John Farmer: Intellectual Laziness? Dishonesty? Or Both?
Murray Sabrin
In his recent Star-Ledger column about the 2008 presidential front-runners, former New Jersey attorney general John Farmer, Jr. wrote, “Reason, the magazine of libertarians -- libertarians, for those unfamiliar with the breed, are anarchists with a shave and a clean shirt -- brands McCain an "authoritarian maverick.”
After I read Farmer’s characterization of libertarians I sent him an email.
“Libertarianism is the founding principle of our nation. See the Declaration of Independence, if you have not read it yet (http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/doi.html). Libertarianism comes in many varieties: the "anarchist" tradition (no central or any kind of government, but a constellation of self governing communities), the limited government tradition (adhering to the Bill of Rights, sound money, and a noninterventionist foreign policy), and a left-wing tradition (focusing on civil liberties and communitarianism). All libertarians, for your information, are pro civil liberties.
“If we had a libertarian government in DC, there would be no welfare-warfare state in America, no Patriot Act, no invasion of Iraq, no plans to attack Iran, no military-industrial complex, no depreciation of the people's money, no redistribution of income, no war on drugs, no $8 trillion national debt. Instead, both Republicans and Democrats have given us perpetual war, the unsustainable--and immoral--welfare state, and an assault on our civil liberties.
“For you to disparage and dismiss the philosophy that led to the American Revolution indicates, in my opinion, your support of the welfare-warfare state headed by someone other than Bush.
“When you write about libertarians in the future, please take the time to offer more than a ‘sound bite’ and obtain the facts about the philosophy that is the basis for New Jersey's motto: Liberty and Prosperity.
“You should start your education about libertarianism by reading http://www.lewrockwell.com/. And, Representative Ron Paul, the libertarian Republican, may seek the GOP nomination for president. Check him out, http://www.ronpaulexplore.com/.”
For more than three decades I have been explaining in letters to the editor, book reviews, op-ed essays, radio and television interviews, a book on taxation and government spending, Internet and business publication columns, blogs, lectures, seminars, and speeches, e-mail updates to hundreds of New Jerseyans and other Americans, and two campaigns for public office, how free market, limited government principles will create a free and prosperous society. The message is getting through. Reality is proving libertarian analysis correct, because the welfare-warfare state is unraveling faster than the establishment intelligentsia wants to acknowledge. They are scared stiff of the Old Republic being restored in America.
John Farmer, Jr., a Whitman appointee, does not appear to be a deep thinker or intellectually honest. If he was, he would have devoted a serious column about libertarianism, which he could easily Google. Instead, Farmer does what most politicians do; create a scary picture of anti-establishment critics. Farmer wants his readers to equate libertarians with “anarchists”—i.e., bomb throwers who commit aggression. If Farmer knew anything about libertarians, he would acknowledge that the first principle of libertarianism is nonaggression. Farmer has the chutzpah to characterize (smear) libertarians with a point of view that is 180 degrees opposite of the libertarianism’s core belief: peaceful relations among all peoples.
In addition, for Farmer to call libertarians a “breed,” is an insult to the framers of the Declaration of Independence, and intellectual giants such as Lysander Spooner, H.L. Mencken, Henry Hazlitt, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and hundreds of others who have made enormous contributions to economics, philosophy, law, journalism, literature, and other fields.
Libertarians are not barnyard animals that have been domesticated by some sinister cabal of “anarchists.” John Farmer and others who are so disdainful of libertarianism cringe at the thought of a free society. However, if America is to survive as a free nation, libertarianism will have to be resurrected to replace the statist ideology that John Farmer and virtually all members of Congress have embraced. When statism is relegated to the dustbin of history, Farmer and his fellow statists should thank the defenders of liberty and peace for ending the welfare-warfare state that is bankrupting-morally and financially--America.
Murray Sabrin, Ph.D., is professor of finance in the Anisfield School of Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he is executive director of the Center for Business and Public Policy.