This election season hasn’t been about Trump versus Biden. It hasn’t been about capitalism versus socialism.
It’s not even about liberty versus authority.
As I said in my last article this election is about a simple choice, facing a chaotic future with courage or fear.
Regardless of who wins, my many libertarian friends and colleagues are correct that the ship of state cannot and will not be turned at this point in any meaningful way.
There are forces at work which will unleash hell on earth if Trump wins, which he should.
If the past four years have taught us anything it should have taught us that.
What’s on the ballot tomorrow is something much larger, however, because hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and Europe are facing an existential choice on both sides of the power dynamic.
The People sense the closing off of escape routes by an oligarch class that rightly sees their institutional power waning in the face of rapid decentralization of information.
Because of this, an inevitable power struggle has ensued. This election has taken on a quality that transcends the practical nature of elections — who will run the consensual hallucination that is the State.
The Davos Crowd is in full control at the moment in Europe and attempting The Black Revolution here in the U.S. They will enact as much of their Great Reset as they can and play every card in their hand and dirty trick in their bag to achieve it.
This election is a nexus, a singularity, that has become an opportunity for an inflection point in history, one where ideas that were forced into the fringe of the political discourse during the last cycle have the opportunity for a real audience in the next one.
And the question I have for libertarians is, “Are you ready to lead or are you going to sit aloof, arms folded, and miss your chance?”
From what I’ve seen so far it’s not promising.
Donald Trump is no Ron Paul, but, honestly, libertarian commentators were moaning about Ron in 2008 and 2012. He didn’t pass the purity test they said and he was encouraging people into the vortex of politics.
That was the wrong read then and it’s the wrong read now.
As Trump holds rally after rally around the country, bringing literally millions of people together a statement has been made.
Courage trumps fear.
Even Obama couldn’t pull crowds like Trump has. This is unprecedented in American politics.
I contend the symbolism of this election far outweighs all other considerations. There’s a spirit animating this election unlike any other I’ve witnessed because not of who Trump is but what he represents.
Earlier in the year, post-George Floyd, the picture was very different. It was much darker. BLM and Antifa, thanks to corporate sponsorship and billions in oligarch money, ran wild in the streets.
Dressed in black bloc, chanting slogans, throwing rocks, sucker-punching suburbanites and burning cities they took over the streets in a crude attempt to force change onto people already scared over a virus.
Videos of white people washing the feet of their new black masters were all over social media. Struggle sessions were brought to diners forced to eat outside thanks to stupid COVID-19 social distancing rules.
With government assistance (because communists can’t build anything of value on their own) they set up the CHAZ in Seattle and failed miserably in places like Atlanta.
All of these projects, however, lost their momentum the moment it became obvious Americans weren’t buying any of it.
They bought guns instead.
They may have bought guns out of fear, but they bought them anyway.
Marxism has been the dominant political philosophy of this past cycle, pushing the nascent ideas of extreme individualism to the fringe.
And it is reaching for the gold ring of ultimate power. The orgy of violence its adherents call for is here. There’s no avoiding it but it doesn’t have to become an all-consuming jihad against the human spirit like it has been in the past – think Cambodia, Vietnam, the U.S.S.R and, of course, Germany.
Millions of Americans saw this future and recoiled from it. Right into the arms of Donald Trump who preached faith in them.
That’s where these mind-blowing rallies, flotillas, caravans and spontaneous uprisings supporting Trump are coming from. Improperly harnessed, that energy can be turned into something truly ugly.
This should be the signal for libertarians to come down off their mountains and declare themselves ready to lead the restitution of culture and civilized behavior.
Marxism can’t bring anything except a few thousand paid agitators to politically-sympathetic jurisdictions to loot, steal and bully people.
The mere threat of liberty brings out millions to sing ‘God Bless America.”
Because the Trump movement is a celebration of that which should unite us — family, faith, community, dignity. After decades of the Marxists dividing us into ever smaller echo chambers we were supposed to be demoralized and beaten.
And judging from what I see from great thinkers like Robert Higgs I can only conclude they are just that, encouraging Ancaps to think this is a winning strategy.
This response is a defense mechanism of people without the capacity to lead.
Bob is right there are problems with Trump but where he sees dismay I see hope.
Why? Again, because this election isn’t about Trump or the State. It’s not about the nation. It’s about the assault on our communities, faith, family and sense of self.
It is an assault on the value of a human life.
And the question we are facing, imperfectly, is, “Are we the Last Man clinging to life like a barnacle in a violent sea or something greater; something with vitality, possessed with the spark of the creative, or even the divine?”
The people at those Trump rallies are anything but barnacles. And Twitter is full of supposed libertarians cynically reminding us that voting doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t, until it does.
For all his faults, Trump did what so many libertarians refuse to do, come off the mountain and lead. He could do this because Ron Paul motivated the people to declare they wanted some of what libertarians are selling.
In marketing terms these are ‘hot leads.’
And we don’t listen to them.
We talk at them, if not down to them.
We treat them exactly as Antifa and BLM treat those that don’t agree with them, as beneath them. People wonder why I hate the term, “sheeple.” Shouldn’t it be obvious? Because you don’t denigrate the people you’re trying to convince to buy what you’re selling.
So, my next question is, “Do you want to be right or do you want to help make a better world?”
If it’s the latter then realize the opportunity is here to direct that energy towards what comes next. What comes after the election will require leadership and skill. It will require patience, temperance and most importantly, courage.
It will require people willing to step up, be better and lead. And if you don’t like Trump’s leadership, fine. What will you do to counter it…. and posting memes on Twitter isn’t an answer.
Because even if we have the right ideas, we won’t be given that opportunity if we don’t first do the smallest thing we can do, stand next to them. Be a part of something not perpetually outside of it.
If that means voting, then vote. The symbolism should be clear enough.
It means stating without irony that the State is truly immoral but you voted anyway. Not because you love Trump, though he’s hilarious, but because you are willing to find common ground with people who you disagree with but who also stand athwart the tide of authoritarian control.
The people you are trying to persuade will respect you for that. The ideas you have will get a better audience.
I used to be that guy. I know what that looks like. Guess what? It looks an awful lot like despair.
And if that’s the best we libertarians have to offer, then this fight for the individual’s spirit, regardless of what happens in this election, is already over.
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Trump is no leader. He never even showed up for the job.
“…never even showed up for the job.”
Prove it.
I can list tens of examples of where and how this guy not only “showed up” for the job but got the job done.
Sealion somebody else child.
Completely agree Tom. I am continually irritated by the perfectionism of those ‘never vote’ exhortations. Clearly voting is not the only answer to our collective ills, but it makes no sense to throw away what can be powerful weapon. One only needs to think of the geopolitical implications of Killary to understand that.
Your vote matters. Vote Trump 2020 to stop communism in the USA.
https://www.culturecritique.com/politics/vote-trump-2020/
Tom – best article I’ve read in ages.
Preaching from their position of Sitting on the Fence – is hardly being the Man in the Fight.
This attitude is perhaps an egoic/narcissistic defence against having to take responsibility for taking action and later learning that one might have made a mistake.
So this perfectionism could be a fear of making mistakes & taking responsibility dressed in the Freudian defences of Intellectualization & Rationalization .
There could also be an element of conditioned traumatic Freeze response – attracting people with certain character structures to a (Utopian?) manner of thinking that has a cat’s chance in hell of coming to pass … and which deep down justifies neither Fight nor Flight. I see the same thing in people that like to meditate (dissociate) too much in order to deal with reality through the avoidance of taking action (been there myself).
There is no Courage in this form of “elevated thinking”.
To understand what is going on deeper in the psychology of the masses – we can look to Richard Schwartz work on Internal Family Systems in which he lays out how the Real-Self is buried beneath other personality parts (fractured through life experience) that are often diametrically polarized (freezing us through conflict) – this translates on a societal level & explains exactly the political divide we experience between Right & Left. (Broadly, The Right represses it’s Left Parts…and the Left represses it’s Right parts – meaning that we are at war with literally with ourselves). Clearly there needs to be an anchoring in Truth & Schwartz’s solution is “Self-Leadership” through rediscovering the Real-Self – then we De-Polarize these antagonistic parts of ourselves and return towards more harmony.
On a similar theme, Charles Konia’s book “Neither Left nor Right” has its roots in the work of Freud & Wilhelm Reich and explains the reason for there being a Left & a Right in the first place. (Reich leaned towards Marxism – but Konia has been a staunch supporter of Trump)
We need people like you to understand this stuff and write about it – it’s clear you can already see the need for genuine Leadership – but this starts in our individual psychology – and we need help getting there.
John,
I get it. Tune in to today’s podcast this afternoon when I publish it to get a sense of where this leadership may be coming from.
Tom L.
Excellent post. I have Libertarian leanings and I have found myself with my arms folded, as well, shaking my head. I’ve always liked Ron Paul and I was living in Texas, just outside of Austin, when his “Revolution” was happening. He’s a better commentator than Presidential material but, at least he isn’t in the corner with his arms folded. He certainly gets his message out his own way.
I went back & forth on voting. I was raised Southern Democrat but, realized in my 20s that they were lurching in a dark direction. I never considered myself a Republican but, when voting, I voted against the Democrat madness evey time. I’ve voted for many Libertarian & Constitutional candidates…even knowing they didn’t have a snowball’s chance.
I didn’t vote in the 2016 election. I would never vote for the evil I see in HRC but, I had no taste for Trump, either. This go ’round, I threw my hat in for him. He’s proven himself to be different & resilient. I guess Roy Cohn’s training has served him well…as has a rather tight family unit. And, if nothing else, he loves his country. I can’t fault him for that. We shall see how things go in the coming weeks.
Its not easy to get past that. Voting isn’t a contract or anything. You aren’t marrying the person. You are making a tactical decision on who will loot you the least
Amen.
If people would have listened to the non-voters you wouldn’t be in this mess. You reap what you sow.
“A ballot is just a substitute for a bullet. If your vote isn’t backed by a bullet, it is meaningless. Without the bullet, people could ignore the election outcome. Voting would be pointless. Democracy has violence at its very core!” ~Muir Matteson, “The Nonviolent Zone”
“Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.” Herbert Marcuse
“Working within the system means to become a part of the system. When you go into the voting booth, the only meaningful significance that your action will have is to show that one more person supports the state”. ~Mark Davis
And this is exactly the kind of attitude I am lambasting. I used to be you, Ed. Quoting scripture doesn’t change what’s really happening. It’s not about the vote, it’s about being part of the group that will most likely come to the same conclusion you have… and you can’t do that standing on the sidelines like, frankly, a jackass.
You can be right and still not get what you want.
Thank you very much for the words of wisdom and your valuable perspective.
I could not bring myself to support Trump in 2016 because I thought I was too smart to fall for what seemed such an obvious, ridiculous choice. After proudly voting for Trump this year, I can honestly say that my motivation was not really driven by a higher level of intelligence, but more so by the fear of being rejected and ridiculed by those I once thought were worthy of earning respect.
Looking back, I remember how I always thought I was just so, so smart. I was in my early 30’s and was foolish enough to think that I had the combination of youthful passion and extreme intelligence that could defeat all that challenged my beliefs. I wasn’t smug about it like elite communist-types, but I certainly would have to admit that my arrogance would have certainly stoked division, not unification.
I’m 38 now, and I never approach anything with such an arrogant attitude. I certainly do not acquiesce to defeat in the presence of the fanatically religious fervor and intimidation tactics of regressive communists parading under the banner of “democrats,” but I still would try to find common ground if I could.
It seems so obvious to me that there is ample room for conservatives and libertarians to join forces under a common vision of what this country should strive to become just simply based on the fact that we value so much of the same things. These include many noble concepts like faith, family, individualism, skepticism of big government, etc. The power behind these unifying forces is far more powerful and flaws in our differences. However, I find myself doubting my optimism that this will occur from time to time. In my opinion, though I am more than willing to open up to the idea that I’m wrong, the greatest hindrance of any unification is being constantly hindered (especially in the social media universe) by those claiming to be libertarians, but in reality, are actually among the class of progressive rejects that were cast out of the group I would describe as the “sunshine and unicorns utopia.” I think I’m right to speculate that many of these people were prominent in the occupy wall street fanaticism of early Obama years.
Obviously, these people tend to align with libertarians over conservatives, but that is not because they believe in any libertarian philosophy (as a matter of fact, they are just as much pro-big government as any time in the past), but because their communist programming minsters of truth have completely convinced them that conservatives are the pinnacle off all things evil.
I hope that all the true libertarians of character will not stand for this nonsense within their ranks when it’s time to take a stand. I loved how you threw a subtle jab at those libertarians that believe meme war activism is not only embarrassingly dorky, but ultimately antithetical to virtues like intelligence, wisdom, and perspective. We all could a little slap in the face from time to time, especially when others can see clearly that we are acting immaturely.
Thank you very much for not painting Trump supporters with a broad brush, and choosing instead to see that we may even have highly admirable qualities. It means a lot to us, especially with the amount of hate media spews daily in our direction.
God Bless!
Higgs is correct. Leadership does not necessitate use of the state, a self-defeating strategy. Distributed mass non-cooperation will take down a state, imploding its resources. Leadership in this arena is what’s needed.
No. Higgs is wrong. He’s right that the state is the problem. But in a war you need allies and if you aren’t willing to hold out your hand and do the simplest thing to court those allies, then you are a tourist and of zero use. Clutch your anti-statist pearls all you want, you could have voted and stood next to the people who just had their worldview shattered. And you would have so much more cache with them to direct their anger. Now they’ll ignore you just as much as they hate the thieves.
So fucking sad.
No pearls here. It took every ounce of self-control not to attempt voting as means to take action. Something, anything to combat the leftist threat.
But am aware enough to step back and recognize the contextual incentives have been shrewdly orchestrated to ensure both sides feel so compelled. Rely upon them taking that bait. And in so using the state to go back-and-forth over the years, themselves become the engine driving the ever-expanding destruction of liberty.
Fight, yes. But fight a battle where when we win, we actually do win. If we fight by endorsing, expanding, and taking up right-wing authoritarianism, then when we win we actually lose. That makes statism more expansive, more entrenched, more powerful, more oppressive, in one-way fashion.
Why not write a series of articles on ways to fight that can achieve our actual goal of freedom? Ways to resist, thwart, and undermine the state, regardless of which stripe ruler heads it. So neither leftists nor rightists are able to use the state against us.
You are a fearless, insightful, resourceful thinker. I’ll bet you could devise truly innovative approaches incorporating many-fold leverage which the common man could take up to erode and undermine state means and reach.
Higgs in an idiot masquerading as a noble servant of the intelligentsia. Putting yourself on a mantle above former allies by bragging about your own virtue is how lifelong losers remain stuck in lifelong losing battles.
You would be wise to not suffer the same folly of a man you can count on to always be quietly sitting on the sideline.
History has always, and will always, men not afraid to act.
As a long time libertarian voting for every libertarian presidential candidate since 1980, I voted for Trump, simply because Trump is the most libertarian candidate in my lifetime. Even though my state is blue and Biden won it. Trump obviously believes in the rule of law, having demonstrated fealty to the law. And Trump believes in free markets (even though he’s using foreign trade tariffs, because he said he’d like no tariffs by anyone). And Trump has demonstrated fealty to freedom of speech, by not restricting speech (even though the liberal MSM would have you think Trump’s attacks on propaganda masquerading as journalism are an attack on freedom of speech).
That was well written.
Conservative here, I came upon this this site from an article at Zero Hedge written by Tom advocating secession over armed conflict. This Idea has intrigued me for quite some time. I also believed that the current tyranny we live under, the Feds, borrowing money in the name of or children and grandchildren in order to buy the votes of the lazy and immoral, providing them with a cushy life through S.S. and Medicare which they claimed to have paid for but was spent by the politicians they elected to keep from being excoriated in the commie news media for being callus and uncaring of the poor starving children of crack addicts that spent their ADC on, well crack, is the result of the result of the Civil War which made secession a mortal sin. I would prefer a world we could all live in if we just were willing to apply ourselves to a little wealth creation. My problem with libertarians is I hear a lot of talk about open borders, our elites tried to look the other way on border enforcement for the last 30 years, legalizing soft and hard drugs for everyone, recreational marijana is now legal here in Michigan, a lay down and spread your legs trade policy, have that with totalitarian state that does not have laws that care nearly as much about the environment as ours, but I don’t hear much about how you are going to get all the immoral selfish people to vote to eliminate the welfare state. It was Milton Freidman that said ‘you can’t have open borders and a welfare state’ was it not? I would like the Cato institute to take up the problem of how to pull off a parting of the ways with the zombie SJW useful idiots instead of how to provide the CCP with better access to U.S. markets. Or maybe the CCP is paying the bills at Cato? Inquiring minds would like to know.
CATO was taken over by the Koch Brothers in the 1980’s and has, for all intents and purposes, co-opted it and neutered it.
FYI, I’m not one of those ‘open borders’ libertarians. And it’s the one issue that separates libertarians who believe in private property and defense from leftists playing games. It’s always a serious issue amongst the doctrinaire.
Open borders is an outgrowth of people living according to the NAP, not something you impose on them. It’s a subtle point many conservatives miss and many libertarians gloss over.
I wrote a piece recently on this issue after doing a podcast with the Conservative Hippie you may find interesting.
https://tomluongo.me/2020/10/20/about-two-years-anarchy-capitalism/
I hope this you find this helpful. Thanks for reading, the great and thoughtful comment and have a wonderful Christmas.