Sparing us The Emperor Al

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:03:08 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED DEC. 3, 2000
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Sparing us The Emperor Al

Holman W. Jenkins, in his Nov. 29 "Business World" column in The Wall Street Journal, pointed out that since the presidential balloting in Florida amounted to a statistical dead heat, any success Al Gore may have in convincing the courts to award him the state -- and thus the presidency -- would be "a statistical accident."

Yet according to Mr. Jenkins, those familiar with Mr. Gore report "his Fido-like persistence arises from his belief that he really 'won' the state. ... He apparently believes that when a small fraction of unmotivated, uninformed voters fail to follow the instructions of the Democratic operatives who drag them to the polls, it's tantamount to robbing him of a prize he's duly earned."

Jenkins concluded his column by pointing out that, should Gore persist in such tactics, "It would become clear, both to history and his own voters, that he was the wrong man all along. Support is already falling away fast for the candidate who is showing himself willing to belabor our most important institution merely to finagle his way to the prize he craves."

This is not merely about Al Gore -- though I'll admit there's something about a man who would pose as a fiscal "moderate" to win election from conservative Tennessee, a spoiled son of Washington privilege and wealthy tobacco heir who would turn cigarette prohibitionist and even use his own sister's tobacco-related death for political gain, a beneficiary of a huge trust in Occidental Oil stock who sidles up to the public-employee collectivists and proves willing to publicly embrace the most bizarre Luddite and Marxist environmental quackery, a man who will even modify his dress, speech and deportment in response to the way he's portrayed each weekend on "Saturday Night Live," that doesn't inspire my deepest trust.

Nor is this about George W. Bush, another child of wealth and privilege who will blithely take the oath of office -- as has every American ruler at least since Calvin Coolidge -- without pausing a moment to contemplate that he fully intends to violate the very principles of limited government which he is swearing before God to protect and defend, preferably within the next hour and certainly a thousand times before the month's out.

I harbor no delusions that George W. Bush will be a great president. I didn't vote for him. I don't even have a hankering for a great president. (Why does "greatness" always involve sending other mothers' sons to die in unpronouncable places?) I'd be much happier with a man who takes long naps in the afternoon and does little or nothing but host pleasant dinners for visiting ambassadors except on those rare occasions when the safety of our freedoms is truly at stake.

The notion that George W. Bush will prove a closet libertarian, working with a Republican Congress to repeal thousands upon thousands of unconstitutional post-1912 enactments and hosing out the thousand bureaucratic ant farms erected along the shores of the Potomac (starting with the IRS, the DEA, the FBI, and the BATF), is a chimera. It will be business as usual for the Imperial Bureaucracy no matter which of these front men is finally allowed to sleep in the Big Bed.

But between the two men there does emerge one increasingly apparent difference of character. George W. Bush has made it clear on a number of occasions that his future happiness does not rest on achieving this office -- if defeated, he has a nice ranch and gratifying gig in Texas and would probably have a more enjoyable next eight years, all things considered.

Al Gore, on the other hand, is a man driven by ambition. It is increasingly apparent he will do almost literally anything to succeed.

Imagine for a moment you could choose one of these two men to take the oath of office on the sad flight back from Dallas in late November of 1963. Within a few months, which would be more likely to start pouring endlessly more men and materiel into the doomed and divisive rathole of Vietnam, vowing -- as our larger-than-life villain, Lyndon Johnson, actually did vow -- "Dammit, I'm not gonna have them say I was the first American president under which this country lost a war!"?

Then again, maybe Al Gore would just be seeking a court ruling that he'd won the Vietnam War.

The way we choose our presidents is deeply flawed. The parties used to nominate senior statesmen of unquestioned stature, their positions on the issues of the day well established, who then "stood" for election. With the exception of a few major addresses -- lengthy speeches of substance; after 100 years we still recall William Jennings Bryan and his "Cross of Gold" -- their "campaigns" generally took the form of politely receiving reporters for interviews on the porch of the family home.

Given the choice that confronted us this fall, can anyone seriously suggest the massive union and corporate bribe-funded potlatch and baby-kissing contest which we now know as the "presidential primary season" is providing us with better leaders than the old "smoke-filled room"?

What's most poisonous about today's process is that merely to become a finalist in the presidential sweepstakes, the press and pundits now demand a fellow have such a "fire in the belly" to control the lives of millions that he would be -- in any other walk of life -- judged certifiably megalomaniac and insane.

I believe Al Gore qualifies.

And though I don't yet have much else good to say about him, I sense that George W. Bush does not.

By some miracle, the process designed by the founders did manage to spare us President Aaron Burr. It now appears to have done its work again. Somehow, it appears it will also spare us The Emperor Al.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and editor of Financial Privacy Report (subscribe by calling Nelson at 952-895-8757.) His book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available by dialing 1-800-244-2224; or via web site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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An Important Invitation from Vin Suprynowicz

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History

Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair