Aren’t libertarians the logical folks? So why are so many irrational now?

By David McElroy · January 22, 2012

In South Carolina, Ron Paul finished in last place — fourth out of the four remaining candidates. This isn’t exactly the “revolution” that my friends have been expecting. So how are they dealing with this dose of cruel political reality? And where do libertarians go from here?

If you’ve read much here, you know that I believe Paul has no chance of winning. None. Zero. Nada. It’s not that I don’t like him. He’s probably my favorite statist. But he can’t win, because he’s advocating things that the majority just plain don’t want. After the complete collapse in the first southern primary, I thought I’d skim through what my Facebook friends were saying about the situation. Without calling any names, here are the sort of things that were being said Saturday night among my Paul-supporting friends:

— “Obama must go, so no matter who our nominee is, he’s far better than the current occupant of the White House.” Really? In what ways is Mitt Romney — the father of RomneyCare — an improvement over Barack Obama? In what ways is Newt Gingrich — the man who wants to attack Iran — an improvement over Obama? As bad as Obama is, when it comes to substantive issues — not rhetoric — how are any of the other GOP choices an improvement over Obama?

— “The MSM [mainstream media] is silencing Ron Paul’s message, so that’s the only reason he’s not winning.” Actually, Paul has gotten a tremendous amount of television time over the last year or two, especially compared to the percentage of the electorate that supports him. He’s had plenty of chance to make his case and he’s spent millions of dollars on ads, too. Anyone who believes he’s being silenced isn’t paying attention. It’s just not true.

— “The election was a fraud. The networks were already calling it for Gingrich before half the votes were counted, so it was obviously rigged.” Networks call elections based on exit polling and projections based on how key precincts are going. It’s a combination of art and science that’s pretty accurate in predicting what’s going to be a result when the rest of the votes are counted. They’re projections. They have nothing to do with rigging elections.

— I stumbled upon one discussion of a convoluted conspiracy involving the establishment funding both Gingrich and Santorum in order to stop Paul — who they’re afraid of — before they let Romney win. I’m only mentioning this looney theory because it shows the lengths to which people will go to find reasons to explain what’s going on. Instead of just accepting that others don’t support their candidate, they make up things that have no evidence to support them.

— “The campaign is just about educating people and I’m sick of people who don’t get that. If you don’t support Ron Paul, you’re opposed to liberty.” I saw a lot of that general sentiment last night. There was a good bit of anger toward those relatively few of us who have withdrawn from the system, as though we somehow caused hundreds of thousands of South Carolina voters to flock to Romney, Gingrich and Santorum. Ummmm, no. We’re not responsible. (And we’re not responsible for following whatever path you believe is the right one. You do your thing. We’ll do ours.) Besides, anyone who believes that a campaign is an educational mission is being fooled. An effective campaign is about finding people who generally already agree with you and organizing them to collect others who generally already agree with you. Some tiny fraction of people change their minds in campaigns — every election. A statistically tiny number of people will become libertarians because of this campaign, but not much will change. Roughly 10 percent of the public was generally libertarian 10 years ago. That’s still true today, after countless libertarian “educational” campaigns.

— The other things mostly fell into the category of denial and boosterism: “Ron Paul will still be the president, so just relax,” and, “We refuse to accept anyone but Ron Paul as president.” No, Paul isn’t going to be president. Not this year. Not in four years. Not ever. It’s a fantasy. Refusing to accept that is stopping you from spending your time looking for alternatives that might work.

I’m sympathetic to what Paul supporters want, so I’m not opposed to them and I’m not one of those trying to paint Paul as a crazy uncle who wants nutty things. (My biggest concern is that he doesn’t go far enough toward individual freedom.) But libertarians are supposed to be the hyper-rational people of the political world. What I’m seeing from them right now is just as irrational and conspiratorial as the worst of the people of the major parties.

At some point, libertarians have to accept that most people don’t want what we want. They have to accept that continuing to talk and hand out literature and put up signs isn’t going to change the world. At some point, they have to admit the reality that neither Paul nor any other libertarian is going to get elected to change the country or the world.

So the real question is when the alleged rationalists are going to get rational and join those of us who are trying to figure out how to prepare for the coming post-statist world. The evidence is all around you that you’re not going to elect someone to save you.

Share on Social Networks

I received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine Monday — and I’m happy to report that I’m neither dead nor a zombie controlled by Bill Gates and Co. Eligibility was recently opened in Alabama to everyone who’s 16 or older, so I signed up for the Pfizer vaccine at a site run by a local university. I know this is a political issue for a lot of people, but that honestly baffles me. We can disagree about whether such a vaccine should be mandatory — which I’m against — but as a voluntary choice, it seems like an easy choice now that it’s been safely given to millions of people. Is it a perfect preventative? Of course not. But the decision seemed obvious to me when looking at the statistics and evidence. I haven’t had any of the side effects that some people have experienced, but that’s supposed to be more of an issue after the second dose, which I’ll get on May 3. In the meantime, I’ll let you know if I grow a third arm — or if the secret microchip kicks in and someone starts trying to control me remotely. All kidding aside, getting the vaccine seems like a rational voluntary choice to me.

I get a lot of email from readers. Some of it is fascinating and useful. Some of it is full of confessions that people want to share with a stranger. Some people write to ask advice. What’s really surprising, though, is the small percentage that seems to come from mentally unbalanced people. When I started using the metaphor about being an alien — the tagline at the top of each page here — it never occurred to me that I’d start hearing from people who took it seriously. But every few months, I get a strange email — such as the one above from a few months back — from someone who seems to think I’m claiming to be an actual alien. The first time it happened, I laughed. By the time it became a semi-regular thing, I was simply appalled. For the record, I can provide no proof that I’m an alien, because … well … it’s just a metaphor. I do feel like an alien among human beings, but as far as I know, I’m just as earthbound as you are. It’s just a metaphor. Honest. Or at least, that’s what my lizard-beast overlords told me to say.

After Tampa Bay, Fla., musician Colt Clark had all of his gigs canceled last year for months on end, the entire family felt trapped at home as most of the world was on quarantine lockdown. His wife, Aubree, had an idea that would let Colt make music and involve the whole family in making music videos to share with their friends and family on Facebook. Aubree is a photographer and homeschooling mom to a daughter and two sons, who range in age from 6 to 11. After their friends started asking to share the videos, they made the performances public — and a few of them are now on YouTube, where they go by the name of Colt Clark and the Quarantine Kids. The younger son, Becket, is on drums. The older boy, Cash, plays keyboards, strings and guitars. Dad supplies lead vocals and plays guitar, while 6-year-old Bellamy mostly dances but sometimes does backup vocals. There’s even a dog who makes an occasional appearance. The Clark family has just raised the bar for what I need to create with my future children. And best of all, they seem to be having a great time together. I hope they make you as happy as they make me.

Have you ever wondered how the social media world works for so-called “influencers”? I find it comical, so I thought I’d share with you. I frequently get offers such as what I’m about to describe. And if I’m getting such offers — as a relative nobody in the online world — you can only imagine what people with huge audiences are offered. It starts with an email appealing to my ego: “We came across your online presence and we LOVE your style. We’d love to have you as one of our Brand Ambassadors. To celebrate our new [Brand Name] collection, we want to give you a FREE Watch so you can post a picture of you wearing it and drive more exposure to our brand.” Did you hear that? They love me. They want me to be seen wearing their cheap $59 watch so other people will think, “If this amazing influencer wears that, surely I should buy one.” They even offer me commissions on the watches sold from people clicking from my site. So the next time you see some alleged “influencer” touting something online or on social media, remember that this is what it’s probably all about. It’s laughable.

Modern culture is going insane. The latest evidence comes from the effort to redefine children’s author Dr. Seuss as a racist whose books should be banned. Why? Because a few images in those books don’t meet modern political standards. The drawing you see here is one of those “dangerously racist images,” and it comes from the Dr. Seuss classic, “And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street.” The book catalogs all the wild diversity seen by a child on one street, including the offending drawing of a Chinese boy. What’s racist about it? Apparently, it was racist to show the boy eating rice, wearing a funny hat, using chopsticks and (worst of all) having eyes represented by a slit. (The bearded man near him has dots for eyes, but that’s apparently OK.) In other words, the stereotypes are considered racist today. (Oddly, the culture warriors who fret over such things are never concerned if a white southerner is depicted as ignorant trash living in a trailer. Some stereotypes are great, especially if the left hates those people anyway.) Theodore Geisel — the name of the real-life Dr. Seuss — was a product of his time and nobody at that time would have seen any of this as racist. Using stereotypes and exaggerations is how artists depict differences in simple ways. You can argue that it’s better to achieve the end result in a different way, but it’s insane to pretend that everybody from the past should have his work erased because it doesn’t match the preferences of modern leftists. Unfortunately, the company that publishes Dr. Seuss books has caved to the insane people — and six of his popular works will no longer be published. The world has simply gone insane.

Related Posts