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Libertarian Litmus Tests

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It was hundreds of years ago that scientists discovered that litmus, a water-soluble coloring matter obtained from lichens, turns red in acid solutions and blue in alkaline solutions, thus functioning as a litmus test to indicate the relative pH of a substance. On a scale of 0 to 14, a neutral solution (water) has a pH of 7.0, while solutions with a pH below 7.0 are acidic (battery acid is 0) and solutions with a pH above 7.0 are alkaline (drain cleaner is 14). It has been less than a hundred years that the term “litmus test” has become a metaphor for a single-factor test that reveals the true nature of someone or something or that suggests what someone thinks about a wider range of related things. It is interesting that litmus test strips turn different degrees of red or blue, since for some time now, red has been associated with Republicans and blue has been associated with Democrats. ...

Musical Chairs in Washington, D.C.

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Republicans are licking their chops over the Federal Reserve’s ostensible plans to raise interest rates aggressively in the months ahead to combat soaring prices. They view a coming big recession as a grand opportunity to win control over Congress in the upcoming November elections.  Of course, we have gone through this political musical-chairs nonsense for decades. If the Fed is filling the balloon with newly printed money, the economy appears prosperous. Whoever is president claims credit for “good management of the economy.” Voters reward him with reelection. They also elect members of his political party to Congress.  But woe to any president who happens to be in office when the Fed starts to reverse course, especially in a big way, as it is ostensibly now doing. Make no mistake about it: When the inevitable recession hits, Republicans will castigate Biden for “mismanaging the economy” and call on ...

What’s So Great About Democracy?

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At the recent Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, President Biden refused to permit Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua to attend because they aren’t democracies. As everyone knows, for the past several decades, the U.S. government has made democracy its shibboleth. It’s as if democracy is something sacred. Yet, what’s so great about democracy? It’s really nothing more than people selecting their rulers by votes rather than rulers selecting themselves. What’s so sacred about voters? U.S. officials promote the notion that voters select the best people to public office, as if they always elect saints. Given that this is the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal, why not apply the democracy test to Richard Nixon, a president who was forced to leave office because of his criminal activity? And then there was Lyndon Johnson, the president that Nixon succeeded. Many years after he had died, it was determined that LBJ ...

‘We the People’ Are the New, Permanent Underclass in America

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“We are now speeding down the road of wasteful spending and debt, and unless we can escape we will be smashed in inflation.”—Herbert Hoover This is financial tyranny. The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are the ones who must foot the bill for the government’s ...