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As the reader will discover, Mr. Hartmann has no idea what libertarians believe. He doesn't understand the Reagan phenomena. He doesn't know anything about what motivates his ideological opponents.
Libertarianism as a group has little influence on government. They're numerically small. And, libertarianism is not a governmental system, it is a philosophy regarding the exercise of power as it relates to personal liberty.
Also, almost none of the people he mentions are libertarian. We haven't had a libertarian government for 150 years. Nowhere in the world are there enough libertarians in elected office to affect the possesses of any government. So to blame our present problems on a philosophy that does not wield the reigns of power in this country is puerile.
It's people like him who hold the power in our government. The Bidens, Pelosis, Schumers, and AOCs of government are the ones who are responsible for our current state. They are in the majority, and with brief exceptions, have been in the majority for the last hundred years.
They are to blame, not libertarians. They have made the decisions, cast the votes, and spent the money. They are the ones who emptied the nation's coffers, created unrest, fomented discontent, and pushed people into groups that are then pitted against one another.
Not libertarians.
But the real problem here is that Mr. Hartmann is a doctrinaire leftist, using all the agitprop techniques he has at his disposal. His article is not written to inform, but rather to further the leftist agenda. That is his only goal, to manipulate opinion, to sway the minds of the uninformed, and to repeat the same bumper sticker slogans day after day.
Once we understand this, it all begins to make sense. With the blizzard of assertions and factoids, the average person simply cannot keep up with and refute each one. And tomorrow will be a new day, with the exact same blizzard of falsities and invented history repeated as if they're documented fact.
So refuting people like him is a waste of time, because he'll wake up tomorrow morning, sit down at his computer, open up his copy of Leftist Talking Points and dutifully type them into his word processor, just like he did today and yesterday and the day before.
So, we will rebut Mr. Hartmann for as long as we are able to hold up against the rhetorical onslaught.
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First, Michigan's Republican Governor (Conflating Republicans with libertarians.)
First, Michigan's Republican Governor (Conflating Republicans with libertarians.)
ended the power of cities to govern themselves, replacing them with "emergency managers" and producing the Flint water crisis. (?? The city of Flint decided to obtain its water from a different source. That water was chemically different than the water they previously used, which eroded the coating inside the lead water pipes. The City of Flint is and was governed by Democrats.)
Now the Republicans who run Tennessee are trying a similar trick, wanting to defy the voters to take over the town of Mason in that state. (???? How is this similar? And what does any of this have to do with libertarianism?)
Now the Republicans who run Tennessee are trying a similar trick, wanting to defy the voters to take over the town of Mason in that state. (???? How is this similar? And what does any of this have to do with libertarianism?)
As the headline at the Tennessee Lookout (Broken link. Correct link.) newspaper notes:
"State officials ask residents of a small, predominantly Black town near the site of new Ford investment to forfeit their city charter or face takeover." (The Tennessee State Comptroller claims the town has mismanaged its finances for years. The Town's mayor disagrees. The fact that there's a disagreement between the Republicans and Democrats involved is not evidence of anything.)
The GOP has gone all libertarian, (We are beginning to doubt Mr. Hartmann's thinking skills. He provides two examples of supposed malfeasance by Republicans regarding the exercise of power, and claims these things prove Republican are going libertarian. This doesn't make any sense at all. Libertarians by definition are opposed to the arbitrary use of government power.
"State officials ask residents of a small, predominantly Black town near the site of new Ford investment to forfeit their city charter or face takeover." (The Tennessee State Comptroller claims the town has mismanaged its finances for years. The Town's mayor disagrees. The fact that there's a disagreement between the Republicans and Democrats involved is not evidence of anything.)
The GOP has gone all libertarian, (We are beginning to doubt Mr. Hartmann's thinking skills. He provides two examples of supposed malfeasance by Republicans regarding the exercise of power, and claims these things prove Republican are going libertarian. This doesn't make any sense at all. Libertarians by definition are opposed to the arbitrary use of government power.
It is Leftists who unilaterally take control of things, like 6 city blocks in Seattle, the healthcare system, retirement funds, the girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, lightbulbs, the airwaves, etc etc. Leftists invade, corrupt, and eventually destroy everything they touch.
We are suspecting that Mr. Hartmann is an example of Mountainman's Law.)
and libertarians don't believe in democracy, (??? It should now be clear that Mr. Hartmann doesn't understand libertarians. Or perhaps, he is engaging in agitprop, a typical leftist smokescreen technique.
In any case, it is easy enough to ascertain what libertarians believe by simply reading their explanations, which we doubt Mr. Hartman has done. This link makes the obvious point that democracy is a system of government, whereas libertarianism is a philosophy regarding how the power of government should be wielded, regardless of the system of government.)
which they say should be replaced by "the magic of the marketplace" (Mr. Hartmann puts this phrase in quotes as if some libertarian has said this. We were unable to find any libertarian website containing this or a similar phrase.
And once again Mr. Hartmann demonstrates his ignorance. He has a propensity to conflate and manipulate concepts in order to create his narrative. We would hope this is from ignorance and not malicious, but we have little confidence this is so.
"The marketplace" is an economic concept, not a political one. Libertarianism may speak to the marketplace, but it is in always terms of freedom of association and personal liberty.)
- or at least the "magic" of people made rich by the marketplace. (Mr. Hartmann now descends into Marxist sloganeering.)
Here's the one question that always stops libertarians dead in their tracks when they come on or call into my radio/TV program to proclaim the wonders of their political ideology:
"Please name one country, anywhere in the world, any time in the last 7000 years, where libertarianism has succeeded and produced general peace and prosperity?" (The United States for the first hundred years or so.
We should reverse the question: Name one country where Marxism, Socialism, communism, or central control has succeeded.)
There literally is none. Nowhere. Not a single one. It has never happened. Ever. (Which of course is false. But the rarity of governance with a libertarian orientation is itself a concept worthy of discussion. The governmental history of the world is a story of tyranny, kingdoms and tribes, oppression, dictatorship, and slavery. It is only in the last few hundred years that the idea of self-determination, self governance, and personal liberty have emerged. Such ideas are revolutionary in history.
There literally is none. Nowhere. Not a single one. It has never happened. Ever. (Which of course is false. But the rarity of governance with a libertarian orientation is itself a concept worthy of discussion. The governmental history of the world is a story of tyranny, kingdoms and tribes, oppression, dictatorship, and slavery. It is only in the last few hundred years that the idea of self-determination, self governance, and personal liberty have emerged. Such ideas are revolutionary in history.
So it only makes sense that a recent development would have very few manifestations. The natural state of men and government is the accumulation and retention of power. Libertarianism is diametrically opposed to that. Mr. Hartmann is in favor of that, but only if his people wield it.
So it has been an uphill battle for libertarians, because those in power do not willingly give it up.)
If it had, that country would be on the tip of every Libertarian's tongue, the way Democratic Socialists talk about Scandinavia where the full-on Social Democracy and regulated capitalism experiment has succeeded for generations. (Success is a matter of perspective, for a lot of Swedes and Finns are reeling under the weight of their Social Democracies.
If it had, that country would be on the tip of every Libertarian's tongue, the way Democratic Socialists talk about Scandinavia where the full-on Social Democracy and regulated capitalism experiment has succeeded for generations. (Success is a matter of perspective, for a lot of Swedes and Finns are reeling under the weight of their Social Democracies.
And it is important to note that the "success" of Social Democracy in Scandinavia could not have happened without the prior success of capitalism, which laid the crucial groundwork. Social Democracy can only be built once a country has already created wealth via the free market, because if there is nothing to redistribute, there is no Social Democracy.)
Doing my show from Copenhagen a few years ago, I had one of that nation's top conservative politicians on.
"So, you're one of the nation's leading conservatives," I said. "I guess that means you want to privatize Denmark's national healthcare system?"
He blinked a few times, incredulous, and then said, bluntly, "Are you crazy?" (Anecdotal evidence based on one man's opinion.)
There are, of course, examples of governments that intentionally or unintentionally operate broadly along libertarian lines. (Waaait. Didn't Mr. Hartmann just tell us this has never happened? He will now cite some examples, none of which are actually founded on libertarian principles. This is another example of how leftists shift and manipulate concepts in order to serve the narrative.)
Back in the 1980s when I was setting up international relief projects with the S alem organization based out of West Germany, I worked in several such countries.
They were places where the government's only real function is to run the army, police and the courts, just like libertarians say America should be run. No social safety net, no Social Security, no national healthcare, no or few state-funded public schools, no publicly funded infrastructure of any consequence.
In 2008, talkshow host Joe Madison ("The Black Eagle" on SiriusXM daily) and I saw how this worked in South Sudan on the border of Darfur as the northern Sudan government was burning people out of their homes and the group we were with was flooded by tens of thousands of refugees. (South Sudan was not founded until 2011. It seems Mr. Hartmann has a problem with either the truth or his memory.)
It was similar to what I saw in 1980 in Uganda when I was working there at the end of the Tanzanian war to expel Idi Amin. (Idi Amin, a dictator, was a libertarian? Whaaaat?)
In parts of Colombia (Um, a dictatorship.)
They were places where the government's only real function is to run the army, police and the courts, just like libertarians say America should be run. No social safety net, no Social Security, no national healthcare, no or few state-funded public schools, no publicly funded infrastructure of any consequence.
In 2008, talkshow host Joe Madison ("The Black Eagle" on SiriusXM daily) and I saw how this worked in South Sudan on the border of Darfur as the northern Sudan government was burning people out of their homes and the group we were with was flooded by tens of thousands of refugees. (South Sudan was not founded until 2011. It seems Mr. Hartmann has a problem with either the truth or his memory.)
It was similar to what I saw in 1980 in Uganda when I was working there at the end of the Tanzanian war to expel Idi Amin. (Idi Amin, a dictator, was a libertarian? Whaaaat?)
In parts of Colombia (Um, a dictatorship.)
later that decade, after a bomb went off just a block from where we were working, I heard stories of middle-class men in the next neighborhood over who'd an organized urban "hunt club," complete with logos and patches, using high-powered rifles to pursue what they described as "feral children."
Kidnapping was also a major industry in Colombia then: a friend in Bogota was kidnapped and repeatedly raped while her husband, forced to listen to her screams on the phone, frantically tried to raise enough money to pay her ransom. I later met with them both and heard the story firsthand.
In those countries that, because of corruption, civil war, or oligarcic ideology are run along Ayn Rand/Rand Paul libertarian lines, (Waaaait. Now we see where Mr. Hartmann gets his thinking. If there are bad roads or no universal healthcare, that is libertarian. However, "libertarian" does not mean "no services" or "bad roads." It most certainly doesn't mean oligarchy or dictatorship. The libertarian dedication to personal liberty and limited government serves as a damper on government corruption, because a limited government is of limited corruptibility.
Kidnapping was also a major industry in Colombia then: a friend in Bogota was kidnapped and repeatedly raped while her husband, forced to listen to her screams on the phone, frantically tried to raise enough money to pay her ransom. I later met with them both and heard the story firsthand.
In those countries that, because of corruption, civil war, or oligarcic ideology are run along Ayn Rand/Rand Paul libertarian lines, (Waaaait. Now we see where Mr. Hartmann gets his thinking. If there are bad roads or no universal healthcare, that is libertarian. However, "libertarian" does not mean "no services" or "bad roads." It most certainly doesn't mean oligarchy or dictatorship. The libertarian dedication to personal liberty and limited government serves as a damper on government corruption, because a limited government is of limited corruptibility.
Libertarians are not anarchists. Libertarians believe in limited government, not no government.
Previously we began to doubt his thinking skills. Now we are sure of it.
We also note that Rand Paul is the only person Mr. Hartmann will cite who is actually a libertarian. This is what we mean by having the power to implement policy. Paul is the only self-avowed libertarian in elected federal office. He can't possibly be to blame for all the failures of big government.
In fact, the blame for our country's mess needs to be laid squarely at the feet of those who are in power: Democrats and their squishy Republican enablers.)
the roads, utilities and housing are fine in small, wealthy neighborhoods that can provide for themselves, but the rest of the country is potholed and dark and people often have to walk miles to get firewood, food, and fresh water every day. (This has nothing at all to do with libertarianism. In fact, such things definitely characterize Marxism and big government.)
There are few or no taxes for the very rich in such countries, and no resources at all for the very poor except those provided by international relief agencies like the one I worked with. (Now libertarianism is where the rich aren't taxed. It keeps getting worse and worse.)
We generally referred to those countries as "failed states." Rand Paul would probably describe them as "Libertarian paradises," (He finally descends into idiocy.)
There are few or no taxes for the very rich in such countries, and no resources at all for the very poor except those provided by international relief agencies like the one I worked with. (Now libertarianism is where the rich aren't taxed. It keeps getting worse and worse.)
We generally referred to those countries as "failed states." Rand Paul would probably describe them as "Libertarian paradises," (He finally descends into idiocy.)
as his father advocated when, during a presidential primary debate, he said people shouldn't be let into hospital emergency rooms unless they can pay. (It's hard to keep up with the swerves and rabbit trails...)
"That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks," Paul said. (Again we note the use of agitprop. Mr. Hartmann is a clumsy manipulator of ideas, for when we go to the link we discover another story:
"That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks," Paul said. (Again we note the use of agitprop. Mr. Hartmann is a clumsy manipulator of ideas, for when we go to the link we discover another story:
"Are you saying that society should just let him die?" Blitzer pressed Paul..."No," he responded, noting he practiced medicine before Medicaid when churches took care of medical costs--a comment that drew wide audience applause. "We never turned anybody away from the hospital."
Oops.)
No country has ever succeeded when its government has suffered the fate that multimillionaire K Street Lobbyist Grover Norquist (Another swerve. Hold on to your hats.
And by the way, Norquist is not libertarian.)
wished on America when he famously told NPR, "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
That's what Texas did when they split their grid away from the rest of America to avoid regulation of their power industry. (Another swerve. This all seems like a collection of disconnected phrases, as if Mr. Hartmann is surfing leftist websites for things to copy and paste.)
That's what Texas did when they split their grid away from the rest of America to avoid regulation of their power industry. (Another swerve. This all seems like a collection of disconnected phrases, as if Mr. Hartmann is surfing leftist websites for things to copy and paste.)
The lie of libertarian policies was on vivid display when Texans died from hypothermia (This is not a manifestation of libertarianism, for there aren't enough libertarians in Texas government to affect anything.)
while Ted Cruz fled to Cancun. (Ted Cruz is not a libertarian. And what he did or did not do is irrelevant to a power grid. And no mention of the state Democratic congresspersons of Texas who fled their state [without masks], to avoid a vote.)
And then Texas families who survived the bitter cold got $3,000 to $17,000 power bill s after the freeze left, because of magical deregulated "free markets" for power in that state. (We are growing weary of chasing every little rabbit trail and idiotic assertion. For some reason, Mr. Hartmann is unable or unwilling to understand the difference between different political philosophies, parties, and economic theories.)
The libertarian streak in GOP politics was on vivid display when the power went down and the now-resigned Republican Mayor of Colorado City, Texas, Tim Boyd, posted to Facebook: (This man is not a libertarian.)
"No one owes you are (sic) your family anything; nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it's your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I'm sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!
"If you don't have electricity you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. If you have no water you deal without and think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family.
"If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your (sic) lazy is direct result of your raising! Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish (sic)."
This has been the Republican mantra ever since the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. (Hmm. Back to Republicans. Republicans are not libertarians.)
It's what Trump (Trump is not a libertarian.)
And then Texas families who survived the bitter cold got $3,000 to $17,000 power bill s after the freeze left, because of magical deregulated "free markets" for power in that state. (We are growing weary of chasing every little rabbit trail and idiotic assertion. For some reason, Mr. Hartmann is unable or unwilling to understand the difference between different political philosophies, parties, and economic theories.)
The libertarian streak in GOP politics was on vivid display when the power went down and the now-resigned Republican Mayor of Colorado City, Texas, Tim Boyd, posted to Facebook: (This man is not a libertarian.)
"No one owes you are (sic) your family anything; nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it's your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I'm sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!
"If you don't have electricity you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. If you have no water you deal without and think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family.
"If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your (sic) lazy is direct result of your raising! Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish (sic)."
This has been the Republican mantra ever since the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. (Hmm. Back to Republicans. Republicans are not libertarians.)
It's what Trump (Trump is not a libertarian.)
tried to do to our public health agencies when he first came into office and shut down Obama's pandemic response operations in both the National Security Council and the Department of Homeland Security. As a result, almost a million Americans have died of Covid and millions more are disabled for life. (Um, right. It's all Trump's fault. Who is president again? Isn't is a senile old man named Biden? Mr. Hartmann doubtless is unaware of the fact that more people died of COVID in 2021 than in 2020. Who were the presidents in these years?
Further, it is nothing more than a leftist talking point to blame Trump. The reality is, he pushed for the vaccines and got them done in record time.)
When George W. Bush (Not a libertarian.)
When George W. Bush (Not a libertarian.)
put a Republican-donor horse show judge in charge of FEMA's disaster response, his libertarian attitude pretty much guaranteed thousands of people would die in Hurricane Katrina: "Heckuva job, Brownie."
The Bush administration also defunded food safety enforcement and the predictable result was an increase in food-borne sickness and death.
At the behest of fossil-fuel billionaire libertarians, Republicans have fought any regulation of the fossil fuel industry for 40 years; the result is climate wilding that's devastating our country from California to Texas to the Midwest to Miami Beach. (We are just about done with Mr. Hartmann. Environmental laws have been in existence for decades, and the standards have been raised inexorably. California is the most severe regarding the environment, implementing draconian measures to point of totalitarianism. Yet Mr. Hartmann names California as suffering the fate of Republican regulatory cuts. Whaaaat?)
Mitch McConnell and Republicans in the US House and Senate argue that giving a $2 trillion tax cut to billionaires was an appropriate thing for government to do (even though it jacked up the national debt), but Build Back Better to help out average Americans is, they say, a crime against our republic. (Ok, that's it. We're done.)
The Bush administration also defunded food safety enforcement and the predictable result was an increase in food-borne sickness and death.
At the behest of fossil-fuel billionaire libertarians, Republicans have fought any regulation of the fossil fuel industry for 40 years; the result is climate wilding that's devastating our country from California to Texas to the Midwest to Miami Beach. (We are just about done with Mr. Hartmann. Environmental laws have been in existence for decades, and the standards have been raised inexorably. California is the most severe regarding the environment, implementing draconian measures to point of totalitarianism. Yet Mr. Hartmann names California as suffering the fate of Republican regulatory cuts. Whaaaat?)
Mitch McConnell and Republicans in the US House and Senate argue that giving a $2 trillion tax cut to billionaires was an appropriate thing for government to do (even though it jacked up the national debt), but Build Back Better to help out average Americans is, they say, a crime against our republic. (Ok, that's it. We're done.)
(...)
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