Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site npois.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ahuta!npois!adam From: adam@npois.UUCP (Adam V. Reed) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: American Populist Party (DB's lie, and Libertarian view of) Message-ID: <268@npois.UUCP> Date: Sun, 7-Apr-85 21:08:42 EST Article-I.D.: npois.268 Posted: Sun Apr 7 21:08:42 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 9-Apr-85 01:42:16 EST References: <1508@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: ATTIS, Neptune, NJ Lines: 136 > This is no joke; we (the Populist Party) are serious. > We have state-level committees in all 50 states, > and the Libertarian party has endorsed our platform > at the national level. > --Don "The American Chauvinist" Black > Quote of the day: "Lies! Vicious lies!" As anyone who knows anything about Libertarianism, and has read Black's article will immediately guess, the above paragraph is indeed a vicious lie - no quotes needed. Not only did the Libertarian Party NOT endorse the "populist Party" platform, but everything in that platform is diametrically opposed to Libertarianism and to the Platform of the Libertarian Party. The National Committee of the Libertarian Party has recently circulated to all members of the Libertarian Party a reprint of an article about the Maddox-Lillie re-analysis of the political spectrum. According to this reanalysis, the traditional categories of "conservative" (economically libertarian, socially repressive) and "liberal" (socially libertarian, economically repressive) are increasingly inapplicable to Americans who consider themselves "Libertarian" (both economically and socially) or "Populist" (repressive and calling for government intervention in both economic and social matters). For those interested, here is a comparison of "Populist" and Libertarian positions: *POPULIST: REASSERT SOVEREIGNTY *LIBERTARIAN: Absolutely opposed to "sovereign immunity" and all other assertions of sovereignty. *POPULIST: REACTIVATE ANTI-USURY LAWS. Private lending agencies, if they are allowed to exist at all, should be strictly controlled by restored anti-usury laws. *LIBERTARIAN: Opposed to all government interference in economic matters. All lending agencies should be private, and not subject to any government control over interest rates or other economic matter. *POPULIST: ENACTMENT OF FAIR TARIFF LAWS. *LIBERTARIAN: Opposes quotas, tariffs, and all other government exactions and restrictions of trade. *POPULIST: Foreign ownership of land will be prohibited. *LIBERTARIAN: Opposes all restrictions on private ownership of land or any other property. *POPULIST: Hundreds of thousands of unemployed will be put to work rebuilding America's vital transportation and communications systems. *LIBERTARIAN: Opposed to "public works" and all other government "work" programs. Opposed to government involvement in transportation and communication systems. *POPULIST: Except for regulated public utilities, no business will be permitted to dominate the market. *LIBERTARIAN: Absolutely opposed to all government restrictions on business, including those promulgated under the guise of "regulating public utilities" or "preventing dominance in the market". *POPULIST: RESURRECT ANTI-DEGENERACY LAWS. America was founded on the values of traditional Christian morality. Until recently states and local governments and in some cases the national government were able to enact and enforce laws against pornography and lewdness. These powers should be reinstated. An immediate crackdown on illegal drugs .... will once again make our beloved country a safe and moral place for all law-abiding citizens. *LIBERTARIAN: Absolutely opposed to government regulation of sexual or any other consensual behavior among individuals and private organizations. Absolutely opposed to government involvement in decisions of individuals with respect to their use of their own bodies, including the use of recreational or any other drugs. *POPULIST: REJECT ERA AND GAY RIGHTS. Legally women already have more rights than men, and that is the way the Populist Party intends to keep it. Homosexuality is not only immoral, it is perversion, and should not be recognized as a legitimate life style .... The Populist Party recog- nizes a responsibility to fight this growing social disease. *LIBERTARIAN: Opposed to all legal and political distinctions based on gender or sexual orientation (although some Libertarians oppose the ERA because of fear that it may serve as an excuse for more coercive legislation). Favor treatment of marriage as a private contract among consenting individuals, without regard to their gender or sexual orientation (i.e., marriage among homosexuals should be treated exactly like marriage among heterosexuals). Absolutely opposed to all government interference with matters of affectional preference and lifestyle. *POPULIST: State's rights with regard to public schools .... must be restored. *LIBERTARIAN: States HAVE NO RIGHTS; only individual people have rights. Absolutely opposed to all government involvement in education, including "public schools". *POPULIST: Every race has both the right and the duty to pursue its destiny free from interference by another race. ... The Populist Party will not permit any racial minority, through control of the media, culture distortion, or revolutionary political activity, to divide or factionalize the majority of the society-nation in which the minority lives. *LIBERTARIAN: No RACE has ANY RIGHTS (most Libertarians would question the validity of the very concept of race; all agree that only individuals have rights). Note that "control of the media, culture distortion (?) and revolutionary political activity" are, according to anti-semitic mythology, the very methods used by a specific minority, namely the Jews, "to divide or factionalize the majority of the society-nation in which the minority lives". (Note that the intellectuals who inspired the contemporary Libertarian movement - Ludwig von Mises, Frank Chodorov, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard - do happen to be Jewish. This probably means that Libertarianism is an instance of the kind of "culture distortion" or "revolutionary political activity" that the Populists "will not permit".) *POPULIST: REPULSE IMMIGRATION. Repeal the Third-World-oriented immigration law of 1965 and replace it with one which works to preserve America's cultural heritage in the face of a population explosion among backward peoples and a no-population-growth among the founding stock of the nation. At present, there are an estimated 15 million illegal aliens in our midst. They should be found and deported. Our borders must be sealed off from this traffic at all cost, or the country will be destroyed from within after it first has been bankrupted. *LIBERTARIAN: Absolutely opposed to any government interference with international migration. Absolutely opposed to the denial of equal rights to undocumented immigrants or anyone else. Absolutely opposed to government-mandated discrimination between government-approved people ("citizens") and non-government-approved people ("aliens"). I could go on, but I think the above are example enough. Populism and Libertarianism are polar opposites. (Occasional agreement on specific policies, such as dismantling of Liberal-Socialist government programs, is a coincidence resulting from fundamentally different goals: Populists want to substitute their own statist programs because they view the Liberal-Socialists as their competitors; Libertarians want to dismantle them because they are *coercive government programs*.) Adam Reed ihnp4!npois!adam