What do many libertarians and free-market anarchists share in common with climate alarmists and environmentalists? They all wish to act as if they live in their preferred systems when they in fact are far from living in them. Climate alarmists press for policies which force a shift from reliables ("fossil fuels") to unreliables ("renewables") even though the infrastructure does not currently exist to make unreliables as trusted and powerful sources as reliables have been. Likewise we see many libertarians and free-market anarchists sitting with their arms folded and noses turned up when it comes to being involved in politics even though the majority of the population does not understand, follow, respect, or support concepts like free-markets, limited or no government, voluntaryism, etc. We could go on about reasons to not vote such as "it only encourages 'them'" and "it legitimizes the system", and so on which are all very true but they accomplish and mean nothing when applied to the current reality.
Allow me to share where I was prior to being a free-market anarchist. For several reasons, some personal and some logical, I always favored an organic aristocracy, or in lieu of this, a monarchy. As Hans Hermann Hoppe often explains, monarchies are preferable to democracies. However, because I live in the US and have thus far been unwilling to relocate, a monarchy is not even an option. My next preference is a republic similar to what the US Constitution created; however, such a republic was extremely short-lived and devolved into a democracy. Once the devolution into a democracy was started it wasn't long before a further devolution into some form of socialism. Because I understood the realities of both national socialism and international socialism, as well as knew the true death tolls of each system, I chose a blend of national socialism and fascism as the system which I would support. Hence, my support lay with the Republican Party, although such support was more out of necessity than being able to choose between a wide range of parties. Unlike El Guapo who had a plethora of pinatas, the US doesn't have a plethora a political parties. Despite my support for the Republican Party I only voted in two of four elections I was eligible to do so, both times for Ron Paul; something about the entire thing just didn't seem correct to me. Only later did I learn about free-market anarchy.
My current preference essentially goes like this, from most preferred to least:
- Free-market anarchy
- Organic aristocracy
- Monarchy
- Constitutional republic
- National socialist
This brings us to the current election less than a month away and to the two individuals in the running, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Until about a week ago I thought of sitting this one out because I couldn't justify voting, nor could I justify supporting Trump. I thought there was more than enough time to spread the word about free-market anarchy to peacefully chip away at state power using a pick-axe of exponentially growing public pressure. This remains a very viable option and we must continue to pursue it; however, I have also examined the current situation and arrived at the conclusion we must also put an abrupt halt to the march towards international socialism we see in the West. The simple fact is that we in the US live in what is effectively a decaying socialist empire and our choices with this election are to either push the empire towards nationalism or the other direction to internationalism.
Working within the system, and using the system against itself where possible, is much more productive than sitting back with arms crossed and noses in the air. Voting to push this vile and decaying empire away from international socialism is perhaps the best chance we have of growing our pick-axe to the point where it reaches the mass required to knock out the foundations of governments. It does not end the empire nor does it result in a decrease of its powers, the only thing it does is buy us extra time, and this extra time is critical for spreading the ideas of libertarianism, free-market anarchy, and yes even ideas like States' "rights", distributism, etc which merely return affairs to more local control.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Are any of you voting, and if so why?