, which is why he demands that form of total slavery that is compulsory military service. He claims his roots from historical collectivist currents profoundly opposed to freedom.

If one studies economics one finds that any intervention in the freedom of society tends to have contagion effects and a dynamic of accumulation of harmful measures until freedom and society are unrecognizable. That is why freedom is said to be indivisible. Any inconsistency in thought and action has expansive consequences.

In short, Georgescu’s ideas would lead us to another nightmare age. I don’t know if he is Russia’s puppet, or whose state or hidden actor’s Manchurian candidate he is, but it really doesn’t matter. His emergence to the top of the presidential race may very well be an organic phenomenon, there are underlying factors for that. By the way, Tik Tok is another free speech platform and it doesn’t matter that it’s from China. If people have no capacity for discernment, no one can keep them safe from fake news, least of all local bureaucrats and politicians that aim to have strong control over social media.

Georgescu puts forward some legitimate ideals, peace being among them the most important right now. The problem is with the means by which he believes we can achieve them. And it’s a big one. The means are those of war against freedom. Nothing good can come of them.

I pity Călin Georgescu for the public lynching he suffers. I think he has admirable sides and may just be a man of good intentions. But that’s not enough. He is propagating some dangerous nonsense that must be sanctioned without hesitation.

The above also applies to a good number of current politicians, of the so-called sovereigntist parties and beyond – including easily a good proportion of those who claim to be pro-European (whatever that may mean these days).

We see the record of the parties that have governed us so far and we can predict the situation will not change any time soon. We’ve had European-style semi-socialism and we will have more of it. But what Georgescu and his ilk are proposing is much worse.

Further reading...

I won’t recommend sources on the specific persons discussed. Instead, I urge anybody to have a comprehensive vision of the ideas and policies that would lead to a harmonious society, a society of free and sovereign individuals cooperating in free markets for peace and progress, with respect for the traditions and values of virtually all. Here are the books most suited for the task:

Ludwig von Mises – Human Action and Socialism. These are Mises’s two most important treatises on economic theory.

Murray Rothbard – For a New Liberty. The Libertarian Manifesto. This is Rothbard systematic description of policies for liberty.

 

Photo source: Vincent M.A. Janssen.

 
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