thoughts on being libertarian

Thoughts on being libertarian

To be safe and secure, or to be free and independent?  We have village, town, city, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies that are well paid and whose job it is to enforce the laws of the land.  We have intelligence agencies at the federal level to keep us informed of outside threats and dangers.  Interplay between them should be relegated to information only.

If that’s the case, then why do we have federal intelligence agencies (NSA) spying on American citizens inside our own country?  Why do we have a federal law enforcement agency (FBI), using drones to spy on American citizens inside our own country?  If by way of specific court orders directed at specific individuals, we probably wouldn’t be having this discussion, but that is not the case.  A broad spectrum of millions of American citizens inside the comfort of their own country are being treated as if they are foreign thugs out to destroy the American way of life they felt was safe.

Our way of life should be safe from foreign intervention and foreign threat.  Out way of life should be safe from home grown threat.  Our way of life should not be threatened by way of our own government.

And now, when the heat in the kitchen is getting a bit too hot, our fearless leader wants to start another war in the Middle East.  Two aren’t enough, now we’re going to arm groups that have spent millions of dollars to destroy the American way of life to fight a Syrian government that poses no direct threat to the United States.  Many of those that oppose the Syrian government do pose a threat to the United States.

Somewhere out in that vast wasteland known as politics there is someone that can bring our foreign policy goals into some semblance of order based on the American way of life.  What a concept.  Our meddling has destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Egypt so far, and Pakistan isn’t the same country it was twenty five years ago, either.  Now, because we don’t like the guy, we’re going to arm and support organizations that oppose our way of life and become mired in another useless example of bullyism.

There are many people in this country that are registered republicans that wish the libertarian party had enough strength to make a serious showing in national, state, and local elections.  I’m one of them, and the current National Security Agency (NSA) scandal is a separation point among republicans and libertarians.  Many republicans, particularly on the far right, are calling the young man that blew the whistle on the government’s spying on its own citizens a traitor.

Most of those that are swayed more by a libertarian point of view regard him as a hero, or at the very least, a very brave young man to bring to the nation’s attention the fact that hundreds of millions of Americans have had their private lives violated by their own government. 

Just as it is the ability of the human to conceptualize and reason that sets it apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, it is the constitution of the United States of America that sets Americans apart from the rest of the world.  We have certain “rights” delineated in that document, and when our own government crosses the line, becomes a felon, it is the responsibility and obligation of the American citizen to call it out.

My right to be free from government harassment, free from government snooping, free from government, is one of those rights, and right now, I don’t feel free.  I’m writing this of my own free will and posting it on the Internet for others to read.  I’m sure at least one government agent is probably reading it right now, and there is nothing wrong with that.  However, if I posted it to you by way of USPS, that agent would be committing a crime if he read my letter.  Thusly, if I posted it to you by way of e-mail and that agent read it, it would be a crime.

The president said we should feel safer because of the NSA actions.  I feel violated, not safer.  Our very principals are being destroyed, not slowly, by this current administration.  The so-called war on terrorism is being used to create a dictatorship and our people are wandering around like lemmings, searching for that cliff from which to jump.  Freedom of the press is being challenged with criminal complaints, the right to bear arms is suffering major attacks, the concept of probable cause has been thrown out the window, and at the direction of the president, not congress, agencies of the government other than the military are attacking other countries and killing people indiscriminately.

Someone with no fear must step forward and become a leader.  A leader says “Follow Me.”  Our current president says “do it my way or else, and the constitution doesn’t have anything to do with what I’m doing.” 

Mr. President, sir, the buck has stopped.