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Mr. Hartmann apparently has nothing new to offer since large portions of this article are simply lifted from another article he wrote for this very same website in March of 2022.
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. In fact, no where will he mention a single tenet of libertarianism.
Despite him heaping all blame on libertarianism for the problems in the country, it has little influence on government. Libertarians numerically small. Virtually nothing in government happens according to libertarian principles.
Further, 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 will mention 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 processes of any government. So to blame our present problems on a philosophy that is a non-factor is puerile.
It's people like Mr. Hartmann who hold the power in our government. The Bidens, Pelosis, Schumers, and AOCs of government, the far Left, the extreme progressives, 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. In fact, if there was a poison creeping into America, it would be Marxism dressed up in something called progressivism.
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. In fact, he didn't even bother to rewrite today's slogans, he simply republished an article he had already written.
So, despite the futility we will rebut Mr. Hartmann for as long as we are able to hold up against the rhetorical onslaught.
Now that Robert Kennedy Jr. says, "I've always been aligned with libertarians on most issues" let's look at how libertarianism would work out in America, and where it came from in the first place... (The hated Kennedy, a Democrat whose sole sin is to not toe the leftist line, is the first up for attack.)
Anti-vaxxer hero and Democratic primary nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. says, according to news reports:
"I've always been aligned with libertarians on most issues."
Bobby, of course, isn't the only one. It's high fashion across the GOP to claim your Libertarian credentials; Ron (and now Rand) Paul turned it into a moneymaking scam, (Undocumented claim. And by the way, leftists have been using elected office as a money making scheme for decades. Be assured that when a leftist accuses someone of wrongdoing, they are doing that very thing themselves.)
Anti-vaxxer hero and Democratic primary nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. says, according to news reports:
"I've always been aligned with libertarians on most issues."
Bobby, of course, isn't the only one. It's high fashion across the GOP to claim your Libertarian credentials; Ron (and now Rand) Paul turned it into a moneymaking scam, (Undocumented claim. And by the way, leftists have been using elected office as a money making scheme for decades. Be assured that when a leftist accuses someone of wrongdoing, they are doing that very thing themselves.)
and most all of the Putin Caucus in the GOP (Our first evidence that Mr. Hartmann has no idea what libertarianism is. Putin is a dictator, and libertarians most preeminently are against the accumulation of power. So to attempt to equate a tyrant with a group who is anti-tyrant is simply stupid.)
love to talk up libertarianism, as do multiple rightwing billionaires. Senator Mike Lee proclaims himself a Libertarian, and has for years.
We see it writ large in the rhetoric of Republican members of Congress and conservative pundits who argue that shutting the government down is a good thing, because most government functions are "unnecessary" or "woke." (This is certainly true, but who says it? Names, please.
We see it writ large in the rhetoric of Republican members of Congress and conservative pundits who argue that shutting the government down is a good thing, because most government functions are "unnecessary" or "woke." (This is certainly true, but who says it? Names, please.
And by the way, why is it that when leftists resist conservative issues and shut down the government it is conservatives who always get the blame?)
So let's take a look at how libertarianism would work out in America, and where it came from in the first place.
Generally speaking, 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.
So let's take a look at how libertarianism would work out in America, and where it came from in the first place.
Generally speaking, 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. Hartmann 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 running the country's essential services. (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?" (We can. The United States for the first hundred years or so.
There literally is none. Nowhere. Not a single one. It has never happened. Ever. (Which of course is false.
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?" (We can. 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 libertarian governance is itself a concept worthy of discussion. The governmental history of the world is one long story of tyranny, 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. Thus the American experiment, with its assertions of freedom, God-given rights including speech, association, and religion, was entirely novel.
If it had, that country would be on the tip of every Libertarian's tongue, the way Democratic Socialists talk about Norway or Denmark where the full-on Social Democracy and regulated capitalism experiment has succeeded for generations. (Success is a matter of perspective, especially since Socialists cannot be relied upon to tell the truth. For a lot of Swedes and Finns, the weight of their Social Democracies is becoming too much to bear.
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. Back in the 1980s when I was setting up international relief projects with the Salem organization based out of West Germany, I worked in several such countries. (Waaait. Didn't Mr. Hartmann just tell us there are no libertarian countries? 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.)
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, my friend and colleague 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 Sudanese 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.)
So it only makes sense that a recent development of libertarianism 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 more power for his side. He wants people controlled, silenced, and conformed.
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 Norway or Denmark where the full-on Social Democracy and regulated capitalism experiment has succeeded for generations. (Success is a matter of perspective, especially since Socialists cannot be relied upon to tell the truth. For a lot of Swedes and Finns, the weight of their Social Democracies is becoming too much to bear.
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 Democracies can only be built once countries has already created prosperity 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. Back in the 1980s when I was setting up international relief projects with the Salem organization based out of West Germany, I worked in several such countries. (Waaait. Didn't Mr. Hartmann just tell us there are no libertarian countries? 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.)
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, my friend and colleague 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 Sudanese 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 an 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 oligarchic ideology are run along Ayn Rand/Rand Paul libertarian lines, (Waaaait. Libertarianism has nothing to do with oligarchy or dictatorship. That is completely on the other side of the political spectrum, the side Mr. Hartmann occupies.
The libertarian dedication to personal liberty and limited government, if ever embraced, 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 self-identifies as 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 Mr. Hartmann's failed 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 wealthy neighborhoods that can provide for themselves, but the rest of the country is potholed and dark, while everyday 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 ironically 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 makes his final descent 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 makes his final descent 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," Ron 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.)
"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.)
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 by going to Cancun 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 bills 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 with out 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 libertarian world-view has been foundational to and at the core of the Republican mantras of austerity and "self reliance" ever since the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. (Hmm. Back to Republicans. Republicans are not libertarians.)
It's what Trump tried to do (Trump is not a libertarian.)
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.)
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. We can only endure to scattershot rhetoric and bumper sticker slogans for so long. We shall cease commenting at this point.)
Americans, increasingly, are figuring out the damage this failed 40-year-long libertarian experiment has done to our nation, which is why people are leaving the Republican Party in droves.
There is, however, one group that is still quite enamored of libertarianism: rightwing billionaires and the corporations that made them rich. And quite a few of them have spent the past decades shoveling cash into the Republican Party, with no sign of a letup to this day.
They set up think tanks and fund hundreds of college professors nationwide to preach their libertarian ideology, and often dominate internet searches because of their thousands of organizations and "news" sites.
They create phony grassroots organizations and get deluded middle-class white people to show up with signs like, "Keep Your Damn Government Hands Off My Medicare!"
They set up organizations nationwide and in every state to bring Republican legislators together with lobbyists to craft libertarian "corporate friendly" legislation that consistently enriches the top 1% and screws average Americans.
They proclaim the wonders of "small government" and "fiscal responsibility," code words for gutting the protective functions traditionally performed by government and replacing them with "charity" and corporate sponsorships.
And Republican politicians live in fear today of doing anything that might cause government to actually help the American people, because those same libertarian billionaires and corporations who fund their campaigns are more than happy to destroy them politically when they stray.
Despite all the obvious disasters and widespread public opposition, they're still intent on America being their grand experiment to prove that at leastone country can operate along libertarian lines.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s when Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand were first pitching this ideology (then called neoliberalism and objectivism) as a way to bring "freedom" to America, they were broadly ridiculed and ignored.
But the libertarian foundations and billionaires got into the act in the 1970s, along with the rightwing media organizations they were then building, putting Ronald Reagan into office and shaping his policies, sending America into a libertarian slide.
Forty years of the Reagan Revolution's libertarian experiment have brought us the predictable result:
historically low tax rates on corporations and billionaires
an impoverished middle-class
devastated labor unions
the highest rate of child poverty and maternal death in the developed world
millions without access to healthcare
one in seven American children going to bed hungry
our schools, roads, bridges and rail systems in shambles
Libertarianism is a poison that's crept into our society on the backs of rightwing billionaires like Libertarian David Koch, who ran for Vice President in 1980 on a platform of shutting down every government agency except the military, courts, and police.
But where did all this "greed is good" as a political philosophy start?
Believe it or not, it began in the 1950s with a corrupt real estate lobby, a brutal child murderer, and the young, idealistic Russian immigrant who fell in love with him. I'll tell you the rest of the story tomorrow.
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