I was going to post this as a comment in Miguel’s post, but I decided instead to make a post of my own.

Dear Libertarians,

I used to be one of you.  Really, I was.  That was my crazy college politics.  I didn’t go socialist, I went Libertarian.

As I got older and more learned, and I talked with Libertarians I realized I couldn’t be one of you anymore.

Sorry.

There are large parts of the Libertarian platform that I totally agree with.  There are some aspects of Libertarianism that, while it sounds great as a thought experiment, is totally impractical.  Then there are some parts that are amoral or even immoral ideological horseshit.

It is in those last two that I left Libertarianism.

I will concede all the Libertarian points on individual rights. Any regular readers of this blog should know my feelings on that.

I’m going to focus this post on the impractical and immoral aspects.

The first big issue I had with Libertarians  is the “holocaust question.”  It is the hypothetical, “if you knew about the holocaust in 1937, what would you have done about it.”  I get a lot of Libertarians who answer “that was not our problem, that was for the Germans and German Jews to sort out.”

That is pure evil.

I agree that we should not be in the business of nation building, but if we can’t protect targeted minorities from extermination, e.g., the Jews in Germany, the Copts in Egypt, the Yzidi in Iraq and Syria, we cannot call ourselves a moral nation in any way.  I cannot stand idly by and watch a minority be persecuted and say “that’s not my problem.”

We can have all sorts of discussions on how to address these humanitarian crises, but if you are of the side of “they didn’t attack us so we’re not going to intervene in a genocide” the conversation is over and your soul is garbage.

That immorality leads us to the next stage of Libertarianism, “the Laetrile question.”  For those of you who are unaware, laetrile was the trade name of a compound called amygdalin.  It was sold as a side effect free cure for breast cancer.  Thousands of women died using it rather than getting chemo.

I have talked to many Libertarians who address laetrile with the answer “if those women are so dumb that they would take a hoax drug, let them die.”

I understand the free market idea that if a product doesn’t work, it will get a bad reputation and people won’t buy it anymore.  That’s fine… when people are rational actors and the cost of people discovering it doesn’t work isn’t dying of a treatable condition.

I’ve had cancer.  When you get that diagnosis, it scares you.  Women who were faced with the suffering of chemo and mastectomies chose laetrile out of fear.  They were not rational actors, they were panic buyers and were taken advantage of.  It is the same reason I disagree with John Stossel on anti-profiteering laws.   After a hurricane, jacking up the price of water or other necessities to take advantage of panicky people is wrong.

The free market works well over the long term when people can compare and contrast prices and services and supply and demand can react to the market.  When there is a sudden upset in the market, like a natural disaster or something that causes a person to panic, the free market breaks down.

I apply this same principle to monopolies and trusts.  Without competition, there is no free market.

Regulations to stop unscrupulous people from taking advantage of the frightened and panicking, selling fake cancer drugs to terrified women or water for $100/gal after a hurricane, are worthwhile as they add stability to society.  I agree with Alexander Hamilton, America works best with a mostly free market, keeping the fraud, monopolies, and hucksters at bay.

If you are fine with letting the holocaust happen because it’s not our problem and you are fine with traveling medicine shows selling bottled morphine and piss as “Dr. McGillicutty’s universal cure-all” because the free market allows it, we’re done here.

If on the other hand, some of what I say makes sense, some regulations are good, some intervention in foreign affairs is a benefit to humanity, welcome to the world of Small Government Conservatism.

We really could use you in the Republican Party to push back against the GOP establishment that has forgotten our small government principles.

I promise you, you will do more good being a Republican pushing the party internally than being a Libertarian and being associated with the kooks who want nothing more than to smoke tax free pot while the world burns.

Think about it.

Signed

J. Kb

Social Media is now awash with Libertarian memes. Basically, your winning (or losing) candidate still sucks, “If it pleases the crown,” “we are for freedom” and 17,000 repetitions an hour of “Taxation is Theft.”

Dear Libertarians, get over it: your party sucks and it is dead.

I will gladly grant that (L)libertarians have some very great points to make, but political organization it is not only your forte, but you suck at it like a Black Hole sucks everything in the universe. For the love of God, you guys let an openly Pro-Hillary candidate run as VP for your party!

And the message coming out of the Libertarian palaces like the Cato Institute are sounding more like the Democrat platform of 20 years ago than anything truly (L)libertarian.

It is time you guys got your shit together, clean house, find your political North again if you want to be other than another failed Bull Moose Party.

Ted Cruz defeated Beto O’Rourke for the Senate in Texas.

The Left is all salty over it.  One Tweet went viral.

beto deserves all the love and happiness in the world. texas didn’t deserve this woke king pic.twitter.com/or7kEk6FH7

— sam (@_samanthavalle) November 7, 2018

This reminds me very much of the nickname social media gave to the PM of Canada, “woke bae.”

I wish I had seen this sooner because it opens the door for the perfect new Beto nickname, “Texas Trudeau.”

Because of his overwhelming popularity with the Left in California and the East Coast, you know he will be back.

Beto was on Ellen and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.  Beto yard signs were spotted in California and Connecticut.  He was a national candidate, for Senate in Texas.  It was clear he was being groomed to pull an Obama, severe one term in the Senate and run for President in 2024.

The whole Beto campaign has really inspired me to push for a Constitutional Amendment.

First, I’d like to repeal the 17th Amendment and end the direct election of Senators.

Second, I’d like to limit campaign contributions to House and Senate races to being only from individuals who reside in a state.

Something needs to be done to stop a bunch of California and New York millionaires from filling the war chests of Senate races in Alabama, Arkansas, the Dakotas, and so on.  It is a direct attack on the sovereignty of the states.

Yeah, I know that will make it hard for the NRA to do what it does.  At the same time it will make it impossible for a single billionaire like Bloomberg to bankroll campaigns outside New York.

That might be worth the cost.  A state branch of the the NRA using only the money of the gun owners of that state would probably have a much better chance of making an impact if it didn’t have to compete with a handful of big money out of state donors.

I really don’t believe our Founding Fathers envisioned a system in which a race in Georgia is half funded by Long Island donors.

That was close, too close for comfort.  Now, if I am not mistaken, all NRA-endorsed candidates for Executive positions won (we are using the NRA as guide to see who is pro-gun only) and that tells us Gun Rights is not a dead of an issue as they tried to sell, although they almost pulled it.

The one that amazed me the most that was even close was Agriculture Commissioner.  The Democrat Nikki Fried basically ran on two thing: Screw with the Concealed Weapons Permit system and get pot legalized (which she could not do). That particular race got 163,112 votes less that the Governor’s and that tells me a bunch of people did not know what the  Agriculture Commissioner does for guns in Florida.

And that leaves the Legislature which from what little I can gather, it has not changed and it is in the hands of RINO GOP. The Incoming Senate President Bill Galvano was funded by Bloomberg. The best we can hope is 2 years of inaction unless there is a way to have them come to Jesus and see reason.

Still the best example was the new Senator for Florida Rick Scott: He barely made it and I do believe he would not had that much problem if he had not folded like a Walmart $5.95 lawn chair with SB7026.  And the worse part is that our schools are not safe and won’t be.

And by the way, David Hogg and March For Our Lives have been strangely silent on the Florida Results. No tweets of any kind that I saw.

Basically: The Parkland Kids, the alleged game changer for Gun Control across the Nation in this election, failed to convince its own state.

That has to hurt.

Congratulations to the good people of Florida for not electing a corrupt, self serving socialist (redundant).

You avoided both a personal income tax and increase in corporate income tax.

The disconcerting thing is how narrow the margin of victory was for DeSantis.

That needs to be corrected in future elections.

The Giffords were feeling bossy and touting they spent more than the NRA in Florida 25 district.

The NRA spent $3,000 and the Giffords spent $207,500. That is $69.16 for every buck spent by the NRA.

The result?

They lost. The others were won by democrats so we were the fly in the ointment.

OK, long day, I am still up. I need rest.

Gillum conceded to DeSantis. All the Florida Executive went Red (Close call on the Agriculture commissioner, either potheads came out or gun owners did not pay attention) and at this time, 11:39 pm on 11/6/2016, Bill Nelson refuses to concede. 9.71% of the precincts reporting and there is a 0.72% (77, 984 votes) difference between him and Scott. He is hoping somebody pulls some “Oh! I have forgotten to count these ballots…oppsie” moment and trigger the automatic recount.

I am sure Scott pissed off at least half that amount of voting gun owners, so right now instead of getting drunk in Veuve Clicquot, he is chugging Maalox and hopping the Dems don’t steal his senate seat.

And if he wins, I will eat crow or pork equivalent. I hope he learns the lesson but fear will not.

UPDATE: Nelson conceded and Scott is now Senator… by 55,394 votes.  (I:00 am)