When I am in my car by myself I typically turn on talk radio. Probably 90% of the time I am listening to a Republican. It might be an old habit from my Republican days that I haven’t broken, but I do like to hear the conservative spin on the news. I often think I should call in but I never have, and I’m not sure they’d tolerate what I have to say anyway. But it helps me get my thoughts going and definitely helps to form my arguments when I talk to Republicans.
Last week, on whatever show I was listening to, the host had on Dr. Paul Kengor to discuss his new book, “11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative“. Conservatives really like Reagan, and I’d guess that most like to be considered “Reagan Conservatives”, so Kengor set out to define what exactly a Reagan Conservative is. His 11 Principles are:
1. Freedom
2. Faith
3. Family
4. Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life
5. American Exceptionalism
6. The Founders’ Wisdom and Vision
7. Lower Taxes
8. Limited Government
9. Peace Through Strength
10. Anti-Communism
11. Belief in the Individual
I really think this is probably a good list of Reagan conservative principles. In fact, I used to consider myself a Reagan conservative until I realized the contradictions in my beliefs. They seem obvious to me now, but at the time it wasn’t, and I was in denial for a long time. The most obvious problems with these beliefs are probably the sanctity of life going with a giant military, and the wisdom and vision of the founders. If you ever read American history, you’ll find that the founders didn’t agree on much. Hamilton and Jefferson had vastly different visions of the country. but I want to focus on a more subtle problem with this list, numbers 7-9,
Reagan Conservatives love to say they do not bend on principles. Their principles are their foundation and you cannot compromise! So what happens if the conservatives sweep the next election and lower taxes to 20% across the board? Will they still be in favor of lower taxes? For the next election would they lower taxes to 10%, then 5%, then 2%? If they did, would they still be in favor of lower taxes?
What would they think of their limited government if they got taxes lowered to 2%? They might have to raise their taxes in order to fund that limited government. How are they going to fund their giant military if we continue to lower taxes? Is it really peaceful to force your views on others? I wonder if the Iraqis are happy with the peace we’ve provided?
Don’t get me wrong, I believe we can and should defend ourselves as a group or individually. I just don’t see how it makes sense to fund our defense through taxation. If it is so important, we would protect ourselves however we see fit. We don’t need the government to feed us (no matter how hard they try), we don’t need them for housing, we don’t need them for healthcare (the next generation might disagree) and we don’t need them for protection.
I like conservatives. I think their hearts are in the right place, I just think they’d be better off if they focused on principle 11 a little more.
I generally for a long time – and to some extent still consider myself – a Reagan Conservative. Reading this does really shed some light into contradictions in Reagan beliefs. I guess my question, which I may be wording wrong, is does a libertarian see the need for a national military? Also on a seperate question – how was the military paid for before taxes since the current slate of property taxes etc have been around for about 100 years?
Good questions. I’ll start with your second one first. I’m not an American history buff, so I should probably reread about this era, but I know it was initially funded by the French, Dutch, Spanish, and wealthy individuals. According to Uncle Sam (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1784-1800/loans), those debts to foreign countries were bought up by individuals, then the US gov had to pay back those individuals. It doesn’t say in this article how the US gov paid off those debts, but I do know that the early US gov used lotteries to raise money for projects and I’m sure there was some kind of tax levied after the constitution was ratified. However, you can learn a lesson on what happens when you just print money to pay off debts as the colonists did during the war.
To your first question, I guess it is not fair to give the libertarian answer because I can’t speak for all libertarians. Based on what I know, I do consider myself a libertarian, and I can tell you what many libertarians and I would say. This might sound hypocritical at first, since I just wrote an article about what Reagan Conservatives think, but I can’t say what libertarians think…The author made the claim on the radio that there are many people who consider themselves Reagan Conservatives, so he wanted to set the record straight and claimed that all Reagan Conservatives must believe what he wrote. As far as I know, libertarians are pretty much for nonaggression, so it is hard to say “libertarians believe x”
This could be a really long discussion so I’ll keep it as short as possible and feel free to ask more. The short answer is, “no”, at least not the way we currently have a national military. We all have a right to defend ourselves, I think even Democrats would agree with that. If someone attacks me, I am justified to use appropriate force to defend myself. I should also be able to defend my property however I feel is necessary. If the people of a community or state or country or whatever, think there is a threat and need to defend themselves, I think we would find a way to do it. Maybe by paying a premium to a professional military, maybe by arming ourselves, I don’t know the answer, but the market could decide.
As it is now, the US government does not even need to declare war in order to send our guys wherever they feel like sending them. The fact that there is no profit motive, they can just spend as much money and as many lives as they want. It is easy to see how public schools and other gov programs waste money, the same applies to the military. If a military had to serve the people and earn profits, they would be less likely to “waste” a hundred thousand men in a battle, not to mention all the collateral damage done to civilians and other capital (buildings, roads, etc) that today we say, “Oh well, that’s war.” Tell that to the victims who have nothing to do with the war. If they US military doesn’t get volunteers, they can have a draft and just reload. It would be impossible for a private military to do that. If we were invaded to “free” us from Obama, I would not be ok with someone murdering my wife and kid with the explanation, “it’s war, war is hell, sorry”. The same goes for innocent Iraqis.
What about WWII? Well if enough people think we should find a way to stop Hitler, we should need to point our guns at Americans in order for them to pay for it. Would you donate funds to stop Hitler? Was the atomic bomb necessary? Was there any other possible way? We don’t usually consider any alternatives, it’s a false dichotomy…If we did not drop the bombs, we didn’t have to do nothing.
There are also several examples of civilians defending their own property against the world’s largest armies and winning. The Irish against the British, The Colonists against the British, the Afghans against the Soviets and now the Americans, the Somalis against the Americans. Those are just off the top of my head.
Costa Rica doesn’t have a military, neither does Liechtenstein, neither gets invaded. Hitler didn’t even take Liechtenstein and they were German speaking people protecting the Jews right in Hitler’s back yard.
The bottom line is, I don’t see how it makes any sense to demand that certain people pay for a military because they happen to own land in a certain geographic region. Of course if the government’s demand for payment is not met, they come raid your house with guns, drag you out, and take your property. That is really what I’m against.
Hello! I could have sworn I’ve been to this site before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to
me. Anyways, I’m definitely glad I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back often!