Center for a Stateless Society » GOP

Last year the Nevada GOP decided to remove opposition to gay marriage and abortion from its platform. It’s not clear whether this is about votes or reflects genuine sentiment. It’s certainly out of touch with other GOP platforms across the country. This is definitely a good thing though. It also doesn’t go far enough. It’s much more preferable that the Nevada GOP embrace legal stateless gay marriage or non-discrimination in the issuing of licenses as long as we have a government. This is also true of legalized abortion. The deletion of the issues from the platform could signal that they are indifferent rather than an active embrace of liberty.

Does this mean we left-libertarian market anarchists are better off embracing the Nevada GOP as a vehicle for libertarian reform? Not at all. The Nevada GOP is probably still, on balance, far from embracing radically limited government. We’re also anarchists and not interested in even very small government. I mention this, because an anarchist may still prefer an extremely tiny government to a larger one in relative terms. This would only hold true as long as government existed.

What about the option of infiltrating the Nevada GOP and striving to push it in a more radically libertarian direction? This is arguably a waste of resources that could be spent on building anarchy. We would have to hide our left-libertarian market anarchist identity. There would otherwise be a backlash against the “evil” anarchist entryists. It’s important to remember that statists at least sometimes deal with disagreement by initiating force via the government, so we left-libertarian market anarchists would be subject to said force by the Nevada GOP. As long as they continued to embrace the institution of government at least.

An interesting question is whether this will have an impact on the broader GOP. If the Nevada GOP is more successful at the polls, other state parties and even the national organization may decide to embrace its approach. This would be encouraging and have a positive impact on the politics of the U.S. It’s something to welcome, but it shouldn’t distract us from achieving anarchism. It would lighten the burden of statism on women and same-sex marriage, so there is merit in pursuing this kind of reform. As long as it doesn’t mean abandoning the goal of creating anarchy. That is our ultimate goal.

The final point to make is that this does represent progress, but it’s fairly limited. The next step is to actively embrace the pro-liberty position on both issues. Let’s encourage our GOP friends to go the distance and really embrace freedom. You can let them know that left-libertarian market anarchism is the true embodiment of the sometimes freedom friendly rhetoric of the GOP. It’s also a good idea to spread this message to your Democratic Party friends and anyone else who will listen. There is great disillusionment with the existing political system. The time is ripe for friends of freedom to convince others of the morality and practicality of our vision. It’s better to act before this despair disappears. We may never get a better time than now to act. Let’s work on creating a free society.

GOP Obstructionism vs Anarchism

Natasha Petrova — Sat, 21 Dec 2013 23:30:10 +0000

“To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. … To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.”

~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The GOP ironically seeks control in rendering the country ungovernable through obstructionism. They are upset that the Democratic Party wing of the ruling class blocks their ability to exert total control and governance. This is borne out by the ironic fact that even the government shutdown involved giving orders to government agents to prevent people from visiting memorials or national parks. A further examination reveals the GOP establishment’s support for criminalization of abortion and persecution of undocumented immigrants. These are hardly people who truly despise government in any principled manner.

The above mentioned type of obstructionism needs to be clearly distinguished from the genuine desire of the anarchist to render things ungovernable for the structurally privileged ruling class. A humane anarchist would seek to obstruct the functioning of government in a manner conducive to the well-being of those still dependent upon government for survival. An example would be prioritizing the rendering of the DEA dysfunctional over the food stamps program. The abolition of food stamps preferably follows freed market forces creating a radically more equal distribution of wealth. This will allow for the organization of egalitarian working class mutual aid societies.