The Paul Family and Libertarian Slogans

Taxation = theft?

It's a provactive assertion, to be sure, in a sophomoric sort of way.

I went for it myself, on a purely intellectual level, when reading Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia as a college junior. A year later, I even followed up by reading Ayn Rand's libertarian panegyric, Atlas Shrugged.

That was then, this is now.

When I was growing up, the old saw used to be that anyone who wasn't a communist at twenty had no heart, while anyone who was still a communist at forty had no head.

That hoary old maxim is now a relic of the Cold War world.

But let's give libertarianism its due. The recent New York Times profile of Rand Paul, the 47-year-old upstart candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, showed the consistency of the political philosophy to which everyone in his family of origin apparently subscribes. Rand's father, Ron Paul, is a former Libertarian candidate for president. In the Times piece, his brother, Ronnie Paul, claimed to speak for all of them when making this assertion:

"We believe that stealing from people is not good, whether you're the government or whether you have a mask on."

A clever, clearly well rehearsed, line. But how, one wonders, can Ron Paul serve in Congress in good conscience if he believes this to be true, and why does Rand Paul want to serve in the Senate, if all the government is is a gang of thieves?

At least there was one surprise in the Times article. Rand Paul was NOT named after Ayn Rand; his name is short for Randall.

Not My Cup of Tea

I've not exactly been in denial about the Tea Party political movement. Today, however, its presence seemed to thread its way throughout my day.

Driving to work, I heard NPR report that Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is forming a nonprofit organization to promote Tea Party ideas. Legal ethics expert Stephen Gillers told Nina Totenberg that, in terms of judicial ethics, the test would come if and when the donors to Virginia Thomas's 501(c)(3), to be called Liberty Central, might have financial interests in cases before, or headed to, the Supreme Court. If that were to happen, Gillers said, the decision as to whether to recuse himself would be up to Justice Thomas, and would not be reviewable.

Later in the day, I stopped by an IRS office in Bloomington to pick up a tax form. I'd done the same thing a year ago, at a nondescript office building near the Mall of America, so I knew just where to go. I took the elevator to the seventh floor - and immediately realized what a difference a year makes. Last year, one could just walk in there and select one's forms. This year, the tiny office features an armed security guard. I'm not sure whether this is an overreaction or a legitimate protection of federal employees who find themselves on the frontlines of a culture war. But there it is.

Then, on my commute home, I heard NPR report on the opposition to the most recent attempts in Congress to pass healthcare insurance reform. Not surprisingly, many of the opponents have Tea Party links. Where did this state of affairs come from?

In historical terms, it's been brewing for quite awhile. I intend to dig out Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which I read back in college, to help understand this. Libertarian thought has powerful arguments to make, and they need to be heard and debated - over coffee, tea, or some other beverage of choice.