By Robert E.L. Walters
Image Via Dreams Time
The other day I was reminded of a story. A few decades ago I was seated at a restaurant where my father usually held court, shortly after winning a national essay contest with a piece favorably inclined to supply-side economics (somethings never change). Besides my father and his best friend and political sparring partner, Mr. Harry, was the president of Maryland's state senate, who was trying in vane to get me to speak at the state's Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner, a huge honor by any measure and one, that although I was flattered to be asked, I knew I could not in any way accept.
While my seventeen-year old self tried to finesse this point with the senator, he became more and more aggravated, thinking my reluctance to speak was shyness (I was never shy). Finally I broke down and told him that I wouldn't accept his invitation to speak because my subject matter would not be pleasing to his audience, which set off another haranguing of "family honor" and "service to the state" that I bore patiently until he reached his peroration that he couldn't believe I would "abandon" the party of Jefferson and Jackson. At this point I looked at him calmly and stated quite sharply for a seventeen year-old. "With all due respect Mr. President, when your party returns to the principles of Jefferson and Jackson give me a call and I will be happy to sign up." Silence - full stop. A silence Mr. Harry broke with a smug yet jocular, "Well, Mike, I think he's got you there."
The reason this story came to mind is related to our upcoming election. What has happened to the party of Jefferson and Jackson, or for that matter, to the party of Lincoln? In the case of the party of Jefferson and Jackson, that mostly became the Libertarian Party. As for the party of Lincoln, he would be far happier in the tent of Kamala Harris, than in the tent of Donald Trump. Political sands shift as they relate to party. Just as FDR made the State's Rights Democrats into the party of ever increasing federal power and overreach that Jefferson and Jackson would have abhorred, Ronald Reagan dragged the Republican Party from its Whig left to a more Libertarian right that Lincoln (who started off as a Whig) would have equally deplored.
Parties aside, the United States needs real candidates going forward. Real pragmatic, transformative candidates. Our success as a republic depends on it. And this is not just the presidency. At the federal level, we need senators and representatives who understand their jobs and the oath that they are taking (which seems to be little more than a recommendation to most these days). At the state level we need governors and legislatures who assert their sovereignty and push back against federal mandates of all types. So here is my wish list (from my own perspective naturally) for 2026 and beyond, since this year is already a grim fait accompli whomever you support.
Firstly, it's no secret that I am a Libertarian with a capital "L" since I have been a member of that party for over three decades now, and a libertarian with a lowercase "l" since I am philosophically opposed to government intervention, partly as an impediment to civil liberties, but mostly because I am suspicious of the unintended consequences of activist government.This not withstanding, modern times do leave some room for pragmatic governmental intervention that even I as a libertarian must admit the statists have a good point in pursuing.
Lets take property insurance for example. As a libertarian dedicated to free enterprise and private ownership, on paper, I would support the concept of private personal liability insurance for profit. In reality however, the free enterprise model seems to be lacking on many levels. Because of the past sins of governmental intervention, which has artificially inflated property values, private insurance is often unable to indemnify policy holders, which ultimately leads to more government intervention by way of bailing the homeowners out. Future candidates at the state and federal level should be pursuing either national or regional liability insurance schemes that can spread the exposure more evenly. This may seem unfair, but in effect, it is no different than what is already happening when natural disasters strike and we as a humane society help to rebuild the area.
Social Security and the social safety net is another issue. Few Americans (regardless of what they say) truly want to abolish social safety nets. No Worker's Compensation? No Unemployment Insurance? No Social Security? No Medicaid? In a free and egalitarian society, pure self-reliance can become counter-productive to republican ideals. The issues with social safety nets are generally more in execution than in existence. Future leaders need to articulate this and form pragmatic solutions such as abolishing all of the aforementioned programs and replacing them with some form of universal basic income centered on a taxation scheme completely divorced from income taxes. Why? Because in a very short time there will not be enough employees to pay enough employment taxes to support any type of social safety net or any other legitimate government spending of any kind for that matter. Artificial intelligence and robotics are not some futuristic pipe dream, they are here at the here and now, and few of our leaders are even contemplating let alone addressing its pending impact on society in general and the United States in particular. Abolishing employment taxes in favor of a Value Added or VAT tax will soon become inevitable and we need future candidates willing to explain these painful issues to the populace.
A major tenant of libertarian-ism is and has been free trade. The reasons for this are numerous, but it suffices to say, modern conditions require a modern re-think of its benefits. As we move into a robotic, AI driven world, not to mention one where some of our trading partners are political enemies, future leaders must look inward toward once again making the United States fully self-sufficient. The impact of tariffs will be painful to American consumers, mostly because consumption is not only an American pastime, it's an an American obsession, and with dubious benefits besides. Bold leaders who explain the dangers of a disposable consumerist world propped up by cheap consumer credit should be sought and applauded.
So what should our leaders be spending money on at the federal level? State loans for infrastructure for a start. Congress should stop granting money to the states in favor of lending money to the states. This has a dual benefit. One, it makes the states more wary in requesting money that they have to pay back and two, its would boost the U.S.'s Balance Sheet, since the loan would be an asset rather than the grant which would be an expense.
The federal government should also invest heavily in supporting space exploration, especially any means of building space infrastructure for effectively reaching and exploiting the asteroid belt, where some asteroids are conservatively valued in the quadrillions of dollars. Want to pay down $35,000,000,000,000 in public debt? Grab onto and mine a $1,000,000,000,000,000 asteroid and you'll do that with plenty of change to spare... for decades if not centuries to come.
These are the things we need to hear from our leaders in the future. A vision of a world of universal betterment to be sure, but one based on equality and pragmatism. Our statist friends do have some good ideas, unfortunately they are often coupled with unwieldy bureaucracy, segregation of people toward uneven benefits, and patiently unfair ideas of taxation based on classism. As a libertarian, I am not afraid to discuss or even support some of the left's ideas, as long as they come at it by accepting some basics realities such as universal taxation (preferably at a flat rate) an abandonment of class and identity warfare, and an understanding of human nature that abhors redistribution of wealth and encroachment on private property. If they do that, then we might be getting somewhere.
So there is my challenge to the left (and to the right). Can we dig deep and find the pragmatism that our founders tapped into when they formed our republic, or are we destined to continue down the path of shifting sands; watered-down, milquetoast partisanship that leads to a rudderless debt-riddled future, eventual default on that debt, and, in the end, widespread misery all around? The 2024 election will see no significant changes whoever wins, but we the people need to do better. Will we be brave enough (or smart enough) to find candidates who will speak truth to power (us)? Only time will tell. But honestly folks, time is running out.
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