Sunday, August 13, 2017

A Plea to My Fellow Libertarians: Please Throw Donald Trump Under the Bus

By Robert Wenzel

As long time readers of Target Liberty know, I have been no supporter of Donald Trump.

Pretty much from the start of his campaign, I warned that he did not hold libertarian principles, that he had an infatuation with the military, that he held horrific views on trade and was not going to close down the Fed, etc.

But some libertarians championed Trump as "better than Hillary." At the time, I believed this was a strategic blunder in that there really wouldn't be that much difference between Trump and Hillary and that Hillary, as a target for libertarians would have been much more appealing.

A segment of the masses would have flocked to libertarian websites to learn arguments that they could use against Hillary supporters if Hillary had become President. But Trump, as I had expected, has attracted that segment and drained that segment away from libertarian sites.

Now comes an even greater danger. Some libertarians continue to support Trump despite the fact that
the Left, with some justification, is pointing out that Trump is attracting a loud group of fascist supporters.

Friday night in Charlottesville, one youtube video captured the Trump-supporting pro-white protesters carrying KKK-like torches, saluting Nazi-style and marching through the streets chanting an old Nazi favorite, "blood and soil."  (Yes, yes, I know "blood and soil" was a phrase that had been used before the Nazis adopted it but so was the swastika. In this crowd, it was obvious, as I will show below how they were using the term---in support of fascism.)




On Saturday morning in Charlottesville, there was another group chanting "blood and soil."

This group, all dolled out in matching clothing, is wearing Vanguard America dress.

At the Vanguard America website, we learn from their manifesto what the shouting of "blood and soil" means to them. The manifesto is subtitled AMERICAN FASCISM and says:
An America based on the immutable truths of Blood and Soil. A multicultural nation is no nation at all, but a collection of smaller ethnic nations ruled over by an overbearing tyrannical state. Our America is to be a nation exclusively for the White American peoples who out of the barren hills, empty plains, and vast mountains forged the most powerful nation to ever have existed. Vanguard America stands indomitably opposed to the tyranny of globalism and capitalism.... Like all independent nations, America should strive for a truly national economy. An economy that is self-contained, and free from the influence of international corporations, led by a rootless group of international Jews, which place profit beyond the interests of our people, or any people. 
I have said many times, I think it is goofy, but if people want to just hang around with their own that is fine with me.  But these people are not talking about the freedom to associate on one's own property with whomever one chooses. This group is talking about America becoming exclusively white. Thrown in with some very bad Trumpian-style anti-trade, nationalist, economics.

Here are some of the posters that can be purchased on the Vanguard site:




These kinds of characters are driving the youth of America into the hands of the Leftists. These characters are Trump supporters and Trump seems very reluctant to condemn them the way he condemns others. Trump is, with some justification, being associated with them.

What exactly could be the strategic reason for libertarians to support Trump under these conditions?

Trump is bad on just about every policy position beyond the Federal transgender bathroom issue.

I ask again, What do libertarians gain by associating with him? 

I am not suggesting that libertarians support the impeachment of Trump, Vice President Pence would be just as bad---maybe. But I suggest that libertarians should distance themselves from Trump as much as they distance themselves from the social justice warrior Left. 

Students and the masses need to be made aware that there is an alternative to bizarre Trump supporters and the social justice warriors because if students and the masses think these are the only two options a lot are going to slide in the direction of the social justice warriors.  

I am not suggesting that libertarians are going to sway the masses anytime soon and gain great victories but if we don't show clearly that there is a third way, libertarianism will never advance at more than a snail's pace, if at all. The students are not going to learn in colleges and universities that there is a libertarian alternative to Trump. You know it and I know it. They are going to be shown the door labeled socialism. We are the only hope that they learn of a Liberty option. An alliance with Trump, and I repeat he is horrific on nearly all issues, makes no sense. The millennials are not going to follow and it is easy to understand why.

And so I call on my libertarian friends who have done much to advance liberty to stop the support of Trump, throw him under the bus.

He has done nothing for the movement except suck air out of it.

And by throwing him under the bus, I do not mean that libertarians should remain silent about him or occasionally mumble something about one of his horrific policies. We need to condemn him with a very loud voice every time he says something that is not in line with libertarian principle---which will be almost every day. Only in this way can we accelerate the knowledge to students and the masses that there is an alternative to both Trump and social justice warriors---and that alternative is Liberty.


UPDATE



James Alex Fields, the man accused of fatally plowing his car into a group of counter-protesters in Virginia on Saturday was photographed hours earlier carrying a shield bearing the emblem of Vanguard America.

24 comments:

  1. Political Liberty was the goal of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) of the 50's and early '60's: to eliminate the Jim Crow Laws that prevented blacks and whites from freely associating. They had a clear and principled goal. The CRM were highly trained and disciplined cadre of blacks and white who used nonviolent civil disobedience and moral suasion to reach their goal. They succeeded brilliantly. A true libertarian triumph.

    The the sad state of affairs in Charlottesville, my home town, represents just how far away we have gone from the clarity, principle stance and non violent tactics of the early CRM. Then it was freedom of the individual against state oppression. Now it is two mobs against each other ready and intending to do violence to the other at the slightest provocation. It seems that all they are capable of doing is swimming in their anger and hurling vile insults at each other; and using the law to force their views on those who disagree with them, a tactic at which the left is clearly more competent.

    Unfortunately the early CRM went from ridding society of laws that prevented free association of individuals to using the law to force people into associations not of their choosing. Whites had to suffer the violation of their human rights, if necessary, to counter the cultural, educational, and economic degradation that blacks experienced because of slavery and Jim Crow. Whites used the legal system to heap these abominations on blacks. Now the legal system would be used to even the score.

    Is it any wonder that the lives of ordinary Americans are now so politicized, and that what is happening in Charlottesville and other cities is not surprising?

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  2. Well said, Robert. Very well said.

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  3. RW writes: "These kinds of characters are driving the youth of America into the hands of the Leftists. These characters are Trump supporters..."

    I don't pretend to know who is behind what, but if I was a ruthless leftie (or do I repeat myself?) I'd be out there dressed as a Nazi KKK honky supremisist moron flying a Trump Forever flag.

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  4. Thank you for this post Robert. I'm quite shocked at the degree to which racist, neo-nazi, and fascist ideas and behaviors were on display. I did not know there were this many of them. Of course, not everyone there espoused these ideas, a lot of fairly decent people went to Charlottesville, but it looks like we need to start condemning the dangerous elements of the right wing a bit more often like we do with the SJW leftists.

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    1. The SJWs and the rest of the "left" have conjured them into existence by calling everyone who disagrees with them "nazis" and "racists" and worse. They put a lot into it and now it is bearing its rotten fruit. Some people become what they are labeled or see it as the alternative to those they disagree with.

      Liberty is out the picture. People will pick the form of statism that best protects their interests.

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    2. Re: Jimmy Joe Meeker,

      ─ The SJWs and the rest of the "left" have conjured them into existence by calling everyone who disagrees with them "nazis" and "racists" and worse. ─

      Oh, rubbish! The hate groups and white supremacists that wend down to Charlottesville were but the tip of the iceberg. This has been festering for a long time or where do you think such animosity against markets and immigrants came from? These white supremacists weren't conjured up by the left. If at all, the left merely want to blur the lines in order to defame and smear conservatives and, sometimes, even libertarians. But the anti-immigrant and anti-market sentiments bubble up inside a much larger group than just the brown-shirted nincompoops.

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    3. They already existed but more may be driven their direction by the SJW leftists; and vice versa. That can happen when you don't have well thought out, strong principles.

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    4. Re: Torres

      Not that long ago the white supremacist movement was reduced to a federal government agents, their informants, and handful of people that were stupid enough to be seduced by them into joining. Now after all this time of the left framing all things political as 'democrats and nazis' suddenly there is a white supremacist problem. Suddenly there enough of these people to even have a march.

      The "left" have been running this "us vs. nazis" theme very hard since the general election season began and for quite some time at lower intensity before that. So yes, it has been festering for a long time. But it's been a deliberately caused festering.

      I don't presume to know if it was just to smear their political opposition or create a violent fight or they didn't care which or both because either way their ends and the ends of the ruling class are served by it. But it's pretty clear that prior to this starting the movement was widely laughed at, mocked, and down to a very tiny powerless, disorganized few. Someone energized so if it wasn't all this energy from the left, what was it?

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    5. I agree with all 3 of you. The left is guilty of provoking this, but the right is guilty of taking the bait and putting its repulsive ideas ideas on a public stage for all to see.

      The real enemy, though, is the entire idea of "democracy." It makes adversaries out of people who would otherwise be happy to co-exist separately. It makes tolerance appear to be a dangerous strategy, since there's always a danger that the "other side" could commandeer the state and use it against you. And worst of all, it's almost universally defended as sacrosanct, in almost religious terms.

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  5. It'd be better if a promoter came along and organized a no holds barred battle royal between the violent left and right. They want to fight, let them do it. Just don't bring the peaceniks on the left or right into this nonsense. And definitely keep the State out of it.

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  6. Vox Day writes this kind of stuff multiple times a day and each post gets 100 -200 very positive comments. He constantly denounces libertarianism because there would be no way to keep out the foreigners and non-Europeans (he claims):

    It's all about identity now. It's about time whites started playing according to the replacement rules created by the Jews, Italians, and Irish. The days of the old "give it your best shot, Eddie, and may the best man win" have been over since 1965. The USA is no longer an American nation-state, so the only question that matters is "is it good for the whites".

    Or, in this case, Indians.

    Realistically, 93 to 94 percent of Infosys's employees should be repatriated. Because not good for the whites.


    http://voxday.blogspot.com/2017/06/those-talented-immigrants.html

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    1. Presumably, Vox Day understands that companies can hire Indians to program for them regardless of whether or not the Indians are located in the United States.

      Or he should anyway, because he programs and writes from Northern Italy, amongst a people he's presumably trying to reverse replace?

      Of course, repatriating the Indians will solve this problem. I just hope Vox doesn't repatriate.

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  7. --- Some libertarians continue to support Trump despite the fact that
    the Left, with some justification, is pointing out that Trump is attracting a loud group of fascist supporters. ---

    The left? Us Anarcho-capitalists warned loudly about this loudmouth, this ignorant lout, the moment the guy announced his candidacy by attacking Mexican immigrants and trade with China. Of COURSE he was going to attract all sorts of Fascists and unsavory individuals espousing nasty thoughts. Some have commented here, spewing their hatred for immigrants and hostility towards free markets and free trade. I've tackled with these faux consevatives for years and called them out for what they were: Progressives (the traditional or classic kind) in conservative drag: rejecting markets, competition and other people different than themselves.

    When Cheeto-man made his announcement speech, I thought the man was insane. I didn't realize that so many Americans are just as insane. We now see the results. May God have mercy on our souls.

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  8. Vanguard America does not speak for all Whites.
    They don't call them Hollywood Nazis without reason.

    I also think trying to blame a very small number of Libertarian Trump supporters for Libertarianism dying is amusing, but do it for the college kids !
    Libertarians have killed themselves by promoting 3rd world immigration which will never adopt anything like Libertarianism or any Austrian economic view.
    Libertarianism is not the third way, it is a dead end cul-de-sac.


    Vox Day is not a Nazi btw.

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    1. Re: FormerThinkingperson,

      --- Vox Day is not a Nazi btw. ---

      Takes one to know one, right FL?

      --- Libertarians have killed themselves by promoting 3rd world immigration [sic] ---

      I present to you exhibit one, esteemed members of the jury.

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    2. This is true. I have a fondness for Libertarian ideals and once would have called myself a Libertarian. But Libertarianism only works if all parties sign onto it and all, or at least most, agree to follow the rules. As you point out, we are letting in millions into this country who have zero interest in our "ideals" and would actively subvert them at every opportunity.

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    3. It's ironic that an advocate of ethno-nationalistic fetishism would accuse another ideology of being a "dead end cul-de-sac."

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    4. > Says Vanguard is Hollywood Nazis
      > Doesn't realize new philosophy has only one end
      > Says Libertarianism is dead end

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  9. Firstly, almost everything you are reading about Charlottesville in the media is a lie. The right wingers were there to protest peacefully but were attacked by the Antifa crowd, egged on, apparently and disturbingly (If true) by the Police themselves so they could shut the proceedings down. The loonatic who drove through the crowd should be arrested and hung out to dry. Yet look at the difference in the way the media are handling this: a migrant mowing down a crowd yelling Alahu Akbar? He's a lone wolf and we have no idea what motivated him. A lunatic who is White drives through a crowd? It's the fault of Trump and everyone who voted for him.

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  10. Just because you supported Hillary it doesn't make you a Crook, Socialist, Warmonger or Crony Capitalist and the same goes for Trump supporters as far as supporting all of Trump's views. Those moron nazi marchers don't represent Trump! Theoretically some marchers may possibly read your blog. Does that make you responsible for their actions? Your article is very unfair and is outrageous hyperbole! Sorry to say that this article reads like something the "Deep State" would facilitate by paying one of their STOOGE LACKEYS in the MSM to write to discredit Trump.

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    1. Re: Unknown,

      ─ Those moron nazi marchers don't represent Trump! ─

      Of course not but you're missing the point. These groups are SAYING they represent all disenfranchised whites. David Duke reminded Trump of who his base is made of. The point is that these groups felt emboldened by Trump's rhetoric and policies, especially right after he mentioned the magic words "Mexican rapists" and "wall". What did anybody expect?

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  11. Despite their lip service to the ideals of individualism, libertarians are authoritarians at heart. Their mealy-mouthed support of Trump because he is not Hillary is all the proof anyone needs.

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  12. Make the Libertarian Party great again. Then we'll be a political alternative for people.

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