Blame the Libertarians

 

 

1 January 2009

The financial meltdown of the banks, and whole interrelated financial structure of the world can be laid fully at the feet of Libertarianism. That’s right, and it all begins with Ronald Reagan’s administration and deregulation.“Wait a minute,” you say, “They were Republicans, not Libertarians.” And you’re right, sort of. It’s well documented that Reagan had strong Libertarian leanings, as illustrated by this 1975 interview by the Libertarian publication, Reason: http://www.reason.com/news/show/29318.html.

Additionally, he was a big fan of the Mother of Libertarianism herself, Ayn Rand: http://www.worldofatlasshrugged.com/news_celebrity_ayn_rand_ronald_reagan.asp

Additionally, Reagans appointees and staff were all Ayn Rand fans. And the Libertarian CATO Institute (a right-wing think tank) regularly advised members of the Reagan administration. But any moron with any familiarity with Libertarian ideas recognized the process of libertarianisation in Reagans policies, which were implemented on his watch in the form of deregulation of the banks and stock market, the raping of the welfare system (which Democrat Bill Clinton also had a hand in), busting of the Air Traffic Controllers
Union, and the release of thousands of mental health patients onto the streets.

But Reagan was only the beginning. In subsequent Republican administrations, and most notably in the GW Bush administration, the deregulation frenzy continued, as did the influenceof the CATO Institute, until laws that were put into place back during the Great Depression; laws that were to insure that what happened then could never happen again, were swept away, all in the name of the “Free market,” and “free enterprise” and “keeping capitalism pure and unregulated,” etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

Included of course was the gradual defunding of public education, and the defunding and neutering of the FTC, FDA, EPA and other agencies charged with protecting the consumer from big business.

They believe in Freedom all right. The freedom for the rich to get ever richer. The freedom of the poor and middle class to starve and become homeless. The freedom of big corporations to export our jobs overseas, and replace them here with low-paying, non-benefited “McJobs.” Ayn herself, who died in 1982, didn’t like Reagan, or even many of the Libertarians whom she inspired because they didn’t go far enough in her opinion. It’s reported in fact that she didn’t care for the term Libertarian because of it’s association with an earlier movement, that of Libertarian Socialism (Noam Chomsky describes himself this way).

Libertarians are, in my opinion, the worst breed of ultra-right-wing conservative jerk-offs. Selfish to the core, and of course it’s the core selfishness thatattracts others who espouse selfishness and self-centeredness (such as Satanists and LHPs) .Happily, these folks are a very slim minority, enjoying only about 2% of the electorate. They are also a very loud minority, and very insistent that there views get aired (and wack-job Glenn Beck leads the pack). But their day has ended. Barach Obama is now our President. He’s already rolled back many of the Libertarian inspired policies of the last three Republican administrations
(maybe four — even Clinton enacted a few of these misguided ideas in the name of being “centrist”). I don’t know that we will see full blownSocialism in the next eight years, but I am hoping we get really close.

Note: (January 23, 2017) And now we have Trump, who will no doubt continue the
Republitarian agenda.