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Home , Free trade, Garet Garrett, Grassroots, Justin Raimondo, Lew Rockwell, Mary Ruwart

ROTHBARD-ROCKWELL REPORT

The Big endemic to this movement alleg- edly devoted to Government and to the inviolable of Libertarians: . In particular, I mentioned a fondness for the The Anti- socialist, compulsory integra- Left-Libertarian tionist “Dr.” Martin Luther King. These leaders assured me THE EAR Manifesto that there was no by Murray N. Rothbard or King-loving in the libertarian movement; six months later, Approximately four years and after our break had oc- ago, and I broke curred, these same leaders were Voice, has been fired with the Libertarian Movement singing the praises of “Dr.” ice for “irreconcilable to found the ”paleolibertarian King as a model “libertarian.” movement,” a break which In the past four years, the dbetter . is roughly coincided with our fu- Official Libertarians have cat- sion with the “paleoconserva- apulted Leftward at an accel- tives” in the John Randolph erating rate. At every hand, Club and our Establishment of while still mouthing general RRR. (The Libertarian Move- “libertarian” slogans, this Of- ficial Movement is increasingly ment, which we can roughly ***** call the “Official Libertarians,” abandoning libertarian prin- is a loosely organized network ciples and embracing leftist that includes the Libertarian egalitarian statism. Party, magazine, Reason My old friend Harry Elmer magazine, and various free- Barnes used to write bitterly thinktanks and institu- about ”pro-war pacifists,” a tions.) Our own ”rightward (Cont. page 2, col. 3) (Cont. next page, co/. I) turn” was the consequence of the dramatic end of the and , and the reappearance of America First and ”” as a viable Rating Senate Republicans ...... foreign policy for a rejuvenated The Anti-Clinton Election, by M.N.R...... 9 and reconstituted American Quotes That Need No Comment ...... Right. But our dramatic break .10 also resulted from what we saw Bosnian Update: No Peace, No Peace-Keeping, by M.N.R...... 14 as a festering and escalating Our , and Theirs, by ...... 15 Left-egalitarianism within the Rating Senate Republicans ...... 16 Official Libertarian movement. The Real , by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr...... 19 Shortly before our break with More Quotes That Need No Comment ...... 21 the Official Libertarians, I told some of the leadership that I The To Hire and Fire, by L.H.R., Jr...... 22 believed that egalitarianismwas Envy us. , by L.H.R.,Jr...... 23 ~ ~

(7WEEARurnt. hmpg. 1) (BIG GOK cont. from page 1) group that has recently re- at of 53, of AIDS. doubled in force since the Gulf ***** War.Similarly, we cantrace the rise of another malignant group: George Bus be criti- “Big Government libertarians.” cized as “so WASP he would get The fact that both of these con- out of the wean to pee.” Well, cepts are oxymorons does not slow these people down one whit; on the contrary, it allows them to keep the cloak, the out- ward form, of their original ***** creed (whether pacifism or lib- ertarianism) in order to cam- Spy magazine notes that ouflage the diametrically op- “William F. Buckley, Jr., made ”opposition,” BiU, since NAFTA posed content underneath. [recent] Yale history when he includes these co ”Wolves in sheep’s clothing’’ ran up a in excess of within it; he who sums up their strategy. In that $500 at a restaurant, NAFTA, supports the way, the libertarian public is at one point bellowing, ‘Waitert fooled into changing their own bring me a bottle of before creed without realizing the trick I pass out.”’ that has been played upon them. ***** The great Old Right analyst aptly called this Congrats to the second R for sort of wily tactic ” within the form.” Thus: the essence of the liber- tarian creed is that the only ”rights” are the rights of private property, including the right of feated 174 it would have meant property in one’s own person. government control of private And yet, the Official Libertarians schoolss,and by erasing school have increasingly embraced a district lines, it would have also panoply of new, left-wing rights, have sunk home prices and led each of which necessarily adds to massive busing. extra aggression against the ***** rights of property. “Civil left-ward and State-ward, of rights,” sanctified by ”Dr.” The national Libertarian Party, Official Libertarians. Evers King, are a clear-cut example. since its convention on the addled to the resolution his own No one ever has the ”right not Labor Day weekend at Salt Lake poLitical spin: that a defeat for to be discriminated” against; City under total control of long- NAFTA would “set back the for such ’highis” invade the in- time California leader Bill ”Mr . cause of free for decades.” violable right of the property- Stanford” Evers, has joined all No Bill, it would set owner-whether householder the other Official Libertarians in cause of international statism, or employer-to discriminate as endorsing NAFTA. How does super-governmentbureaucracy, much as he darn well pleases, Evers, who has built a long-term and subsidized American ex- and for whatever reason. And reputation as an LP ”purist,” ports. Since when does a “lib- yetl the Official Libertarians have jus* this sellout to statism? ertaxian purist‘’ call that system now adopted “civil rights’’ as By noting libertarian concerns ””? their own, and the leading ”lib- 2 .December W93 ertarian” legal group, the But since the impulse for this enthusiastic about the ”rights” Washington-based Institute for drive is egalitarian, i.e., that all of women and gen- Justice, attempts to use the groups, races, classes, etc.4 erally. And in particular, liber- courts to enforce civil rights not all -are ”really” tarians have displayed great concepts. Essentially, liber- equal, this means that this com- fervor for gay ”rights” and tarians now favor civil rights, pensation will never stop until stress the evils of ”discrimina- but, like the neoconservatives, average black and white in- tion” against gays. So ardently they balk at their logical exten- comes, wealth, status, etc. are are libertarians devoted to gay sion in affirmative action and all equal. And since equality of rights that the word “liber- enforced quotas for accredited individuals and groups does tarian” in the public press has “victim groups.” not and cannot now become almost a code If Official Lib- exist, this means word for championof gay rights. ertarians offer any that the proposed Only his pro-gay agenda ac- sort of argument ”compensation” counts for the ardor of Repub- for their embrace is forever. lican libertarians towardMass- of the statist con- Since libertar- achusetts Governor Weld, cept of ”civil ians are individu- whom they embrace as, in the rights,” it is alists who believe current slogan, ”fiscally con- usually that such that each indi- servative but socially tolerant.” rights, even if not vidual is a person (The ”fiscally conservative” strictly following of different merits refers to a one-time budget cut from principle, who should go as followed, the next time around, are needed to far as his merit by a compensatory budget in- “offset” or “com- can carry him, crease.) ”Socially tolerant,” in pensate” blacks libertarians are the current atmosphere, means for several hun- not supposed to be a devotion to the entire Left dred years of egalitarian, and cultural agenda, from gay slavery. But of indeed none of rights to compulsory multicul- course another the libertarian tural propaganda and condom- essential aspect masters, includ- ization in the public schools. of libertarian ing The radical shift leftward of “rights” is that who was the guru the libertarian movement is re- they pertain strictly to each in- for the bulk of current liber- flected in their concrete political dividual, and do not accrue tarians, was in any sense positions. In addition to civil over time to some ”group” or egalitarian. And yet there it is: rights and gay rights, the most ”class.” The idea that “we owe egalitarianism has become the fervent Official Libertarian en- blacks” for slavery overlooks unspoken but very real driving thusiasm is now directed toward several critical points (in addition force in the current Official school vouchers. Note that the to the fact that the process of in- movement. major focus of the libertarian itial enslavement was never Once group egalitarianism argument for school vouchers white-on-black, but always becomes the norm, other groups is that the range of ”choice” by black-on-black among warring than blacks will clamor for the poor parents will be expanded; African tribes): (a) that “we” privileges of ”victim status.’’ with vouchers in their pockets, existing folk never enslaved Sure enough, that jostling for poor parents will be able to anyone; (b) that existing blacks victim privilege is now the major choose to send their kids to pri- were never enslaved; and (c) hallmark of American . vate as well as public schools. that there is never any sug- The Official libertarians have so But of course any thief finds his gested time or quantitative limit far not displayed enormous af- range of choice happily ex- to this ”compensation.” How finity for Latino or disabled panded; but expansions of wel- long and how much 0 Lord? ”rights,” but they are highly fare thievery is not supposed to 3 December 239 -be the point of libertarian pol- lems; school ”choice,” which inating” in admissions in favor itics. For while the poor parent will tear down separate subur- of students of their own religion. who receives vouchers will in- ban districts, is a sinister method Even the California proposal, deed find his choices expanded, of accomplishing this very goal. which tries to avoid increased the forced to pay for Thus, voucher plans generally controls over the voucher- the voucher will find his range require states to redeeming pri- of choice restricted by having to equalize spending vate schools, pro- support the private as well as among public hibits all ”discrim- the public school system. And school districts, ination” based the parents who now send their and the California on race, ethnicity, kids to private schools, as well color, and na- as the owners of those schools, plan, highly tout- tional origin. will find their choices restricted ed among liber- In her excellent because their schools will now tarians, would article on school come under the heel of Levi- explicitly force vouchers in the athan: as federal, state, and local suburban district American Spec- come thumping schools to accept tator (November), down on the previously self- children from in- Charlotte Allen regulating private schools. For ner cities if they quotes one of the one thing, private schools will have any room voucher advo- no longer be able to keep out available. Indeed, cates in the Wall the poor, inner-city kids who if California’s St. Journal, who are to be the main recipients of Prop 174 for declares that ”the taxpayer largess. school vouchers best choice plans Indeed, an egalitarian assault is defeated, the are accompanied on suburbia on behalf of the indignant subur- by effort to equal- inner-city poor is one of the ma- banites, at last ize funding among jor points of the school voucher realizing this fact, will have districts. . .help parents make program. For one of the mon- provided the margin of defeat. thoughtful decisions; prohibit strous aspects of the school Make no mistake, further- school admissions tests.” “choice” scheme is that it serves more: school vouchers will bring Even more chilling is Miss as a substitute for the old failed control of the private schools in Allen’s report from Dirk Rogg- forced busing program: Part of their wake. Government sub- eveen, chief litigator for the the Left libertarian agenda is an sidy inevitably brings govern- aforesaid Institute for Justice. attempt to centralize, to destroy ment control. The voucher The Institute is suing in the pockets of local self-government. scheme imposed in Milwaukee courts in Chicago and Los Many suburbans having fled by the widely lauded legislator Angeles to try to accomplish the crime, welfare, and rotting Polly Williams, forbids religious the voucher scheme within the housing of the inner cities, have schools from participating, and judiciary. The argument: that managed to carve out for them- the state of Wisconsin insists vouchers and the abolition of selves decent schools, even that private schools accepting local school districts are neces- though they are public. For these vouchers will scarcely be able to sary to insure the “inner-city schools have been more or less discipline or expel their students, students’ constitutional right to under local parental control and who will be accorded ”con- a ’quality’ education”! And so local taxing authority. Welfare stitutional guarantees” of due this horror is what so-called egalitarians have been trying process. A fortunately failed ”libertarians” are now reduced for many years to destroy sub- Florida proposal would have to: trying to use the courts to urban ”segregation” and to prohibited single-sex schools enforce a “right” to a “quality force them to coalesce with the from the program and prevented education”! The ”right,” of inner cities and suffer their prob- religious schools from ”discrim- course, to be supplied by the hapless . ment, and the closer it is to its neocons, but there is a definite The assault against local con- subjects or constituency, the Kempian streak to much of the trol is part and parcel of the new more they will be accountable -Libertarian program: tidal left-wave of Official Liber- to and removable by that public. maintaining or not dwindling tarians. More and more, they But just as national government the while piddling thirst to use ever larger bodies is far less accountable than local, away at the margins with some of government to enforce the absolute worst would be and some ”em- “rights” (whether legitimate or world government: supra-gov- powerment”-the latter actually , not) that are not being suffi- ernmental bodies accountable expanding the welfare state. ciently guarded or provided by to no one. And while “grass- And of course the school local instruments of government. roots tyranny” by one town or voucher program, as we have The Forgotten Tenth Amend- village can easily be avoided by seen, is tantamount to aggran- ment has not only been ignored; moving to the next town; how dizing the welfare state as well it is being reversed. Thus, Clint will we be able to escape world as control over the private Bolick, the major “libertarian” government tyranny? schools. And Clint Bolick doesn’t theoretician for the Institute for It is high time we put it to the want to bring down the welfare Justice, recently published a Official Left-Libertarians: do state until the ”rules of the book denouncing Grassroots you favor world government as game” are no longer “rigged” Tyranny as the glaring major a way of getting around “na- against the disadvantaged, evil of our time-this in an era tional” tyranny? And while which will mean, in the last when we are groaning more Left libertarians have as yet analysis, until ”equality” is and more desperately under shown no strong signs of em- achieved. In the meanwhile, the despotism of Big Brother in bracing foreign intervention- Dr. , attorney and Washington! even though they have taken physician, who was the Vice- The fervor for the misnamed pains to assure respectable opin- Presidential candidate of the North American Free Trade ion that their non-intervention Libertarian Party in 1992, ex- Agreement (Nafta) by Official is moderate and prudential and plicitly advocates both the Libertarians is part of the same not really principled-they welfare state and anti-discrim- syndrome. At the very least, an don’t seem to realize that, say, ination laws. unwarrantedly large amount of for a world governmental body And then there is Dr. Mary resources-money, energy, to guarantee the ”rights” of Ruwart, a biologist propaganda-have been devoted Somalians against warlords, who has been a star attraction by the slew of ”free-market will lead ineluctably to USlUN at Libertarian Party conventions think tanks” to agitating for shooting of Somalians in the since 1983, when her New Age- Nafta. But a particularly sinister name of supposedly protecting like call for Love and Unity aspect of this agitation has been their rights. To call upon ever almost swept her to either the an eagerness to pooh-pooh any larger jurisdictions of govern- Presidential or Vice-presidential problems in, or even to look ment to make up for deficiencies nomination. ’s benignly upon, the network of of the smaller, implies both new book, with the revealingly supra-governmental commis- world government and eternal sappy title, Healing Our World, sions, panels, and advisory American intervention in foreign has received the acclaim of boards, that would be entailed affairsfor the sake of the “free- ”Modal,” or Left-libertarians, by Nafta. These higher struc- dom” of countries on the re- across the country. The book is tures of government would be ceiving end of the intervention. explicitly geared to converting unaccountable even to national It is not even clear that the left-liberals to libertarianism. publics; they would be super- Official Libertarians still oppose Here are three of her featured governments, levitating above the welfare state. They might arguments: that liberty “pro- the action. not yet embrace the welfare motes an even [i.e. equal] is vital be- state with quite the same en- distribution of wealth”; that it cause the smaller the govern- thusiasm as their friends the ”achieves zero population 5 December 1993 growth” (Huh?); and that it has truth. Says Rauch: “This kind falsifiablity-how is the truth of already ”increased the endan- of claim-a power grab really- this criterion established? Is il gered elephant population in is illicit and repugnant.” falsifiable? How? Zimbabwe by 33% in a single Actually, it is In his $licit and repugnant decade!”In short, for Mary and his ilk who are ”illicit and assault upon Christianity and Ruwart, liberty is good because repugnant.” For this is the stan- truth, Jonathan Rauch, the it is allegedly egalitarian, because dard left-liberal secularist bilge alleged free-speech absolutist, it is anti-human (eliminates of the nineteenth and twentieth does not explicitly call for growth in the human popula- centuries, this idea that skep- stamping out the free-speech of tion), and because it is pro- ticism and uncertainty about ”dogmatic” Christians, but elephant (encourages growth the truth is the only guarantee anti-Christian fire and brim- in the elephant population)! of liberty. And indeed, Rauch’s stone is implicit in his treat- Mary Ruwart’s arguments for book reeks with the heroes of ment. In fact he gives away the liberty may be bubble-headed, what he actually calls ”liberal show all too explicitly by claim- but they permit us to look deeply science” [his ideal-but an ab- ing that religious or “spiritual” into the very soul of the liber- surd phrase if there ever was matters have to be ”marginal- tarian movement-and that one!]: C.S. Pierce and prag- ized‘’ in society and kept away soul is in parlous shape indeed. matism, Bertrand Russell, Karl from any role in public moral If this is libertarianism, who Popper et al. But Pontius Pilate, and political debate. But how needs it? the mentor of all these worthies, does Rauch propose to do so Another revealing glimpse was scarcely an outstanding ex- without eventually relying on into the mind of the Official ample of resistance to tyranny! force? Rauch’s leftist friends in- Libertarian is the venture of the On the contrary, it takes firm- deed succeeded all too well in Cat0 Institute crowd into high ness in truth-in the truth, for this century in ”marginalizing” moral theory: Jonathan Rauch’s example, of the importance of Christians and other conserv- new book, Kindly Inquisitors: liberty and natural rights-that ative partisans of truth; and it is The New Attacks on Free Thought . enables people to have the cour- precisely the attempt of Chris- Ostensibly devoted to the noble age to resist tyranny and to per- tians to take back American cause of defending freedom of suade others to resist. Liberty is culture and American politics speech, the book is actually occu- safe only in the hands of those that accounts for the hatred of pied with bashing free speech! who know that liberty is a vital and of all of us in You might think that, in this truth of human nature that the Buchananite movement day and age, the legions of the needs to be safeguarded. While that animates all left-libertarians. Politically Correct would be the the Dean of skeptics, Michel de The totalitarian spirit of left- main focus of the Rauch-Cat0 Montaigne, preached obedience libertarians and their willing- blast, but you would be wrong. to the absolute State in the name ness to cnish For underlying the PC Brigade, of prudence, the ”dogmatic” is revealed in a paean to the Rauch sees the true enemy: Peo- Christian Church has, in the April Gay March on Washington ple Who Think They Know the history of mankind, formed the by Brian Doherty, one of the Truth. It is those who are certain major bulwark of the rights of editors of the bi-monthly liberty. of the truth that are the enemy person and property against In his peroration, Doherty con- of freedom. In short: ”dogma- State despotism. cludes that the “preservation of tists’’ who believe in truth and The Rauch book abounds in civilization depends far more virtue, in particular, Christians, assertion rather than argument. on suppressing hate, violence, are the enemy. Thus, Rauch Just two points need be made and prejudice than on sup- reserves his most acidulous about the argumentation. First, pressing those people who barbs for ”fundamentalists how can a firm case for liberty choose to make love with mem- [who] want to protect the truth,” be made by someone who ab- bers of their own sex.” The and he vilely attacks Pope John jures all firm truth? And se- operative phrase here is the Paul 11 for claiming to know the cond, on the Popper criterion of need to ”suppress” ”hate” and 6 December 1993 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ”prejudice.” Apparently, the ism”? How did they manage to ”dogmatism”? How could they freedom to hate or to be “pre- transform themselves from move so far so fast? Simply judiced” is one crucial aspect of radical individualists and cham- noting their sellout to Power, natural rights, that Big Govern- pions of property rights, into their accommodation to the ment libertarians propose to pro-civil rights, pro-gay rights, mainstream, is not enough to stamp out by club and bayonet. welfare staters who are increas- explain this remarkable shift. A How did the Official Liber- ingly willing to use coercion to more crucial explanation lies tarians make the radical leap into stamp out “hatred,” “preju- deep within the character, the Big Government ”libertarian- dice,” ”discrimination,” and basic attitudes and world outlook of these typical, or “Modal,” libertarians. These basic attitudes made it easy for Official libertarians to subvert The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development [“The World their original and end Bank”] is a Bretton Woods institution which is still around to plague us. The up with its seeming opposite. is a key instrument of global interventionism by which American Let us examine the profile of taxpayers are forced to prop up foreign client states of the Eastern Establish- ment and to subsidize Rockefeller-type investments abroad. On September the Modal left-libertarian: a 23, Senator Hank Brown (R, CO) offered an amendment to eliminate the $28 profile that applies to the com- million U.S. contribution to the World Bank for fiscal 1994. A motion to table fortable D.C. thinktank analyst (kid) the Brown Amendment was passed by 55-44. While the Republicans voted against killing the Brown Amendment by 12-32, the votes of the 12 as well as to the scruffiest liber- renegades could have provided the margin to save the Brown Amendment tarian nomad. The Modal liber- and begin to get us out of the World Bank. Pluses for the pro-Brown Amend- tarian is a hedonist and a narcis- ment Senators; minuses for those who hold the World Bank higher than the American taxpayer. sist. What he hates and reviles is not so much the State as all Alaska Maine Pennsylvania external social pressures that Murkowski + Cohen + Specter + prevent or discourage him from Stevens + Minnesota Rhode Island “doing his thing,” from his Arizona Durenberger + Chafee - pursuit of hedonic goodies: McCain + Mississippi drugs, all forms of sex, and Colorado Lett + Thurmond + generally leading a sporadic and Brown + Cochran - South Dakota dissolute life. The Modal liber- Delaware Missouri Pressler + tarian identifies these external Roth + Bond + Danforth - Tscas pressures with various social Florida Hutchinson + institutions: the State indeed, Mack - Montana Gramm + but more deeply, his bourgeois Bums + Georgia Utah neighbors, his family, and the Coverdell - New Hampshire Bennett - Christian Church. Scratch any Gregg + Hatch + Idaho Smith + Modal Libertarian and you will Kempthorne + Vermont find the exclamation that the Craig + New Mexico Jeffords - Domenici + ”State” and the “Church” are Virginia twin co-oppressors of the in- Coats + New York Warner + Lugar - D‘ Amato + dividual, with family and Washington neighbors not far behind. The Iowa North Carolina Gorton + Modal libertarian, in short, is an Grassley + Faircloth + Helms + Wyoming arrested and now aging adoles- Kansas Wallop + cent, in permanent rebellion Dole + Oklahoma Simpson + Kassebaum - Nickles + against institutions and moral principles that he sees as a check Kentucky Oregon McConnell - Packwood - rein on his wayward appetites. Hatfield - Scratch any Modal, therefore, 7 December 1993 ~ ~ -and you will find that while the aspects of their life: serial kids, ; there is happily State is the most obvious each with different adult no precedent for Big Govern- coercer, that his deepest hatred Significant Others, very much ment libertarianism. In a sense, is reserved for the Christian in the mode of the rest of their of course, there is precedent: in Church, the repository of social corrupt generation. the classical liberals of the nine- moral principles and norms. It In addition to being narcis- teenth century who, in their is no accident, then, that Ayn sists, Modal libertarians were hatred for the Church, actually Rand, the guru for almost all always egalitarian, believing worked for the establishment of current libertarians, hated the down deep that every person- public schooling as a less noxious Church far more than she reviled of course including themselves- alternative. But these classical the State, and, given a choice, is an actual or at least incipient liberals, who included French she would opt for the State any hero. The libertarian commit- and Italian liberals, von Hum- time. And, at the other end of ment to property rights was boldt in , and many the libertarian spectrum, individ- always superficial, never prin- Jacksoniansin the , ualist-anarchist historian James cipled; essentially it was a at least did not call themselves J. Martin, in his notable history squawk that society and the principled and consistent ”lib- of American , Men State had no right to take away ertarians.” It remained for our Against the State, deliberately their drugs, their guns, their contemporary Modals to forge excluded the mass of Christian money. The egalitarian belief this new and noxious variant of anarchists from Ann Hutchinson that ”discrimination” is always political thought, It is ironic down to the Rev. Henry Clarke immoral and irra- that, in their vain Wright, because in his view tional, led the quest to become Christians could never be includ- libertarians rather Randian heroes ed under the anarchist rubric. quickly to extol and Promethean There was no aspect of Ran- civil rights over innovators, that dianism that attracted the Modal property rights, this is what they libertarian more than her paean and after that, it have come up to ”selfishness”; accurately or was easy for the with. Innovation not, the average libertarian in- other barriers to is, of course, not terpreted the call for selfishness fall. And since always a good as a tribute to his own yen for gay “rights“ fol- thing; only narcis- irresponsible behavior heedless lowed quickly sists could think of others. It is no accident that once “civil rights” that. In this case, “family” and children play vir- was embraced, it innovation has tually no role in Randian fiction, was particularly brought us not and that marriage is at best serial easy for the large ’’ Rear den me tal, ’’ and attenuated. The typical Ran- number of gay but the degenera- dian hero and heroine flap their Modals to take tion and perver- adolescent wings, fly the famil- the lead in this sion of a noble ial coop, break with their family shift from the creed. and neighbors, and strike out Old to the New, What has been as lone Promothei for greatness Big Government and will be the and achievement. And that’s variant of Libertarianism. response of these worthies to about it. Big Government libertarians our paleolibertarian critique? I used to think that liber- are, of course, far more odious The answer is simple: they tarians would never have kids; and more of a living contradiction have no arguments, they are but, as they got older, they than Sam Francis’s specimens creatures of mood, and so their spawned children in the same of Big Government Conserva- only response is to use the irresponsible and hedonic man- tives. At least there is precedent loathsome smear tactics of their ner as they behaved in other in history for Big Government comrades on the Left: to call us 8 December 1993 -smear names that cut off thought In contemplating the current ing the Democrat; and even and engender emotive hate re- generation of Big Government though Democrat incumbent sponse: "racist," "sexist," libertarian turncoats and rene- Robert Krueger tried to run to "homophobic, " "anti-Semitic, " gades, the case for retrospective- the right of Clinton, the Presi- "mean-spirited, " and perhaps or even retroactive-abortion be- dent sent his Number 2 cam- the rest of the panoply: gins to seem overwhelming. I paign honcho, Paul Begala, to

/Iageist," "lookist," "logist," Texas to run the Krueger cam and what have you. It doesn't paign, and it was a particulai matter: in the mouths of this joy to see Begala end up with generation of vipers, smear The Anti-Clinton egg on his face as he engineered labels become a badge of honor. disastrous TV spots that made It all reminds me of two char- Election Krueger look like an idiot. And acters in a Dostoevsky novel. by M.N.R. in the last race before this No- One insults the other at length, vember, militant Christian con- and the other guy says in effect: There have been seven major servative -the "You are so low that nothing you elections since the black day in other man from Hope, Arkansas say could insult me!" November that the monster -pulled the remarkable feat of Is there anything left except Clinton was cho- beating the odds- the name "libertarian" to dis- sen President; on favorite, Presi- tinguish these Official Libertar- and every single dent Clinton's ians from regular, honest-to- one has been a hand-picked God leftists?The answer is: not thumping repudi- buddy, for Lieu- much, and less and less, as time ation of Slick tenant-Governor goes on. Probably the average Willie and all of of Clinton's home leftist is, by now, less anti- his works. Soon state of Arkansas. Christian and perhaps less egal- after the presiden- That was four for itarian than Modal Libertarians. tial election, mod- four against Clin- Since the economists among erate conservative ton. them still have a vestigial affec- Paul Coverdell up- This November tion, on efficiency grounds, for set the Clintonian there were three cutting marginal rates of up- incumbent Sena- major races, each per income groups, we will prob tor from Georgia, a test of the Clin- ably see the better-heeled Of- Wyche Fowler. ton Administra- ficials opting for their bosom Then the moder- tion. In New York buddy, the left-neocon Jack ate conservative City, the nerdy di- Kemp, although their hearts may Riordan upended saster David Din- be for Bill Weld, while the more the multicultural kins, the city's nomadic types opt for Nancy leftist Woo to be- first black mayor, Lord on the Libertarian ticket in come mayor of though running '96. But it makes little difference: Los Angeles; and moderate con- on the Democratic ticket in an the entire crew is as scurvy a servative overwhelmingly Democrat city, lot, both in person and in print, captured Lloyd Bentsen's seat was beaten by 2.5 points by as one is ever likely to meet. as Senator from Texas. It was Republican nominee Rudy In the continuing argument all very well for the Clintonian Giuliani. The Giuliani victory over abortion, pro-lifers like to media to claim that all these came even though President twit pro-choicers about all the races were local and constituted Clinton stumped the city several wonderful people the world no referendum on Clinton; but times for Dinkins, even stooping would have lost if their mothers in each case, except L.A., the to condemn whites who failed had chosen to abort them. But Clinton Administration urged to vote for people differing the argument can cut both ways. the voters to support it by back- from them. This racist remark by 9 December 1993