Rand Paul and governance
Saturday, May 22 2010 08:25 am
Written by Frank Wiley - DevotionReader.com
"Rand Paul’s election is a great opportunity to discuss the role of government"
Hail to Rand Paul! He has proven to be a man of principle so far, and I hope he remains so. He is a Libertarian and a Conservative. These two terms are almost synonymous. He believes that government should be extremely limited and small. He believes that the individual and his property have primacy over matters of public intervention by government.
Rand Paul’s political philosophy is not inherently racist and does not automatically make him a racist. Lysander Spooner, a staunch and outspoken Massachusetts legal theorist, was both an abolitionist and a Libertarian. Racism, however, can thrive more openly in a libertarian society and, in such an environment, would have to be extinguished in a way other than the application of broad federal protections.
When the Tea Party members talk about limited government they mean that the private citizen should be free of government interference. In effect the government should stay out of private business and private affairs (but at the same time Tea Partiers would in most cases eliminate abortion—go figure?!) When the Obama administration is called fascist by conservatives and Tea Partiers what they mean is that the government (the elite class) is over-reaching, limiting individual freedom, regulating free markets, and threatening the American way of life. Newt Gringrich said as much last weekend.
The Civil War was fought over slavery in the context of states’ rights. This issue has never been settled. You see it continuously in Congress. Take a look at the electoral map. Rand Paul’s election is a great opportunity to discuss the role of government, define what private property is, differentiate between a democracy and a republic, and then debate the big government /small government topic and its consequences. The contentious health care reform effort is a classic example of the Libertarianism versus (Alexander) Hamiltonian battle of political philosophies. Hamiltonian-emphasis on strong federal government and distrust of the capability of the masses to govern themselves versus libertarianism is being played out every day in American politics.
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