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Opposing Imperialism Is Not Isolationism

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When pundits and rival politicians call Ron Paul an “isolationist,” they mislead the American people — and they know it. They know it? How could they not: Ron Paul is for unilateral, unconditional free trade. He believes any American should be perfectly free to buy from or sell to any person in the world. In that sense — the laissez-faire sense — he favors globalization, which, applied consistently, would require a worldwide free market. He’s such a strong advocate of free trade that he objects to the world’s governments, led by the U.S. government, setting up international bureaucracies, such as the World Trade Organization, to manage trade. He thinks trade should be a totally private matter. That’s a solid classical-liberal, or libertarian, position. So why is Paul repeatedly called an isolationist? Apparently in today’s political world, being an isolationist means opposing the U.S. government’s policing the rest of the world through invasion, occupation, and war — that is, militarism. The word “isolationist” ...

Ron Paul, Foreign Policy, and the Republican Mainstream

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One of the most fascinating aspects of the Ron Paul campaign is the standard reaction of his opponents to Paul’s foreign-policy positions. They say that Paul's libertarian foreign-policy views are outside the Republican mainstream. What is the Republican mainstream view on foreign policy? Here are its essential components: 1. Undeclared wars. 2. Wars of aggression — that is, wars in which the United States is the attacking nation. 3. Invasions and occupations. 4. Kidnapping. 5. Torture. 6. Rendition. 7. Indefinite military detention without trial. 8. Military tribunals. 9. Foreign aid, including to dictatorships. 10. An empire of 1,000 military bases in 130 nations around the world. 11. A national security state, consisting of a military-industrial complex, a standing army, and the CIA. 12. A conflation of government and country. 13. A “My government, never wrong” sense of patriotism. Those are the things that characterize U.S. foreign policy within the mainstream of the Republican Party. Ironically, they also represent the views of President Obama and the mainstream of the Democratic Party. That’s what the mainstream in ...

A Moral Distinction

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A new acquaintance recently asked whether she and I could get along, considering that she’s a liberal while I’m libertarian. Her second question focused on Ron Paul, likely the only person she ever heard of associated with libertarian philosophy: “Are all libertarians as conservative as Ron Paul on topics like abortion and gays?” This is where things can get complicated even when we try to keep them simple. Libertarians are not conservative. We’re not liberal, either. We’re libertarian. Even saying we are fiscally conservative and socially liberal — though there’s some accuracy to that — can be problematic, because the concepts of conservative and liberal morph into other ideas and connotations that are far from libertarian. Indeed, the morphing is so common that there’s really very little difference between the policies of the other two. Consider the word “conservative.” It refers to someone who wants to conserve, to save, to keep things as they are. But what does a conservative want to ...

Hornberger’s Blog, January 2012

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Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Just Ditch Medicare and Medicaid I just don’t get conservatives. They say they support individual freedom, economic liberty, free markets, limited government, and the Constitution. They also say they oppose socialism, interventionism, collectivism, and paternalism. They point out that such isms just don’t work. Okay, fine. Then why don’t conservatives call for the immediate repeal of Medicare and Medicaid? Why ...