Libertarians: wrong on immigration and much more

[The words "crazy", "insane", "delusional", "corrupt", and "crooked" redirect here.]

Libertarians can be divided into two basic groups: "cosmotarians" (example: Reason Magazine), and their country cousins like Lew Rockwell. The former group leans to the crazy and corrupt side, while the latter group's craziness is more principled.

Another split is between "big-L Libertarians" (those in the Libertarian Party) and "small-l libertarians" (the rest). The difference is that the former group's insane delusions are codified, while the latter group's insane delusions are wider in spectrum.

There are also those like the Tea Parties who have subsumed libertarian ideas. True libertarians tend to dislike such people, especially if they combine libertarian-leaning economic ideas with social conservatism.

One major reason I oppose libertarians of all stripes is due to their unworkable position on social welfare. Most Americans support social welfare programs broadly defined, and even more would support them if they were taken away from them. Imposing libertarian economic ideas on the U.S. would not result in their addled utopian visions. Instead, millions of Americans would face undue hardships, perhaps resulting in riots and even some form of socialist revolution. Taking a little bit of socialism away (the current system) could end up in a whole lot of socialism.

Libertarians also tend to favor free trade, something that's had benefits for many, huge benefits for a few, but that's also had a negative impact on millions of Americans. The cosmotarian types support that out of ideology but also because their benefactors stand to benefit from it.

Another reason I oppose libertarians is because they tend to lie and smear. Libertarians are utopians, and in their minds anyone who opposes them is standing in the way of utopia. They also have few if any principles or sense of ethics. Thus - even while pretending to support liberty for all - they're willing to lie and smear their opponents in an attempt to silence them.

But, if I had to choose just one, the main reason I oppose libertarians is due to immigration. Almost all libertarians are very bad on immigration, with some supporting literal open borders. The entries below detail how libertarian ideas on immigration would not work and would have a highly negative impact on almost everyone in the U.S.

Last modified Mar 4, 2012
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

John Tamny of Forbes calls America-denouncing billionaire an "American hero" - 05/22/12

Earlier this month, Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship in a move that most have considered a way to save taxes (even if he denies it). Fiscal conservatives proceeded to show that - to them - patriotism has a price tag. See the link for several examples and an explanation of why we don't want people like Saverin in the U.S. to begin with. Yet another example of...

Cato immigration conference April 26, 2012: let's discredit them (CFR, Lofgren, Jacoby, Federal Reserve, NIF, NFAP) - 03/22/12

... first is a good question for libertarians. The second is primarily geared towards Republican politicians so wouldn't be entirely appropriate in this context. The third would be the best question to ask any of those attending. Or, you can ask Tamar Jacoby if she ever came up with an answer to my 2005 question. If anyone will be attending, leave a comment or contact me on Twitter and I'll develop...

Radley Balko doesn't want you to see this (Huffington Post, immigration, libertarian) - 01/29/12

... another. And, don't trust those "libertarians" who want to help those crooks, such as by supporting what will always be in reality a huge subsidy. Those crooks get to profit from massive illegal activity and push all the costs - direct and indirect - off on the rest of us. P.S. Mere presence in the U.S. can be criminal for some (such as those who were expelled but came back). IAs have also been...

Challenge for Teaparty: can you justify cuts to literacy programs (including Reading is Fundamental)? - 07/25/11

... those in the tea parties and libertarians camp - and now the GOP under their sway - don't want it to come back. In fact, they want to get rid of even more: "The president... needs to take much more than a scalpel to the Department of Education's budget - there’s room to take an ax," said Lindsey Burke, a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. Thus, my question to...

Former Microsoft COO Herbold praises China, Five Year Plans in Wall Street Journal - 07/10/11

... really isn't all that far from the libertarians ideal. Herbold would have a large, nearly-all-powerful central government running things. Boudreaux and other libertarians would simply replace that nearly-all-powerful government with a nearly-all-powerful private "government" consisting of the Koch family and a small number of the very rich. And, both Herbold and libertarians are just concerned...

How many millions of his fellow citizens does Glenn Reynolds think are "parasites"? - 05/31/11

... profiteering from illegal activity, libertarians would just prefer that they didn't exist. Of course, perhaps Reynolds means the millions of public sector employees in the U.S.: teachers, nurses, and other fields. Or, maybe he means the millions of his fellow citizens who are unemployed. Even with very high unemployment, Barack Obama as well as libertarians and "Profits at any Price"...

Ron Paul immigration position now as bad as Beltway hacks - 05/02/11

Ron Paul's latest book ("Liberty Defined") shows that his position on immigration is not only bad, but in the book he uses some of the same old immigration talking points as other Beltway hacks. People don't use canards like jobs Americans wont do naturally; either Paul has been compromised, or he's corrupt (selling out his principles for political gain), or someone else wrote the immigration...

Government spending & the deficit are a distraction from much more important issues - 04/09/11

Last night, Congress finally did something about massive government spending (link), the single most important issue ever to face the U.S. and the only thing keeping us from continued hope, growth, opportunity and prosperity. Er, maybe not. And, in fact, others used to agree. For instance, consider this table showing the average number of monthly mentions of the listed terms at HotAir [1]. In...

Tea Party used to push corporate agenda (Institute for Liberty, Monsanto, Asian paper company) - 03/31/11

If you've been following our extensive tea parties coverage, you'll know where this is going (and if you're a teapartier, you'll have no clue): Last fall, [Institute for Liberty's] president, Andrew Langer, had himself videotaped [ peekURL.com/vM87wLC ] on Long Wharf in Boston holding a copy of the Declaration of Independence as he compared Washington’s proposed tariff on paper from Indonesia and...

Republican Liberty Caucus is a cruel joke on California - 03/16/11

... nationwide, independent group of libertarians that present themselves as the "Conscience of the Republican Party". Think of them as a more established, slightly saner, slightly more principled, non-"NeoCon" version of the tea parties. Their policies - like those of other libertarians - are also a cruel joke, especially on California. Like other libertarians, one of their policies - open borders...

Jared Loughner's "Genocide School" video (Pima Community College) - 01/15/11

... Tea Party, conservatives, or libertarians? (Gabrielle Giffords shooting) * Jared Loughner: anti-Bush, pro-small government? Intellectually dishonest Tea Party defenders * Claims by Tea Party enablers that Pima Sheriff Dupnik could have stopped Loughner are false * Friend's claim that Loughner wasn't political is two years out of date * Jared Loughner's AboveTopSecret postings show no clear...

Friend: Loughner wasn't political, not left or right (two years out of date; Zeitgeist) - 01/12/11

... Tea Party, conservatives, or libertarians? (Gabrielle Giffords shooting) * Jared Loughner: anti-Bush, pro-small government? Intellectually dishonest Tea Party defenders * Claims by Tea Party enablers that Pima Sheriff Dupnik could have stopped Loughner are false * Loughner's "Genocide school" video * Jared Loughner's AboveTopSecret postings show no clear political slant * Arizona state Fusion...

Is Jared Lee Loughner linked to Tea Party, conservatives, or libertarians? (Gabrielle Giffords shooting) - 01/11/11

... movement. See the tea parties and libertarians pages for past coverage of both movements. ------------------- [1] He briefly worked as a volunteer at the Pima Animal Care Center but was taken off dog-walking duties after failing to understand why he shouldn't walk dogs in an area that was being decontaminated for a contagious animal disease (link). He was continually disruptive at Pima Community...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, several others shot; Palin, Tea Party candidate - 01/08/11

... affiliated with the tea parties or libertarians movements. Both of those groups haven't shied away from painting their opponents in the worst terms possible and engaging in apocalyptic language. Sometimes that's included implied violence, such as in the two following graphics. The first is from Sarah Palin's website and shows several Congressmen's districts in what appear to be gun crosshairs....

WSJ/NBC poll shows little support for fiscal conservatism; 70% "uncomfortable" with cuts to Medicare, Social Security, defense - 11/18/10

Bad news for libertarians and the tea parties: a new Wall Street Journal / NBC News poll shows little support for fiscal conservative policies (link): [The poll] shows Americans skeptical of deficit-cutting proposals laid out by the chairmen of a commission appointed by the White House. In the survey, 57% of respondents said they were uncomfortable with gradually raising the Social Security...

Why won't Roger Simon reveal his ideology's role in California's problems? - 11/05/10

... those in Roger Simon's circle - libertarians and "free marketeer" types as well as the GWB types - allowed it to happen. So, considering that Roger Simon's circle is responsible for allowing CA to fall to this level, it's not surprising that he wouldn't mention that to you. You might want to bring it up to him however such as when he makes public appearances. Instead of revealing the root causes...

Rand Paul: noblesse oblige out, Randroid in (tax on yachts) - 11/03/10

Just after winning the Senate race from Kentucky, Rand Paul told Wolf Blitzer the following (video below and at peekURL.com/vufapvr ): PAUL: I would say that they must be in favor of a second American depression, because if you raise taxes to that consequence, that's what will happen in this country. Raising taxes in the midst of a recession would be a disaster for our economy. And anybody who...

Koch family, U.S. Chamber, businesses met to plan strategy (+Glenn Beck, tea parties, "mobilize citizens for November") - 10/20/10

Twice each year, the Koch family conducts strategy meetings with corporate and thought leaders to plan how to advance their "free market" ideology. ThinkProgress has the guest list and program for their June 2010 meeting (in Aspen), and, while immigration isn't mentioned, many of the known attendees are on the wrong side. I don't normally recommend anything at ThinkProgress, but in this case I'll...

Ed Morrissey, Glenn Reynolds, Newsbusters don't tell whole truth about Bell, California - 09/22/10

Eight public officials in the city of Bell, California were recently arrested regarding the pay scandal in that city (link). Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley says they misappropriated $5.5 million from that poor city south of downtown. Some media reports failed to note that the eight charged are all Democrats, and Glenn Reynolds [1], Ed Morrissey of HotAir [2], and Lachlan Markay...

Bell, California: see who isn't telling you the whole truth (hint: libertarians) - 08/25/10

... add more in comments. Various libertarians and fellow travelers have used Bell as an example of why the salaries of public officials should be limited and of why their pensions should be kept in check. However, they've consistently failed to note the role that what they support has played in Bell's issues. The issue is obvious to readers of this site: immigration. Bell lies in southeast Los...

Melissa Bean's "thug" vs. teaparty libertarian idiot at public meeting - 08/16/10

... featuring those in the tea parties / libertarians orbit, the teapartier/libertarian idiot spends more time asking about asking a question than... actually asking a question. 3. As in other videos by these same types of people, the idiot ends up asking things that are open-ended or are statements not questions. See the bad questions page for other examples. If you're going to ask a politician a...

Bankrupting America's misleading government spending video ("Rebel Economist") - 08/13/10

Gretchen Hamel - formerly part of the Trade Representative's office in the George W Bush administration and now with the website Bankrupting America - offers the video entitled "REAL or FAKE: Can you tell which of these government spending projects are real or fake?" ( peekURL.com/v1mwxc7 ). It features woman-on-the-street interviews in which Michelle Muccio - the "Rebel Economist" - asks people...

Rand Simberg's Darwinistic, anti-American citizenship policy - 08/12/10

It's time to reach into the Big Bag of Crazy known as the Glenn Reynolds / Pajamas Media universe. This time with the anti-American screed called "The Real Anchors / Anchor babies? Maybe we should worry more about native anchors" (pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-real-anchors) by one Rand Simberg. The fact that he's turning to Robert Heinlein to craft a new citizenship policy is actually the least of...

Reason Magazine libertarian cruise to be massively state-subsidized - 07/06/10

... Jillette. Reason Magazine - and libertarians in general - tend to conveniently forget all the externalities and other issues involved in what they promote, and in this case the price of the tickets - no matter what they are - won't reflect the full cost of the voyage. In other words, their libertarian voyage is going to be heavily subsidized, even if those unintelligent enough to be libertarians...

Glenn Reynolds still promoting bad, dangerous, anti-American policies - 06/27/10

Glenn Reynolds names his "comment of the day" [1]:

Sam Stein of HuffPost, lacking information, lets speculation run wild (Rand Paul, border fence) - 06/25/10

... Border Fence Baffles Cornyn, Libertarians" (huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/rand-pauls-underground-el_n_624535.html). It's one small step up from something you'd see on "Rock Bottom" (peekURL.com/vt2fh5z).

Katherine Mangu-Ward doesn't think jobs in America are more valuable than jobs in China - 06/24/10

... leaving her blog in the hands of libertarians even more extremist and lunatic than she is [1]. One of those is Katherine Mangu Ward of Reason Magazine who, referring to a U.S. ironing board factory that was propped up with tariffs, says [2]: Econ 101 aside, though, there's a more compelling moral reason to condemn this kind of tariff that should help break deadlocks like Matt's: Jobs lost at...

Gary Johnson's immigration position disqualifies him for president or anything else (Our America Initiative, New Mexico) - 06/23/10

Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson started the "Our America Initiative" last year, possibly as a precursor to a presidential run. He's a libertarian and that means two things: a) he might as well save his donors the money because he's never going to get mainstream support, and b) he's wrong. How he's wrong about immigration will be discussed below. First, here are two snippets showing his...

What personality trait causes tea partiers and libertarians to want to play dress-up games? - 06/14/10

... be some explanation why many libertarians and those in the tea parties think that playing dress-up games and putting on a show is an argument. The same isn't true of other political groups; the only two I can think of that come close are PETA and CodePink. The great majority of political groups try to make an argument or (as in the case of this site for the most part) try to show how the...

More proof Justin Elliott isn't credible (Sharron Angle, public health concerns over fluoride) - 06/09/10

[SEE THE UPDATES TOO] Sharron Angle [1] won the Republican primary against Harry Reid yesterday, and as could be expected Democratic Party proxies are already beginning their attack. One of those is Justin Elliot of TalkingPointsMemo, who offers "FLASHBACK: GOPer Angle Spoke Out Against Fluoride In Water Supply" [2]. It's a low-grade attempt to provoke a conditioned response that most people have...

Clueless: Nick Gillespie can't see problems with massive illegal immigration (Mickey Kaus, Reason Magazine) - 06/04/10

The video at pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/100575 has an interview Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine did with Mickey Kaus. At the beginning they discuss immigration, and Gillespie, rather unbelievably, asks "what was the negative outcome of the 1986 immigration reform [bill]". Kaus responds with the obvious answer: we have millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. Gillespie then asks, "why is it a...

Is Glenn Reynolds an anti-American extremist who hopes the "entitlement class" riots, or not? - 05/16/10

Glenn Reynolds ("Instapundit") excerpts "Arnold Schwarzenegger calls for state welfare to be ended in California" (instapundit.com/99408, article: link). Instead of correctly pointing out that if Arnold and most of the state legislature weren't completely corrupt they'd seek to reduce illegal immigration in order to reduce spending, Reynolds appends an update containing the anti-American,...

Shikha Dalmia still not credible on immigration (Part 2) - 04/28/10

... for the current law lies with libertarians, to the extent that they have any power. By encouraging massive illegal activity they've made the situation in Arizona intolerable for many Arizonans, and those Arizonans have responded. If, instead of supporting anarchy on the border - through such things as smearing those who want to enforce our immigration laws - libertarians had supported reasonable...

Freedom Vigil: Beltway libertarians to restore U.S. liberty one glowstick at a time - 03/26/10

... then "facilitated" by Beltway libertarians, this event is more the creature of those low-level libertarians themselves; think of the "Free the Jefferson 1" effort (freethejefferson1.wordpress.com). Those attending, possibly attending, or indicating that they can't attend include Randy Barnett, Alex Nowrasteh, Tim Mak of the American Enterprise Institute, two or more associated with the Koch...

Reason Magazine to "save" Cleveland, just not from libertarians (Drew Carey) - 03/15/10

... disastrous impact on the Rust Belt. Libertarians couldn't care less: any sense of nationalism in even the best of senses is abhorrent to them. Libertarians have little or no loyalty to their countrymen: to them a job is a job, whether it's done by an American or someone in a forced labor reeducation camp in China doesn't matter if the latter costs less. Further, Reason Magazine is a key part of...

Confused over Alex Nowrasteh's interest in American workers; does he have one? - 02/26/10

Alex Nowrasteh [1] of the Koch family-linked Competitive Enterprise Institute offers "E-Verify is a Spectacular Failure and Should be Abandoned" [2], referring to this recent report. It contains several curious passages, such as: While it cannot identify illegal/undocumented immigrants 54%, E-Verify could accomplish one thing: ossification of U.S. labor markets. With the official unemployment...

Lindsey Graham: GOP isn't going to be "party of angry white guys" (+more ineffective townhall ranting) - 10/13/09

... guns, and calling the view of Libertarians who believe President Bush was a war criminal "nuts." "We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," Graham said to more shouts. You can see videos of it at peekURL.com/vg48dmi peekURL.com/vacmnj1 There are a couple components of this story: 1. Some of the people doing the heckling were apparently libertarians who support Ron Paul. I only...

Grover Norquist group's loony libertarian immigration ideas - 06/01/09

On Friday, RedState front-paged the Brian Johnson article "Conservative Immigration Reform is Right Next to Unicorns and Leprechauns" [1]. At first you might think he's just some random libertarian loon, until you see the article in its original location at the "Alliance for Worker Freedom" [2]. Scrolling to the bottom, you see that AWF is a member of the H2B Workforce Coalition and the Essential...

Harmless beliefs pose imminent danger to all, non-expert warns - 02/07/09

... of the only two (2) Celebrity Libertarians to ever exist - draws (reason.com/blog/show/131559.html) our attention to a ludicrous website called "What's the Harm" (whatstheharm.net) which attempts to show the harm in beliefs and activities that most people - in their ignorance - would consider harmless. They say it "does not pursue any hidden agenda, other than promoting critical thinking" (...

A challenge for Drew Carey/Reason Magazine (and other open borders hacks) - 05/29/08

... joint venture with the pseudo-libertarians at Reason Magazine [1]. In various video segments he presents the "libertarian" view of things, and the latest is called "The Cost of Securing Our Southern Border" (reason.tv/video/show/434.html). Like everyone else, I didn't bother to watch it, but I feel safe in asserting that there are many things he forgot to mention. This snippet is provided: "One...
 
 
Random topics:
 
 
 
 
 
 !  !  !
 
Subscribe to our feed and tell your friends about this site.
 
Follow @24AheadDotCom on Twitter
More tweets