A Perfect World

In a perfect world, none of this would matter. 

In a perfect world, any of it would work - communism, socialism, feudalism, capitalism, fascism, monarchy, theocracy, oligarchy, utopianism, corporatism, unionism, democracy, and even anarchy.    

But this is not a perfect world.  And in this decidedly imperfect world, history teaches that one thing works much better than all the other things – liberty.  Liberty, for those who have forgotten or never learned, is the absence of government in choice. 

Truth is the endowment of a thousand untruths disproven in practice.  Throughout history, people have tried just about every imaginable scheme of coexistence and discovered that the “three frees”  - free will, free enterprise, and free trade - provide the most happiness for the largest number of people over the longest time.

Family, faith, freedom, work, charity, patriotism, tolerance, property, community – the building blocks of a civil society we hold in highest esteem exist separate from  government.  They have earned their way up onto the pedestal over millennia of experimentation with alternatives that did not work as well. 

The new normal is neither new nor is it normal, and the traditional values we revere only became traditions because other values destroyed those who held them dear.  Good new ideas are welcomed and adopted quickly in a free society; it is only the bad ideas that must be imposed by government. 

People are flawed - that is the simple reason that individual liberty works better than collective coercion in any of its forms.  The human experience is about trial, error, consequence, and learning.  If one person does only the first two and someone else is made to suffer the third, neither of them will ever get to step four. 

And that is our fundamental problem in this country - we have socialized consequences and stifled learning.  We have become a nation of dullards and blamers and victims and smug sanctimonious jerks who would rather reduce our neighbor than improve ourselves.  We are not humbled by our errors; they simply harden our bias and justify our prejudice.  We gloat in victory, sucker punch in defeat.  With each tragedy, we announce our ignorance and repeat our superstitions.

Liberty’s first virtue is its practicality.  Liberty immunizes the general population from the tragic mistakes of its individual members. When two people exchange in bad faith, those two people alone suffer the consequences.  Unless, of course, those two people just happen to be John Boehner and Barack Obama - then the innocent victims number in the hundreds of millions. 

The idea itself is absurd; why should two men you have never met negotiate how much of your labor they will keep for their own purposes?  What if they compromise on all of it?  Would you celebrate the spirit of bipartisanship and breathe a sigh of relief that a crisis has been averted?  Will you be happy that Washington is working again?  Does gridlock still seem like such an awful thing? 

For that matter, can you even describe the crisis they are trying to avert without using the word “cliff”?   It is a fiscal curb, crack in the driveway, a chalk line.  They are niggling over the last half trillion as if the first $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities doesn’t matter.  If Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner would decide to quit stalling and take all of the nation's wealth, we would finally be equal.  That should make many people happy, as equality - not freedom - is the progressive's perverted idea of justice.  

Equality of outcome has a price, and that price is everything. 

The relevant question is not which of those two men will convince the Beltway paparazzi that the other guy blinked: it is how much government do we need?   We can answer it in two minutes right here: Democrats, write down how much of your own income you would have given to George W.Bush if he could spend it any way he chose; Republicans, do the same with President Obama in mind.    

What did you decide?  5%, maybe less?  There you go – nearly everyone is already half-libertarian; now just keep both the left hand and right hand out of your wallet - and your school, your work, your bedroom, your gun rack, your church, your charity, your emails, and your stash - and you will complete the journey.      

Alas, the current President does not read Moment Of Clarity, he does not seek consensus on such trivial matters, and he does not regard the Constitution – wisely written to protect us from guys like him - as particularly relevant to his ambitions.  He is hell-bent on raising income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, and the Republicans appear to be ready to do what they do best – cave. 

He will raise tax rates simply for the sake of raising them, for doing so will not reduce the deficit, heal the economy, or make poor people wealthy.  In a perfect world, perhaps taxing success would do all those things; but in the real world, it will not even increase tax revenues, the guise under which the punisher-in-chief will punish achievement.  The consequences of his economic ignorance will be grim; you can’t feed a child with a rate. 

The Laffer Curve is not a theory; it is an observation - increase rates and revenues go down.  California jacked up tax rates for millionaires this year and tax revenues dropped by $800 million.  Britain raised taxes on millionaires to 52% recently and within a year there were 40% less millionaires in Britain.  France taxed the rich and the rich moved to Belgium. 

Single people may struggle to understand the difference between tax rates and tax revenues, but married people are already acquainted with the concept that just because you get all of something doesn't mean you get more of it.  Dinner dates, of course – what did you think I was thinking about?        

Tax rates are neither the problem nor the solution when the deficit is common sense.  October tax revenues were up 13% over the prior year, and all of that new revenue came from corporations and the stinking, filthy, greedy, awful, exploiting rich.  The President has only demanded a 10% increase in the top tax rate.    

And yet the deficit in October grew to $120 billion. Why?  Because government spending increased by 16.4%.  Speaking of marriage…many a marriage has ended over lesser exhibitions of fiscal incontinence.  Boehnerama will not cut spending, and everyone knows it.           

Nancy Pelosi was finally right about one thing - this fiscal cliff soap opera is boring.  No amount of increased government spending will ever be enough for those who believe government is the answer to every single problem in this imperfect world; and no amount of redistributive punishment will ever be enough for those who envy.  

We just had a national referendum on envy in November and it won with 50.6% of the vote.  To the victor go the spoils – taxes will increase, the debt will rise, the economy will falter, millions will lose their health insurance, and administration spokesmen will miss 48 more employment forecasts.  It has already started.    

Forward.    

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment. 

Vote Your Conscience

Regular readers of this column know that I haven’t been blogging for a while; believe it or not there are more important things in life than politics.  But with the election just a couple days out, there is one more thing that needs to be said and then I am going back into hibernation.       

For those who have already made up your mind who to vote for Tuesday, I congratulate you and respect your choice, whether it is Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Gary Johnson or one of the other candidates who appear on ballots in some states.  Every vote is a vote of conscience and no vote is wasted on Tuesday as long as you own it on Wednesday. 

I frankly don’t know how anyone could still be undecided after $2 billion of ads and 18 months of campaigning; that is like not knowing if you are gay or straight 3 days before prom after watching porn all winter.  

But if you have not yet made up your mind how to vote, may I respectfully suggest that you vote for Mitt Romney. 

And I say that not as a Republican, because I am not one; nor as a Romney guy, because I am not one of those either; and not even as a libertarian because he is not one of us.  It is the suggestion of a businessperson with a pretty good grasp of what the effects of an Obama re-election will have on small to medium-sized firms – the ones who provide the majority of jobs in this country and whose owners pay the lions’ share of taxes.  The big dogs like GE and Goldman Sachs win no matter what; they’d get theirs even if Vlad the Impaler wins on a write-in.   

But the rest of us have to earn our way in this world.  There is no reason not to believe President Obama when he says he will allow the tax increases on business owners to go into effect January 1, will proceed with the next round of national health care mandates, will further restrict energy production, and will use sequestration as the means to cut DoD procurement.  Those policies are the four horses of the economic apocalypse.   

And there is also no reason not to believe the brave business owners who have come out and told us how they will be forced to respond to those higher imposed costs - by reducing headcount, cutting back hours, scaling back pension and retirement contributions, paring or eliminating health care benefits altogether, consolidating operations, and shifting capital investment and job creation to countries with more favorable tax and regulatory climates. 

It is disgraceful that they have been savaged for telling the truth.  If the media was not so obsessed with Big Bird and the fictional Anne Romney’s War on Herself, they might have noticed that 2012 has been a record year for small and mid-size businesses being sold or liquidated.  Atlas is already shrugging, people; and it will get much worse under Obama Part Dieux.    

Moving investment to a more favorable climate is not a Democrat thing or a Republican thing or a Libertarian thing, it is a rational economic decision that will be made by rational people with a business education and decades of experience.  For those who might never have had an economics of business course let me explain the problem in simple terms:     

Your boyfriend kicks me in the nuts repeatedly.  I tell you that if he keeps it up, I will have to buy a cup to protect myself and then there will be no money for your tiara, Princess.  You blame me for ruining your prom, mom tells you I am an insensitive racist jerk and you both vote to keep your boyfriend…and increase your allowance…and buy prophylactics for law students with very expensive purses.  Majority wins, he keeps kicking my nuts, so I go buy the cup and you don’t go to prom, pouting like a Kardashian on a budget.    

That - well something like it - is what we are trying to avoid, here.   

When weatherman Al Roker told us what would happen when Hurricane Sandy made landfall, did anyone go running to the DA to press charges?  Did the NAACP sue him for prejudicial remarks?  Did any union target his business for retribution or threaten his family?   Is anyone blaming Al Roker for the devastation in New York and New Jersey, or clamoring to ban him from speaking ever again?   

Well, I’m not Al Roker, I can’t force you to do anything, and I wouldn’t presume to tell you how you should vote; I am merely making a suggestion to those who might still be undecided.  And by the way, regardless of who you choose for President, you should look down-ticket to find some outstanding Libertarian candidates for other offices.  In Wisconsin, you can send your message with Kexel, Deschler, Maas, and Ehlers, to name a few.      

Here’s what won’t change on Tuesday, regardless of who we select as our next President:  the European debt crisis, the damage from the hurricane, the global economic downturn, upheaval in the middle east, yawning budget deficits, the unfunded pension and retirement systems around the country, 23 million Americans out of work, the economic ascension of China, and Ben Bernanke devaluating our currency by $40 billion each month.  If President Obama was the best person to confront that list, there would be no list…except for the hurricane damage.    

As much as it pains me to say it, neither Gary Johnson nor Ron Paul is going to be our next President of the United States.  And neither is Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Superman, Jesus, Aaron Rodgers, or the Good Witch of the North.  Our next President will be either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama – pick one.

And remember who comes along for the ride - Biden, Clinton, Geithner, Holder, Panetta, Salazar, Sebelius, Solis, Duncan, LaHood, Chu, Napolitano (the wrong one), Rice,  2 more Supreme Court Justices likely, dozens of federal judges, and the whole fleet of federal prosecutors.  Do you trust your liberty in their hands?  Not me.     

The libertarian’s second biggest fear is that Romney won’t do what he says; but our biggest fear is that Obama will.  Romney wins…by a landslide.          

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment. 

Peace Out

This will be the last Moment of Clarity column for some time.  I have no idea how long it will be before I write another column; I will write it when I write it.  That is the entirety of the plan.

For the moment, I have said everything I wish to say about economics, politics, business, government, candidates, parties, socialism, capitalism, and the virtue of living free.   

My reasons for taking a break are personal – there are a lot of other things that must get done, and I have no desire to risk either redundancy or irrelevance.      

There are no words to express my gratitude to the readers and fans of MOC – you are the best.  I have learned more from you than you could possibly know, and it is the great privilege of my life to number you among my finest friends.  

This is not a farewell message, just an explanation so you do not wonder if I was abducted by space aliens or silenced by the government.  I'll be back.     

Dr. Tim

Spoiler

Thick skin is a blessing.  My Libertarian friends lose their minds whenever I say something nice about a Republican, and my Republican friends lose their minds whenever I say something nice about a Libertarian.  My Democrat friends do not need a reason. 

I never tell people what to think; I merely try to give them something different to think about and then trust them to reach a conclusion that is right for them.  Here’s what’s right for me these days: the worst possible choice for President in November is Barack Obama – no question about that.  Romney is much better – no question about that.  And Gary Johnson is the best choice – by far, not even close.

No surprise, that.  To borrow a phrase from the original “spoiler” victim, read my lips – I’m a Libertarian.  Capital “L” libertarian, like in member of the Libertarian Party, former member of the executive committee of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin, and briefly the 2010 Libertarian Party candidate in Wisconsin’s 2^nd Congressional District – “Tim, Not Tammy” might ring a bell.    

Our guy Gary Johnson won’t stand down to ease Romney’s path to victory and no one should expect him to; and I might remind my more frantic knee-jerk reactive Republican buds that you are the ones that drove him out of your Party in the primaries.  He was a Republican running as a Republican until you treated him like dirt, so quit peeing yourself now that you must compete against him.  And get a sedative ready, elephants – I am about to say several nice things about our Libertarian Party presidential candidate Governor Gary Johnson.      

Gary Johnson is 10 times the fiscal conservative that Paul Ryan is and infinitely more fiscally conservative than Romney thinks he is…should be…maybe…or not…today.  Johnson’s budget plan balances the federal budget next year, not next generation.  He will abolish the IRS and hundreds of other agencies and departments that my rowdy conservative pals rail against daily.  He won’t tell other nations what to do, he won’t tell you what to do, and doesn’t mind you keeping your money, your guns, or your stash.          

In business we have a saying: the main thing is the main thing.  Sovereign debt is the existential threat to our nation and too much spending is the cause.  Gary Johnson will not trim pennies around the edges of some 10 year fantasy CBO projection; he will gut next year’s budget with a meat axe like Vlad the Impaler.  

He is opposed to wars that are not declared by Congress, just like it says in the Constitution we all claim to love so dearly.  He vetoed over 700 bills when he was Governor of New Mexico; how many did Romney kill when he had a chance?  Johnson was elected and then re-elected in that overwhelmingly Democrat state.  To do that, you must siphon off a boatload of Democrat votes away from their guy.  Hint…hint…hint.  

He will end the insane war on drugs.  If that makes him a lunatic, then save me a seat on the fringe.  And you can add such doofi (plural of doofus) as Milton Friedman, George Will, William F. Buckley, and Barry Goldwater to the list of us presumptively naïve dumb-ass must-be-stoners who fail to recognize the wisdom of packing our prisons with inner city dads and slaughtering Mexicans on money borrowed from the Chinese while the terminally ill are denied effective pain management.  Fast and Furious – there’s your war on drugs.        

Use your head, people.  There are millions of reasonably sane Democrats who do not want to vote for Act II of Obama’s economic suicide mission that would never, ever, ever vote for Romney…ever.  Having Johnson on the ballot in all 50 states gives them somewhere else to go besides the O.  Don’t listen to “spoiler” talk from the dipsticks that ran McCain’s losing campaign or the dipsticks running Romney’s campaign who lost to McCain’s dipsticks last time.  And don’t believe the polls, either – they said Walker/Barrett was a toss-up, if you recall.  Remember who called it?  There you go.   

So let’s cut to the chase and talk about why conservatives get the vapors over us libertarians - abortion.  Every time some Republican spam-bomb calls Johnson “pro-abortion” it reminds me why I left the Party years ago.  If I want a daily dose of mindless bullsnot, I’ll subscribe to the Debbie Whazzername-Shultz channel on YouTube.  Put aside the sloganeering for a minute and let’s get down to the nubs.         

Did you know Johnson would overturn Roe v Wade?  Has your boy Romney come out and said that without equivocation?  Did you know Johnson opposes any government funding of abortion and opposes all abortions from the moment of viability without exception?  Did you know he would allow each state to decide when that moment of viability is and decide the criminal penalties for killing viable babies?  Did you know that he supports parental notification for minors seeking abortions? 

States’ rights, nullification, parental rights, balanced budget, enumerated powers...why is it suddenly scary when someone walks the talk?             

Ross Perot and the Reform Party did not cost George Bush the Elder his presidency; George Bush the Elder did that.  He blew a 90% favorable approval rating by not bringing our victorious troops home after defeating Iraq, raising taxes and inducing a recession, and greatly expanding government’s regulatory reach. His would be remembered as the most inept campaign ever had John McCain not come along to set the new world record for incompetence in 2008. 

That 2008 Republican primary introduced the world to libertarian Ron Paul and gave us a glimpse at the energy and enthusiasm of the grass roots liberty movement to come.  Instead of embracing a new generation of amped-up Constitutional freedom fighters, the Republican Party establishment, in their infinite wisdom, ridiculed Paul and disrespected his supporters - and it cost them the 2008 election.  In the school of hard knocks where we learn from our mistakes, it appears that some children were left behind over at RNC Headquarters.     

But that smoldering grass-roots liberty movement did not go away; it ignited by spontaneous combustion a year later when the Tea Party gathered up the coalition of the willing and started the job of cleaning house in 2010 that will take its next great leap forward this fall.  I’m proud to have been a little part of it – the Tea Party unites conservatives, libertarians, constitutionalists, independents, patriots, and free-thinkers of all stripes and it scares the living hell out of careerists and statists in both parties.  Stay scared, Republocrats - you do your best work when terrified of the people.

Thinking in binary terms blinds us to the reality that one third of the electorate is now independent.  I believe a large number of these non-aligned voters have libertarian leanings – the libertarian caricature “economic conservative and socially neutral” describes a wide swath of the cadre of non-obsessed casual voters. 

Republicans are not going to win over the non-aligned by screaming “spoiler” and calling us juveniles or idiots if we don’t obey your orders to shut up and vote for your ticket.  Ask our parents if that worked on us as children; rebels don’t turn into sheep just because we added a few decades of rings to our tree. 

If the GOP convention adopts some libertarian-friendly platform planks that don’t conflict with conservative goals – audit the Fed is a no-brainer - the GOP can attract all the votes it needs to win without resorting to name-calling or bullying.  Libertarians oppose force and fraud on principle; try a little persuasion or (gasp) compromise. 

I can list a dozen issues where conservatives and libertarians are on the same page; surely the RNC can find two or three to reach out if they care to.  And if they don’t care to, then don’t bitch about the consequences.  We’re not going to boil bunnies on your stove, but we will not be ignored, Dan. 

To be fair, the Libertarian Party goes brain-dead at times, too.  Putting out an official release bragging that Johnson can throw the election to Obama (to teach Republicans a lesson) was as stupid as Republicans not inviting Ron Paul to speak at their convention.  Polling at 5% is not exactly taunting material, and gloating over spoiling an election for the major party more closely aligned with our platform is the perfect strategy if irrelevance is your ultimate goal.  Our bad.         

Libertarians and “conservatarians” are not stupid.  We understand the calculus of third party voting in close elections; we are forced to make the tough choice between better and best (or worse and worse yet) most every time.  Either is a principled choice - supporting our own Party’s candidate is one worthy principle, and another worthy principle is denying a clueless socialist bent on ruining our country another term to complete the mission.  There – now everybody can rag on me.   

Whatever conclusion is reached by any thoughtful voter is a vote of conscience.  Whatever decision is made by a self-sovereign is worthy of respect in a nation of equals.  The whole purpose of campaigns is to inform the voters and assess the candidates, and the Presidential race does not even begin in earnest until Labor Day. 

This is the most important Presidential election in memory, and there is a lot of time between now and November. Chill out. Consider all of the ramifications of every possible voting outcome from every angle, and then vote your conscience when the day comes.  That is what I plan do.           

“Moment of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.

Don't Dis' The Wis.

Now it’s official – Wisconsin is the new center of the conservative universe.  You can Mess with Texas again, just don’t Dis’ The Wis.

In case you have been in a coma since 2010, Wisconsin’s red tide has served up Governor Walker, Senator Johnson, Congressmen Duffy and Ribble, a Republican assembly and state senate, Justice Prosser, the Packers’ Superbowl, the summer recall defeats, Brewers’ division champs, Braun MVP, Rogers MVP, Priebus chairman of RNC, Badgers in the Rose Bowl, Miss America, the Walker recall drubbing, and now Paul Ryan picked as Vice President. 

And yes, of course I know that not all of those are political races, but you have to admit that is one impressive string of reasons for the nation to pay attention to Wisconsin.  We’ll never know for sure, but maybe it was Newsweek calling him a wimp that led Romney to come to Wisconsin for a Veep with some stones.    

He came to the right place. Our Governor Walker rides a Harley, our former Governor Thompson hammers out 50 pushups like a teenager, and our new VP-select Paul Ryan proudly poses in camo over trophy bucks he takes down with bow and arrow.  

Contrast those visuals to these disturbing images:  Obama riding his Pee Wee Herman bicycle with a kid’s helmet, throwing baseballs like a girl, and channeling his inner Urkel holding that construction pick like he was allergic to the darn thing.     

Hey, don’t blame me – that was the President’s White House PR machine that put those images in our heads; that was their idea of him being a regular guy.  A regular guy from Illinois, maybe, but you won’t see moves like that in Hayward.     

And it’s not just the boys making noise in the Badger State; there is a cadre of conservative women who are smart, fearless, accomplished, and tough-as-nails.  Some hold elective office, some organize the grass roots, some lead Tea Party events, some inform the public, and all stand up for the things they believe in.  I don’t have space to list them all, but they know who they are and why they matter.

It is fitting that Wisconsin - the state which birthed both the Republican Party and the Progressive movement - will be the state where the former will be saved from itself and the latter will be vanquished into remission.  It’s been “game on” in the Dairy State since the summer of 2009; it is about time the rest of the nation caught on.        

Paul Ryan is not a libertarian, so don’t expect me to heap praise on his policy prescriptions or his ideological bent.  But he is a fine Republican selection for Vice President and a worthy native son to represent Wisconsin to the world.  He is a decent man, and wholly undeserving of the character assassination sure to be hurled his way by the unhinged left.  The hinged left will be barely more civil.      

Ryan’s selection frames the November election as a stark choice between the serious and the unserious, between boldness and blame, between a plan and no plan. 

We recently had one of these campaigns in Wisconsin, and perhaps Governor Walker’s decisive recall victory over the no-plan candidate in a battleground state moved Romney and folks at RNC to double down on guys with plans.  

Romney has published a 59-point plan to move the economy into recovery, and his new VP selection Ryan put out a detailed budget plan to curb federal spending and reform entitlements.  By contrast, the President and his VP have no plan, no clue, and no chance.  I’ll go on a limb – 8 point margin, called in 20 minutes.   

Naturally, I don’t think either the Romney or Ryan plans go nearly far enough to tame government spending and scale back its unconstitutional reach - I like Rand Paul’s plan better and Gary Johnson’s plan much better.  But not far enough in the right direction is a whole lot better than any distance in the wrong direction.      

For the 95% of Americans who will not vote for my Libertarian Party this November, the choice between Romney/Ryan and Obama/Biden is easy – it is opportunity versus entitlement.  Pick your side.    

Both Romney and Ryan can articulate the virtues of free enterprise and the principles of liberty and self-sovereignty upon which this nation was founded; they can do this well because they believe in those traditional American ideals and values.  They will be running against a team that does not, and no amount of negative ads can hide that fact.   

Once in office, Romney and Ryan will surely disappoint us when they fail to live up to our expectations – that is the nature of politics.  But falling short of high expectations would be a relief after four years of blowing it on low ones. 

While it is true that the lesser of two evils is still evil, it is also true that less evil is better than a lot more evil.  Paul Ryan is going to make the choice clear, and he is going to make Joe Biden look like a buffoon in the debate.

I have only one piece of advice for Mr. Biden: Don’t Dis’ The Wis.    

“Moment of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D.  Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.