“Acceptance of the moral authority derived from Transcendent criteria of truth and good must be voluntary if it is to have meaning; if it is coerced by…force…it is meaningless.”-Frank S. Meyer
In examining society, as it appears today, one would be hard pressed to believe in a moral or charitable man. Our leaders have decided individuals cannot be trusted with issues of such importance. Such things must be enforced as if edicts handed down from the Gods. The pursuit of virtue, charity, and morality have been deemed too important to be left to chance. We must make certain those things which make us most human. In doing so we have alienated ourselves from the fundamentals of humanity.
Republicans, never shy to pontificate on moral decline, have single handedly pursued a legislative agenda enforcing Judeo Christian values. Whether it be Rick Santorum or Pat Robertson, one cannot escape the constant barrage of calls for forced moral restoration. In the extreme view, America’s setbacks are due to the abandonment of Christian principles. While the mainstream believes the state, via distribution of the church, should be a facilitator of public funds in order to meet the needs of the downtrodden and poverty stricken. Both positions, no matter how reasonable or unreasonable, are ones of hypocrisy. Forcing a man to behave morally robs him of the satisfaction derived from said behavior.
Democrats, on a never ending quest for victims to help and perpetrators to blame, rarely take notice of the fact that they and they alone are the fathers of the very class mentality they seek to rectify. Taxing a man to feed the hungry is worse than theft. The thief derives pleasure and the victim of theft harbors resentment towards but a single man. When done under the auspices of taxation, the taken from harbors resentment towards not only the thief (government), but also the recipient (fellow citizens) of his property.
Is it any shock the alarming growth of the welfare state has coincided with a politically polarized America? What can be done to heal the wound of American divisiveness?
Every once in a great while, opportunity meets preparation. Libertarians sit at the crux of such a moment in history.
Libertarian philosophy is one of choice. It is one of trust. It is one of belief in our fellow men. The stage is set for a message to emerge which emphasizes those things that Americans hold dear: individualism, freedom, and civic duty. We are not Americans because our ancestors came to a place called America. We are Americans because we believe in ideals. Have our leaders bastardized those ideals over time? Yes. But that does not mean we cannot restore them.
Why? Because we just decided to.
Our message must be that we want to give Americans the opportunity to behave morally. To behave charitably. To behave virtuously. We trust they will help those in need. We trust they will resist a descent into Libertinism. We believe their life’s purpose is for them to decide. Who are we to impede it?
The greatest lines in American political history all start with an unflinching belief in American individuals.
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”-FDR
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”-JFK
“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.”-Ronald Reagan
Libertarians are a positive lot. Our message is one of belief. We believe in each individual’s decision to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. But in order for an individual to make a decision, they must first be offered choice. This is how our message will spread. We will restore each American’s choice to behave morally. Choice to behave charitably. And choice to behave virtuously. Why?
Because we believe in them.
