antigovernmentextremist:

thedrunkanarchist:

Jeffrey Tucker is Paul worshiping here and this is just plain naive.  

Rand Paul time after time calls for a bigger and more intrusive government.  Which dilutes and hurts the liberty movement.  

He is time after time associated with libertarianism  rightly or wrongly, by the main stream media.  Especially by the likes of Sean Hannity and Glen Beck.  So more times than not people associate his views as libertarian.  

Which makes it even more important for those of us who desire liberty to criticize Rand when he calls for bigger government.  

Jeffrey Tucker is an influential name in the movement and he should be doing the same.  

I’ve gotten in a few spats with moralanarchism over Rand Paul and I feel the issue is still unsettled. I’m going to take this opportunity to clarify my thoughts on Rand Paul and his impact on the liberty movement.

First, I will never vote for Rand Paul for president and I think any libertarian worth their salt wont either. With that said I do think Paul has done a lot to advance the philosophy of liberty, especially this early into his political career. No he is not perfect, and neither is his father. However, Rand Paul is probably one of the more outspoken members of Congress when it comes to constitutional checks and balances, limitations of government and other pro-liberty things. His 13 hour filibuster might be something to yawn at for moralanarchism, but public polling data shows that there has been a 50-point swing in opinion on drone strikes. I’d like to see that number be higher, but given the amount of man hours the tumblrtarian crowd gives to drone strike awareness, you have to give Paul credit here. Paul has done more for the anti-war movement in 13 hours than Code Pink could do in ten years. 

Instead of being upset that Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are starting to pay attention to libertarians we should be excited and ready to educate the newcomers to the liberty movement. How many people are being turned on to the philosophy of liberty when Paul quotes Lysander Spooner and F.A. Hayek on the floor of the Senate? Yes that actually happened and it’s a good thing that it happened. It may not be accurate to call Paul a libertarian, but the same could be said for his father. And correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t see many libertarians running around disavowing Ron Paul because he ran in the Republican party.

Tucker is right here. I’m not against criticizing Paul when he’s wrong, because he is wrong a lot. I’m not about to throw up an “I Stand with Rand 2016” bumper sticker either. I agree with the comments above, it is important to criticize Paul when he advocates bigger government. But at the same time it’s important to praise him when he advances smaller government. Like the only budget that eliminates entire departments of the federal government. Barney Frank is by no means a libertarian, but I will praise him when he co-sponsors legislation to end marijuana prohibition, or when Bernie Sanders calls for an audit or end to the Federal Reserve.

If the libertarian movement turns into a self-cannabalizing group of cave dwellers bickering over who’s more libertarian then it will just fade away into obscurity.

I’m 35 pages into my book, “Why Anarchists Should Vote”. This post is relevant to me. 

Unless you believe in a violent revolution (I don’t), then the only real paths to a stateless society is to educate the masses on the benefits of statelessness and to also continually vote for less gov’t, less taxes and less regulations. 

Anyway, carry on. 

(via byulibertarian)

“To all people who are sending me evidence of Rand Paul’s various heresies, you can save your bandwidth. I’m not interested in saint making or witch burning. I’m only interested in one thing: progressive reductions of the role of all government power in people’s lives all the way to zero if possible. Whatever brings that about, in whatever sector it happens, and whether it happens slowly by steps or all in one fell swoop, I’m for it. I really don’t care who or what makes a contribution to this end or how it comes about, so long as it is ethical and it actually achieves the aim of human liberation, the mother of all progress, order, and higher civilization.” - Jeffrey ‘BAMF’ Tucker. 

I apply this same principle to voting. Many libertarians, voluntaryists and anarchists are completely against voting. To me, if you are continually voting to abolish the state, I’m all for it.