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Book: Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom by Ron Paul
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Authors: Ron Paul
Tags: United States, General, Political, Political Science, Philosophy, Political Ideologies, Political Freedom & Security, liberty
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of a free society. It’s not permitted in the United States since our Constitution does not provide the authority to force someone into involuntary duty to fight a war. Slavery is precisely forbidden, and that’s what involuntary service is.
Countries that conscript or have the capacity to conscript are more likely to get involved in unnecessary political wars. Much more important than having a military made up of massive standing armies, navies, air forces, marines, military contractors, and the CIA to make us “safe” would be to have a foreign policy that makes sense. It would be a lot cheaper, and we would never have to resort to the draft to defend the country and keep us safe.
Ronald Reagan, among other conservatives, opposed the draft. Robert Taft (“Mr. Republican”) was a strong opponent. Hanging in my congressional office is the following quote from Taft: “A compulsory draft is… far more typical ofa totalitarian nation than of a democratic nation. The theory behind it leads directly to totalitarianism. It is absolutely opposed to the principle of individual liberty which has always been considered a part of American democracy” (August 14, 1940).
Henderson, David R. 2010. “From ‘Porous’ to ‘Ruthless’ Conscription, 1776–1917.”
Independent Review
. http://www.independent.org .
Higgs, Robert. 2005.
Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society
. Independent Institute. http://www.independent.org .
Webster, Daniel. 1814. “On Conscription,” reprinted in
Left and Right
, Volume 1, Number 2, Spring 1965.
D EMAGOGUES
P olitics breeds demagogues—politicians and media pundits alike. The word “demagogue” itself dates to the ancient world because the phenomenon is that old. Demagogues seek influence and political power by appealing to the prejudices, emotions, fears, and expectations of the public. They do not enlighten; they browbeat and play rhetorical games.
Demagoguery is the enemy of liberty and serves the interest of power seekers across the political spectrum. Government attracts all those who enjoy using power over others and those who convince themselves that average people need “smart” people to take care of them. And only the demagogues can provide the “wisdom” to appoint those who should rule over us. When the goal of political action is no longer the defense of liberty, no word other than demagoguery can describe the despicable nature of politics.
Demagogues manipulate a political issue in a manner to obscure or distort truth with emotionalism and prejudice. The goal of all demagogues is to achieve power at all costs.
Dictators accomplish this by brute force; in democracies,demagogues do it the same way but camouflage the brute force with idealistic declarations of being humanitarian saviors. Even brutal dictators must convince a gullible public that the violence is required to do good for the people. This is true whether it’s Soviet-style communism, French Jacobinism, the environmental alarmists, the current neoconservatives, or the cradle-to-grave welfarists.
Though the demagogues on the right and left are true competitors for power, they share a belief in state power and the techniques and tools of the demagogue. The purpose is to take a principled stand by the proponents of liberty and reason and turn it into support for something ugly and mean by gross distortion of the truth.
The right is vocal in condemning opposition to the Bush-Obama doctrine of preventive war as being unpatriotic, un-American, and against the troops. If one opposes a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, it’s considered unpatriotic and un-American. If one lacks enthusiasm for the war on drugs, it’s charged that that person doesn’t care about kids and would promote drug use for them. Opposing foreign aid draws charges, from right and left, of nefarious motivations. Also, among this crowd, if you have doubts about using the federal government as an instrument
Countries that conscript or have the capacity to conscript are more likely to get involved in unnecessary political wars. Much more important than having a military made up of massive standing armies, navies, air forces, marines, military contractors, and the CIA to make us “safe” would be to have a foreign policy that makes sense. It would be a lot cheaper, and we would never have to resort to the draft to defend the country and keep us safe.
Ronald Reagan, among other conservatives, opposed the draft. Robert Taft (“Mr. Republican”) was a strong opponent. Hanging in my congressional office is the following quote from Taft: “A compulsory draft is… far more typical ofa totalitarian nation than of a democratic nation. The theory behind it leads directly to totalitarianism. It is absolutely opposed to the principle of individual liberty which has always been considered a part of American democracy” (August 14, 1940).
Henderson, David R. 2010. “From ‘Porous’ to ‘Ruthless’ Conscription, 1776–1917.”
Independent Review
. http://www.independent.org .
Higgs, Robert. 2005.
Against Leviathan: Government Power and a Free Society
. Independent Institute. http://www.independent.org .
Webster, Daniel. 1814. “On Conscription,” reprinted in
Left and Right
, Volume 1, Number 2, Spring 1965.
D EMAGOGUES
P olitics breeds demagogues—politicians and media pundits alike. The word “demagogue” itself dates to the ancient world because the phenomenon is that old. Demagogues seek influence and political power by appealing to the prejudices, emotions, fears, and expectations of the public. They do not enlighten; they browbeat and play rhetorical games.
Demagoguery is the enemy of liberty and serves the interest of power seekers across the political spectrum. Government attracts all those who enjoy using power over others and those who convince themselves that average people need “smart” people to take care of them. And only the demagogues can provide the “wisdom” to appoint those who should rule over us. When the goal of political action is no longer the defense of liberty, no word other than demagoguery can describe the despicable nature of politics.
Demagogues manipulate a political issue in a manner to obscure or distort truth with emotionalism and prejudice. The goal of all demagogues is to achieve power at all costs.
Dictators accomplish this by brute force; in democracies,demagogues do it the same way but camouflage the brute force with idealistic declarations of being humanitarian saviors. Even brutal dictators must convince a gullible public that the violence is required to do good for the people. This is true whether it’s Soviet-style communism, French Jacobinism, the environmental alarmists, the current neoconservatives, or the cradle-to-grave welfarists.
Though the demagogues on the right and left are true competitors for power, they share a belief in state power and the techniques and tools of the demagogue. The purpose is to take a principled stand by the proponents of liberty and reason and turn it into support for something ugly and mean by gross distortion of the truth.
The right is vocal in condemning opposition to the Bush-Obama doctrine of preventive war as being unpatriotic, un-American, and against the troops. If one opposes a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, it’s considered unpatriotic and un-American. If one lacks enthusiasm for the war on drugs, it’s charged that that person doesn’t care about kids and would promote drug use for them. Opposing foreign aid draws charges, from right and left, of nefarious motivations. Also, among this crowd, if you have doubts about using the federal government as an instrument
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