Posted on 12/14/2010 5:02:38 PM PST by HorowitzianConservative
The outpouring of support WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have received from the usual paleo-libertarian suspects is as illuminating as it is predictable. Take, for example, Ron Paul’s latest attempt at LewRockwell.com to make excuses for the leaking of highly sensitive government data because—as always—the real villain we should be worried about is Uncle Sam:
[S]tate secrecy is anathema to a free society. Why exactly should Americans be prevented from knowing what their government is doing in their name?
In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth. In a society where truth becomes treason, however, we are in big trouble. The truth is that our foreign spying, meddling, and outright military intervention in the post–World War II era has made us less secure, not more […]
The neoconservative ethos, steeped in the teaching of Leo Strauss, cannot abide an America where individuals simply pursue their own happy, peaceful, prosperous lives. It cannot abide an America where society centers around family, religion, or civic and social institutions rather than an all-powerful central state. There is always an enemy to slay, whether communist or terrorist. In the neoconservative vision, a constant state of alarm must be fostered among the people to keep them focused on something greater than themselves – namely their great protector, the state. This is why the neoconservative reaction to the WikiLeaks revelations is so predictable: “See, we told you the world was a dangerous place,” goes the story. They claim we must prosecute – or even assassinate – those responsible for publishing the leaks. And we must redouble our efforts to police the world by spying and meddling better, with no more leaks.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsrealblog.com ...
Actually, it's a dangerous world out there and Ron is part of the reason foreign dictators think we'll always walk away and leave things to them.
He and his running dog lackeys give hope to evil people.
And yeah, his little buddy Assange is an enemy combatant ~ someone who should be shot if he escapes.
Ron Paul is not an anti-American. Though Paul is right about so many matters pertaining to free market economics, I agree with you that he is badly misguided on a lot of foreign policy and defense issues. It's hard to fathom how someone who truly "gets it" about the self interest of individuals in the marketplace can exhibit such naivete when it comes to the hostile outside world. In some ways Ron Paul is a nut, but he is not anti-American.
Thanks for reminding me why I gave up political Libertarianism in college (albeit, I trend very Libertarian to Objectivist in personal beliefs).
They have no rationality (no matter what they claim) and their allegiance to whims undermines much of their claimed principles.
Well said.
He too often even undermines his own free-market economics statements from supporting Pork spending (with some twisted logic) and calling for an audit of the Fed while, at the same time writing a book calling to end it (thus risking the independent nature of an audit’s findings.) It is probably the result of having Lewellan Rockwell as a friend and adviser for all these decades.
I don't know about Ron Paul's motivation, but he does run with Lew Rockwell -- and I know several people who know Rockwell personally. What's troubling to me about these people is that no matter what the issue, it seems eventually to always come down those pesky Joos. Rockwell and the Mises Institute have a great forum for sound economic theory, but I just can't put up with their uber-Catholic problem with Jews.
“What Motivates Radical Libertarians’ Blind Allegiance to Anti-Government Thugs Like Julian Assange?”
Simple. These are not libertarians but anarchists.
Obviously, the Wikileaks have not received Congressional hearings to determine the damage that has been done to our military and diplomacy across the globe. No doubt that our national security interests abroad has been damaged by the exposure of classified cable traffic.
Once agin BO Plenty, our first Muslim president, has done nothing to plug the leaks in our secure communications systems. The reason must be obvious: BO Plenty wants it that way so he can justify his anti-American image abroad, especially to our enemies that are killing American service personnel every day.
Republican leadership should make Congressional hearings on Wikileaks a priority issue when the new Congress meets in January. This Wikileaks issue could be a potential impeachable charge against BO Plenty as Commander in Chief, and responsible for maintaining secure communications.
Anyone here who'd like to speak for the author, please also describe specifically what Assange's most heinous release of information constituted.
When did criticizing one’s own government become an act of treason?
I think it is perfectly logical to assume that the majority of our founding fathers would support WikiLeaks if they were alive today.
Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, etc, etc all had writings that today would be considered anarchist in nature. The Declaration of Independence itself is a very radical document that declares the people have a right to overthrow their government. That is an anarchist document.
“God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13 states independent 11 years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.”
-Thomas Jefferson
How much more anarchist can you get? Many in this forum would be calling Thomas Jefferson a traitor as well if he were alive today.
You guys need to understand that the American government can become a tyranny at any time. And the people need to be well informed. They need to understand that history is not on the side of liberty. We are one death away on the Supreme Court from the far-left taking control of total interpreation of the Constitution.
When the conservative movement became hijacked by proto-fascism.
This has nothing at all to do with criticizing government, at that, it is a straw man to distract from what Assange really is. He is a foreign entity who engages in acts of espionage and entices American citizens to commit treason.
This isn’t about ‘criticizing’ the government, it is about stealing private property and government information and supplying it to our enemies. Assange isn’t even just some ‘journalist’ as some claim- he, himself is a pretty famous hacker who has been a thorn in the NSA’s backside.
Here is a hint, hacking is willful theft and destruction of property- in this case, by a foreign entity.
As for what the founding fathers would have done with someone like Assange or the little punk he got to steal government secrets- well, I think we can look to what they did with Benedict Arnold, they would have hung him by the neck until dead.
Keep on cheering Assange or his cohorts- I think it is safe to bet you would have cheered the Rosenbergs or Robert Hanssen who also who were just making sure the government ‘didn’t keep secrets’.
Ping of interest regarding something that smells like wild shrimp on thread.
Excellent post. Ron Paul seems to be the only Republican that understands that our freedoms are being eroded not by leaks or foreign policy or what absurd war we will fight next. The coming debacle IMO is the monetary policy of the US. RP understands this and will not lick the boots of the bankers.
Get back to me when you have read the Federalist Papers.
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary -- H.L. Mencken
L
Why don't you take a gander at the anti-Federalist papers and tell us who had the correct side of the argument.
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