Category Archives: Libertarian

David H. Koch Theatre, home of the New York City Ballet, is pictured July 12. The original New York State Theater was built state funds as part of New York State's participation in the 1964-1965 World's Fair. In July 2008, Koch pledged $100 million over 10 years for renovation and to fund an operating and maintenance endowment. (Wikimedia Commons/Ajay Suresh)

In 1980, American politics witnessed a candidate for national office who took visionary stands that should have had the hearts of progressives gratefully beating as rarely before. A sampling of the candidate's proposed reforms:

Which candidate was behind all that nearly 40 years ago? President Jimmy Carter? No. Sen. Ted Kennedy? No. Gov. Jerry Brown? Sen. Edmund Muskie? Gus Hall of the Communist Party of the United States of America? Barry Commoner of the Citizens Party?

No to all of them. It was David H. Koch, the vice-presidential running mate of Ed Clark on the Libertarian ticket, which earned 1.1 percent of the popular vote. Instead of a President Koch, the nation put into office the fog-headed Ronald Reagan, a one-time screen actor in forgettable films. With right-wing ideologues as his White House advisers, his military spending soared to new heights $1.6 trillion over five years by one estimate, or $34 million an hour, by another. His disdain for poverty programs like legal service aid and the Food Stamp Program matched his contempt for labor unions, as when he fired 11,000 striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

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At his death at 79 in late August, David Koch was scantly remembered for embracing policies that were part of the political gospel of the American left. Instead, critics remembered him as a conniving and greed-driven billionaire who, with his twin brother Charles, schemed to twin their wealth with stealth to move the Republican Party further to the right.

Trouble is, the brothers were Libertarians, not Republicans, and a different breed altogether that kept them from being seduced by the serial lies and hatefulness of Donald Trump to whom they donated not a nickel in 2016. In July last year, Trump, the ever addicted counter-puncher, called the brothers "a total joke in real Republican circles" and having a political network that was "highly overrated. I have beaten them at every turn."

Demonizing the Koch brothers reached a fever pitch in 2014 when Sen. Harry Reid blasted them by name 134 times on the Senate floor, including: "It's time that the American people spoke out against this terrible dishonesty of these two brothers who are about as un-American as anyone I can imagine."

It's a rare campaign speech in which Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders doesn't shout out: "Our great nation can no longer be hijacked by rightwing billionaires like the Koch brothers."

What rankles Reid, Sanders and other nattering Democrats is how Koch Industries, the Wichita-based multinational corporation with a workforce of 130,000 in 60 countries and annual revenues of $110 billion, lavished money on rightwing candidates as if members of the Senate past and current, like Robert Dole, Sam Brownback, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and Joni Ernst, and such groups as Heritage Foundation, the Reason Foundation and Cato Institute are threats to the nation. Sorry, I'm not buying that one.

David H. Koch in 2015 (Wikimedia Commons/Gage Skidmore)

I've long admired the Koch brothers for their decadeslong support of causes and non-profits that I also see as worthy. Let's start with their opposition to American militarism. It was such pseudo-liberals as Sens. Joe Biden, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton who favored the invasion of Iraq in 2003, not David Koch, in what has become a shameless, endless war.

I've looked on David Koch as a kindhearted and caring citizen well aware of his obligations to share his wealth, said to be about $40 billion. In 1991, he came close to dying in an airplane crash in Los Angeles that killed 33 fellow passengers. "This may sound odd," he told a reporter for New York Magazine, "but I felt this experience was very spiritual. That I was saved when all those others died, I felt that the good Lord spared my life for a purpose. And since then, I've been busy doing all the good works I can think of."

His generosity saw the flow of billions in grants to non-profits in education, medical research, the arts and criminal justice reforms. He gave a total of $134 million to establish a cancer research institute at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, from which he graduated. At a meeting once with professors and science researchers, it was asked what is needed to enhance the worksite. Mothers in the group answered: child care. Touched "I got a tear in my eye" Koch said of the moment it led him to donate $20 million to double the school's capacity for on-site child care.

As he did in 1980 in supporting prison reform efforts, Koch remained consistent on the issue. Much of it came about through the work ofMark Holden, who has worked in prisons and later became the general counsel of Koch Industries. In December 2018, hetold an intervieweron NPR's "All Things Considered" that "the whole criminal justice system needs to be revamped from beginning to end. In a lot of ways, it's really a poverty trap, and it disproportionately impacts people of color." That was when, with the support of the Koch brothers, The Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act theFirst Step Act was signed into law.

In aspeech last monthin South Carolina, Sanders praised "the Koch brothers [for] getting involved in criminal justice for some of the right reasons. What the Koch brothers understand is that it costs a lot more money to send somebody to prison than to send them to the University of South Carolina."

The David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, or MIT Building 76, is pictured in August 2017 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Wikimedia Commons/Beyond My Ken)

Sanders hailing the Koch brothers can mean only that hell has finally frozen over. The ice was already thickening when, in July 2018,Sanders said: "Let me thank the Koch brothers, of all people, for sponsoring a study that shows that Medicare for all could save the American people $2 trillion over a 10-year period."

Aside from the Koch's donating to Republican politicians, a major rankle of the hate-Koch hordes is that the brothers' $110 billion industries, which market everything from textiles and processed crude oil to toilet paper and Dixie cups, are privately, not publicly, owned: They are secretive, therefore most likely dishonest, they say. How much can that really matter to the 130,000 workers getting paychecks from the Kochs?

The brothers' companies have made mistakes they were fined for and sought to rectify. Yet more than a few liberals' knees continue to jerk wildly at the mention of their names. A recent flail was in an August piece in The Nation headlined "Even David Koch's Philanthropy Was Toxic" and sub-headed with "Like other plutocrats from Andrew Carnegie to Jeff Bezos, the late billionaire used charity to legitimize inequality." It's one thing to go after David Koch for supporting pols and their voting records on deregulating environmental edicts or opposing climate change, but it's something else to accuse him, as The Nation article does, of using benevolence "a substitute for and a means of avoiding the necessity of a more just and equitable system and a fairer distribution of power."

It's a baseless accusation because it is based on judging David Koch's motive for his generosity. We are asked to believe that David Koch's motive for signing checks to groups like theUnited Negro College Fundis that the money will help "legitimize inequality."

Can't buy that one either.

[Colman McCarthy directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. His new book isOpening Minds, Stirring Hearts.]

This story has been updated to correct the headline.

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David Koch: kindhearted, caring citizen, obligated to share wealth - National Catholic Reporter

It seems to me that whenever North Korea launches one of their missiles or decides they are going test another nuclear device, the rest of the world loses their collective mind, and needlessly so. North Korea is no threat to the United States, or anyone, but itself.

Let me explain. On one hand people seem to have the impression that North Korea is some grave threat to the West that needs to be stopped; on the other, people have this view of them as some unintelligent, cartoonish throwback to the Cold War, undermining its own credibility when it misidentifies target cities on propaganda maps. While their military is large, and they indeed could cause some damage, nuclear weapons or not, their hardware is mostly forty years out of date and they have no real way to project power outside their immediate surroundings, even if they develop a working ICBM. And as for the perception of North Korea run by stupid, crazy people, I completely reject that. They came out of the Cold War largely unscathed (and remain so) culturally and ideologically, while most other communist regimes collapsed or evolved towards capitalism. They are a nuclear power, a title only a handful of nations can claim, and they have a propaganda machine so good the regime essentially brainwashed 25 million people into believing their dear leader is a god.

All of this is to say the idea that North Korea is run by crazy people that will nuke either the States or their southern neighbor the very instant they have the capability is absurd. Rather than reckless belligerence, they have shown themselves to be calculating and precise, knowing just what buttons to press, and how hard to press them, without causing a metaphorical detonation. The bombardment of Yeonpyeong and the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan show pretty good examples of this. Causing casualties on your enemies without incurring any of your own shows a pretty remarkable amount of intelligence in my book, and wantonly nuking your enemies is the exact opposite way to go about that. I absolutely guarantee the regime running North Korea is smart enough to know they will lose a war they start with either the United States and/or South Korea, and they most certainly know that if they use a nuclear weapon in an offensive fashion, South Korea would become an island soon after.

For all the decades of posturing and chest beating, the Korean War hasnt resumed. Much the same way the USSR and the US had the means and never exercised them, the same way India and Pakistan have the capability but remain fallout free, so too will the Korean Peninsula remain intact, as long as the participating parties continue to use some restraint.

So, what can we do? Im all for sanctions as a moral action, but practically, North Korea has shown they will carry on regardless; attacking them would only cause an unneeded and bloody war. I really think the best thing we can do is ignore them. Their whole shtick is based on aggression by the West, and we feed that every time the news cycle starts interviewing generals about the best course of action to deal with the regimes latest aggression. I am sure that North Korea would continue to pump out their anti-west rhetoric regardless of whether we give it fuel or not, but at that point we could at least claim the moral high ground, and they would at least have to go through the effort of making up stories on their own.

I mentioned at the beginning of this piece that I think the biggest threat to the regime of North Korea is itself. The libertarian community believes that communism doesnt work. It hasnt yet, and if we truly believe that, we must believe that an oppressive regime like that of the DPRK will eventually collapse and undo itself. As the rest of the world continues to progress around their island of stagnation and misery, and ever more sharply juxtaposes the situations of the North and South, the more the people of the North will see what the South has and start demanding it for themselves. We should certainly be there to help pick up the pieces, but the people of the North need to want change before we can do any good.

Image: Getty

* ColoradoYeah runs the libertarian leaning coloradoyeah.com.

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The North Korea Problem - Being Libertarian

RALEIGH The N.C. Libertarian Party has picked three Triad residents for leadership roles.

Clement Erhardt of Greensboro is the party's treasurer and the slate of at-large members includesAngela Anderson of Winston-Salem andJ.J. Summerell of Greensboro.

Susan Hogarth of Raleigh has been named the Libertarian Party of North Carolina's new chairwoman.

N.C. Libertarian officials elected a new state party chair and a slate of officers during the party's annual convention held in Lake Lure, according to a release.

Nathan Phillips of Asheville was named vice chair, Brent DeRidder of Hampstead will serve as secretary, and the remaing at-large members are Matt Clements of Carrboro, Chris Dooley of Charlotte, James Hines of Asheville, Amy Lamont of Oxford, Ryan Teeter of Hampstead, Andreas Steude of Cary, and Alec Willson of Asheville.

Summerell was the Libertarian candidate for North Carolina's 1st Congressional District in 2016. Incumbent U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Wilson Democrat, won re-election with 68.6 percent of the vote, defeating Republican candidate and Stantonsburg town councilman Powell Dew (28.9 percent) and Summerell, who picked up 2.4 percent of the vote.

The Libertarian Party, formed in 1971, is the third-largest political party in the U.S. and North Carolina, as well as the only ballot-recognized alternative party in the state.

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Triad residents among those tapped for posts in NC Libertarian Party - Winston-Salem Journal

Every so often, on social media sites, someone posts a mathematical problem similar to this:

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A Libertarian Perspective - Courier-Times (subscription)

Adam Fondren, Deseret News

I voted stickers and voting cards at the Sandy City Office polling location on August 15, 2017.

On Aug. 16, Republicans in the 3rd District finally chose a candidate to fill the empty seat formerly held by Jason Chaffetz. Because this was a three-way race with no run-off, the fiscally responsible voters of the 3rd District were divided, and as a result, the GOP candidate for this fall will be the least fiscally responsible, least free market oriented of the three. And this is in Utahs most fiscally responsible congressional district.

On the Democratic side, we have a candidate advocating an even more aggressive federal government micromanaging of health care from D.C., raising the tax and debt burden on every American.

Meanwhile, our local media have zeroed in on only one alternative to this lack of real choice, the son of the late Sen. Bob Bennett, who was ousted by Utahs fiscal conscience Sen. Mike Lee. The fiscally sound folks from Utahs 3rd Congressional District currently have six candidates on the November ballot to choose from, but only three are being mentioned as viable choices to represent their interests in Washington.

This letter is not a reflection on the character of the candidates in this race, in fact, having met both Jim Bennett and John Curtis, I can genuinely say that these candidates are seemingly very good people with good intentions.

However, the records and statements of the Democrat and the Republican in this race present two candidates with only slight differences in their tax and spending policies. With Congress discussing the critical issue of tax reform in the coming year, it is critical that the fiscally responsible people of Utah are represented by a true voice for substantive tax reform.

When Jason Chaffetz resigned, one of the most often referenced concerns of voters was the absence of a voice in Congress during this critical time. Ask yourself, do you want a congressman who has a bad record on taxes, or do you want a sane voice for fiscal discipline? Do you want a candidate who, once elected, must immediately turn around and begin campaigning for re-election?

Despite what you are hearing from the media and the political elite, there is another option, a reasonable option that will give the 3rd District a determined and knowledgeable voice on tax reform for one year, a powerful option that will look straight in the eye of the political elite and let them know that the 3rd District is not for sale. If you vote for the Libertarian candidate in this election, you will be voting for principled tax reform you can trust that no matter what happens, your representative will represent your interests and not be beholden to the Democrats and Republicans who keep their freshman members on a tight leash.

If you vote for the Libertarian, you will have a representative for one year who will not be forced to focus on re-election, and who will instead work every day to provide real reform in Washington. If you vote for the Libertarian, you can tell the lobbyists with Count My Vote that this system placed two tofu candidates on the ballot and you wont be a part of it.

Here is the bottom line, this candidate will only hold office for one year before a new election is held. By sending the Libertarian to Washington, you will have the time to focus on finding a candidate for the 3rd District that truly represents Utah values. You have an opportunity to vote for the only candidate who was nominated at a convention rather than in a well-funded primary. A candidate with an MBA in finance, a career in education and a principled stand. A candidate who will enjoy the support of the leaders of the national Liberty Movement. There are so many reasons to vote for the Libertarian this November, take a risk and vote for Dr. Joe Buchman.

Joseph Buchman is chairman of the Libertarian Party of Utah and a candidate for Utah's 3rd Congressional District. Buchman has a Ph.D. in media from Indiana University and has spent his career teaching marketing, finance and communications.

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Op-ed: Why you should consider the Libertarian candidate for the 3rd District - Deseret News

From staff reports

RALEIGH - Susan Hogarth of Raleigh has been named the Libertarian Party of North Carolina's new chairwoman.

N.C. Libertarian officials elected a new state party chair and a slate of officers during the party's annual convention held in Lake Lure, according to a release.

"I'm honored to have been chosen as chair of the Libertarian Party North Carolina," Hogarth said. "I couldn't be more excited at the prospect of working with all the intelligent and hardworking folks just elected to the executive committee."

Nathan Phillips of Asheville was named vice chair, Brent DeRidder of Hampstead will serve as secretary, Clement Erhardt of Greensboro is the party's treasurer, and at-large members are Angela Anderson of Winston-Salem, Matt Clements of Carrboro, Chris Dooley of Charlotte, James Hines of Asheville, Amy Lamont of Oxford, Ryan Teeter of Hampstead, Andreas Steude of Cary, J.J. Summerell of Greensboro and Alec Willson of Asheville.

Summerell was the Libertarian candidate for North Carolina's 1st Congressional District in 2016. Incumbent U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a Wilson Democrat, won re-election with 68.6 percent of the vote, defeating Republican candidate and Stantonsburg town councilman Powell Dew (28.9 percent) and Summerell, who picked up 2.4 percent of the vote.

The Libertarian Party, formed in 1971, is the third-largest political party in the U.S. and North Carolina, as well as the only ballot-recognized alternative party in the state.

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Hogarth tapped to lead NC Libertarian Party - The Wilson Times (subscription)

Last week in TAC, Zoltan Istvan wrote about The Growing World of Libertarian Transhumanism linking the transhumanist movement with all of its featureslike cyborgs, human robots and designer babiesto the ideas of liberty. To say Mr. Istvan is mistaken in his assessment is an understatement. Transhumanism should be rejected by libertarians as an abomination of human evolution.

We begin with Mr. Istvans definition of transhumanism:

transhumanism is the international movement of using science and technology to radically change the human being and experience. Its primary goal is to deliver and embrace a utopian techno-optimistic worlda world that consists of biohackers, cyborgists, roboticists, life extension advocates, cryonicists, Singularitarians, and other science-devoted people.

The ultimate task, however, is nothing less than overcoming biological human death and to solve all humanitys problems. Throughout much of Mr. Istvans work on this issue, he seems to think these ideas are perfectly compatible with libertarianismself-evident evenso he doesnt care to elaborate for his befuddled readers.

While most advocates of liberty could be considered, as Matt Ridley coined it, rational optimistsmeaning that generally we are optimistic, but not dogmatic, about progressit is easy to get into a state in which everything that is produced by the market is good per se and every new technology is hailed as the next step on the path of progress. In this sense, these libertarians become what Rod Dreher has called Technological Men. For them, choice matters more than what is chosen. [The Technological Man] is not concerned with what he should desire; rather, he is preoccupied with how he can acquire or accomplish what he desires.

Transhumanists including Mr. Istvan are a case in point. In his TAC article he not only endorses such things as the defeat of death, but even robotic hearts, virtual reality sex, and telepathy via mind-reading headsets. Need more of his grand ideas? How about brain implants ectogenesis, artificial intelligence, exoskeleton suits, designer babies, gene editing tech? At no point he wonders if we should even strive for these technologies.

When he does acknowledge potential problems he has quick (and crazy) solutions at hand: For example, what would happen if people never die, while new ones are coming into the world in abundance? His solution to the fear of overpopulation: eugenics. It is here where we see how libertarian Mr. Istvan truly is. When his political philosophythe supposedly libertarian onecomes into conflict with his idea of transhumanism, he suddenly drops the former and argues in favor of state-controlled breeding (or, as he says, controlled breeding by non-profit organizations such as the WHO, which is, by the way, state financed). I cautiously endorse the idea of licensing parents, a process that would be little different than getting a drivers licence. Parents who pass a series of basic tests qualify and get the green light to get pregnant and raise children.

The most frustrating thing is how similar he sounds to communists and socialists in his arguments. In most articles you read by transhumanists, you can see the dream of human perfection. Mr. Istvan says so himself: Transhumanists want more guarantees than just death, consumerism, and offspring. Much More. They want to be better, smarter, strongerperhaps even perfect and immortal if science can make them that way.

Surely it is the goal of transhumanists that, in their world, the average human type will rise to the heights of an Aristotle, a Goethe, or a Marx. You can just edit the genes of the embryo in the way that they are as intelligent as Aristotle, as poetic as Goethe, and as musically talented as Mozart. There are two problems, though: First, the world would become extremely boring, consisting only of perfect human beings who are masters at everything (which perhaps would make human cooperation superfluous). Second, that quote was famously uttered by the socialist Leon Trotsky.

As Ludwig von Mises wrote sarcastically, the socialist paradise will be the kingdom of perfection, populated by completely happy supermen. This has always been the mantra of socialists, starting with utopian thinkers like Charles Fourier, but also being embraced by the scientific ones like Marx, who derived his notion of history in which communism is the final stage of humanity from Hegel. Hegel himself believed in the man-godnot in the way that God became man through Jesus, but that man could become God one day. Intentionally or not, transhumanists sound dangerously similar to that. What they would actually create would be the New Soviet Man through bio-engineering and total environmental control as the highest social goal. In other words, you get inhuman ideological tyranny taken to a whole new level.

It should be noted that sometimes transhumanists recognize this themselvesbut if they do, their solutions only make things worse (much worse). Take Adam Zaretsky as example, who says that these new human beings shouldnt be perfect: Its important to make versions of transgenic human anatomy that are not based on idealism. But his solution is frightening: The idea is that you take a gene, say for pig noses, or ostrich anuses, or aardvark tongue, and you paste that into a human sperm, a human egg, a human zygote. A baby starts to form. And: We could let it flow into our anatomy, and these peoplewho yes, are humansshould be appreciated for who and what they are, after they are forced to be born in a really radically strange way. Its no surprise that Rod Dreher calls Mr. Zaretsky a sick monster, because he truly seems to be one when it comes to his transhumanist vision. He wants to create handicapped human beings on purpose.

If this were what libertarians think should happen, it would be sad (thankfully its mostly not). As Jeff Deist notes, it is important to remember that liberty is natural and organic and comports with human action. It doesnt require a new man. Transhumanists may say that the introduction of their idea is inevitable (in Istvans words, Whether people like it or not, transhumanism has arrived) but that is not true. And in this sense, it is time for libertarians to argue against the notion of extreme transhumanism. Yes, the market has brought it about and yes, the state shouldnt prohibit it (though giving your baby a pig nose could certainly be a violation of rights), but still, one shouldnt be relativist or even nihilist about such frightening developments. It would be a shame if the libertarian maxim of Everyone should be able to do whatever one wants to (as long as no one is hurt by it) becomes Everyone should do whatever one can do just because it is possible.

Finally, it comes as no surprise that transhumanists are largely, if not all, atheists (or as Mr. Istvan says: Im an atheist, therefore Im a transhumanist. This just proves what the classical liberal historian Lord Acton talked about when he said, Progress, the religion of those who have none. In the end, transhumanism is the final step to get God out of the way. It would be the continuation of what Richard Weaver wrote about in Ideas Have Consequences: Instead of seeing nature, the world and life overall as a means to get to know God, humans in the last centuries have become accustomed to seeing the world as something that is only there for humans to take and use for their own pleasures. Transhumanism would be the final step of this process: the conquest of death.

You dont have to be religious to find this abhorrent. As we have seen, it would be the end to all religion, to human cooperation overall, in all likelihood to liberty itself, and even the good-bye to humanity. It would be the starting point of the ultimate dystopia.

Kai Weiss is an International Relations student and works for the Austrian Economics Center and Hayek Institute, two libertarianthink tanks based in Vienna, Austria.

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Transhumanism Is Not Libertarian, It's an Abomination | The ... - The American Conservative

A campaign to identify the marchers spread on social media following the bloody right-wing rally in Charlottesville. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

Updated 3:15 p.m.

A white nationalist who participated in the torch-lit march through the University of Virginias campus this weekendhas lost hisjob at a Berkeley, Calif., hot dog restaurant after Twitter users posted his photo and place of employment. The employee, Cole White, was identified online after he was photographed among a shouting and torch-wielding mobduring the march Friday night in Charlottesville.

After being inundated with inquiries, his former employer, Top Dog, in downtown Berkeley, posted a sign on its door that reads:Effective Saturday 12th August, Cole White no longer works at Top Dog. The actions of those in Charlottesville are not supported by Top Dog. We believe in individual freedom and voluntary association for everyone, multiple news outlets reported. The shop has a political bent of its own, as its well-known in Berkeley forthe libertarian stickers and articles posted on its walls, and website.

Top Dogissued a statement to the Washington Post that read, in part:

Colechose to voluntarily resign his employmentwith Top Dogand we acceptedhisresignation.There have been reports that he was terminated.Those reports are false.There have been reports that top dog knowingly employs racists and promotes racist theology.Thattoois false.Individual freedomand voluntaryexchangearecore to the philosophy of Top Dog.We look forward to cooking the same great food forat leastanother50 years.

Another part of the statement noted: Wedorespect our employees rightto theiropinions. They are free to make their own choicesbutmust accept the responsibilities of those choices.

When asked by The Post if White would have been permitted to keep his job had he not resigned, the shop declined to comment further.

White wasin Charlottesville for the Unite the Right rally, which turned deadly on Saturday.James Alex Fields Jr., 20, who was described as a Nazi sympathizer by one of hishigh school teachers,is accused of ramminghis car into a group of counterprotesters, injuring 19 and killingHeather Heyer,32.Two Virginia state troopers H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Berke Bates, 40 were killed while doing surveillance work during Saturdays rally when their helicopter crashed.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) on Aug. 13 said Charlottesville is "stronger" a day after violence erupted in the city. The organizer of a white nationalist rally said clashes occurred because police declined "to do their job." (Whitney Leaming,Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)

[Discomfort food: Using dinners to talk about race, violence and America]

The mostly male crowd that participated in Friday nights tiki-torch-lit rally did not cover their faces, and they were widely photographed. A Twitter account,@YesYoureRacist, began posting photographs of participants and uncovering their identities. White was among the first itnamed.The account would soon identify students enrolled at the University of Nevada and Washington State University, leading both of the schools to issue statements condemning racism.

Top Dog, a Berkeley campus fixture, isnt shy about its libertarian values. The walls are covered with libertarian bumper stickers, yellowed newspaper articles urging the privatization of the postal service, and hand-lettered signs with statements like, Beware the leader and Theres no government like no government,' wrote SF Weeklyin 1996.

A section of the restaurants website is dedicated to Propergander, posting articles about sanctuary cities, nuclear war and diversity.A recent article about an anti-diversity memo circulating at Google read, in part, Jim Crow is long gone, but it seems that Progressives (which gave us Jim Crow in the first place) now are imposing what essentially is a new form of segregation, that being ideological and religious segregation that is more reminiscent of how the former USSR treated dissidents than anything we have seen in private enterprise. The website was down for a time after the weekends incidents but was online as of Monday afternoon.

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The restaurant wrote to one Twitter user that it had been overwhelmed with inquiries about White:

The restaurants Facebook page has been deluged with complaints about White, and its Yelp page is under active cleanup alert, due to the high number of people posting negative comments about him (Yelps note says it tries to remove comments related more to news events than users experience with the business). One sample review: Great place for Neo-Nazis. For people who arent Neo-Nazis? Not so much. A hot dog is a hot dog, but a hot dog place thatnot only employs Neo-Nazis but posts alt-right screeds on their webpage is a place that makes me want to vomit. But if you hate minorities, you might have a friend in Berkeleys Top Dog.

By the way, the hot dogs arekosher-style.

Charlottesville residents respond to the violence that erupted in their city Aug. 12. (Elyse Samuels,Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post)

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Charlottesville white nationalist demonstrator loses job at libertarian hot dog shop - Washington Post

August 16 - To the Editor:

The recent events in Charlottesville have left me disgusted and ashamed. Our country is better than what was on display last week.

What was even more frightening to me was the echoed silence coming from many members of the Republican Party. For too long they have turned the other cheek to their racist and bigoted members within their party base, fearing to lose their vote come election season.

For too long their silence has enabled the factually incorrect and morally repugnant wing of their party to grow in numbers and in power, to spread their hate-filled ideology, to the point of placing a white-nationalist enabler in the White House with known white-nationalist advisors.

To those in the Republican Party who are as appalled and sickened as I am seeing the racist views and openly practiced neo-Nazism on their airwaves, I beg of you to make a stand. Denounce the evil within your party and root out those within your party who treat others as second class citizens.

Or simply abandon the sinking ship of the GOP, because there is another political party which believes in fiscal conservatism and human rights. There is another party out there that believes that all people are created equal and inhibit certain inalienable rights. There is another party out there that believes all human rights apply to all humans, regardless of demographic. There is a party that believes this so strongly, they put it in their platform for all to see.

Join the Libertarian Party, and leave the racists and bigots to their festering party of white-nationalism enablers, and join a party of principle. Join the party that pledges never to use force to achieve political or social goals. Join a party that accepts everyone of faith, everyone of color, and every one of every gender not because it is popular, but because it is the right and moral thing to do.

I am Brian Shields, and I am running for State Representative in Dovers first ward, and I am doing so as a proud Libertarian because Dover needs a new voice in Concord. A voice that will not stand for bigotry, misogyny, and hatred, and will not turn the other cheek. This, I can promise you. You need someone who will protect your rights, all your rights. You need someone who will not have their vote bullied by party power leadership to further an agenda that doesnt benefit Dover. I am the independent voice Dover needs in Concord.

The Libertarian Party is the independent voice New Hampshire needs in the State House. If you are politically homeless, check us out. We welcome everyone with open arms.

Brian Shields

Libertarian Candidate for State Representative, Strafford 13

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Libertarian Party is the independent voice for NH - Foster's Daily Democrat

George Santayana once said, Those who cannot remember the past are bound to repeat it, which cuts particularly deep this week for those who have been keeping up with the news. In America, communism is in on college campuses, the media is actively attempting to push us into a cold possibly hot war with Russia, and now we are contemplating whether or not a repeat of the Korean War is worth it. Its official, weve been thrown back to 1950 at least politically.

Its amazing how many people, given the overwhelming abundance of historical evidence against their case, will try to operate as if we havent dealt with our current predicaments before.

Libertarians have become rather well-versed with this line of reasoning, from the responses you get anytime you ask a collectivist where their theories have worked. That wasnt real [insert failed ideology]! theyll say, as they attempt to convince you to try some old-fashioned theory dressed up in a revamped, modern-day term. In 2016, for example, we had a self-described democratic socialist almost win the Democratic Partys nomination, if it wasnt for the party eating its own. Seeing students in America embrace a broken system with messianic zeal reveals just how blatant our regard for historical evidence has become.

And its the same story when you ask Republicans as well; just mention foreign policy. No matter which failed attempt at regime change you bring up, the neo-cons always seem to be convinced that this time will be different. Never mind the fact that when pressured into explaining why, the best response youll get will be Make America great again.

Whos to blame for this lack of basic historical knowledge though?

Is it our public education system, with their appalling literacy rates and test scores? Or perhaps its our media outlets, who openly claim its their job to scare people to death in order to push the narrative they want imposed. They successfully polarized both sides so extensively in the last election that our political sphere looks more like the 1850s than the 1950s in that respect.

In actuality, its all our faults, though. Anyone with an internet connection has the ability to learn history, yet the overwhelming majority do not.

Now, if you observe American politics through any sort of objective lens, it would appear as though George Orwells predictions have come true. War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength was the mantra of the Party in the dystopian novel, 1984. Nowadays, Republicans are claiming to achieve peace from war; Democrats are espousing policies that say freedom will bring slavery; and everywhere, you see ignorance on both sides being rewarded as strength. Weve all heard the #FakeNews accusations being used on both sides. You mustnt let those other people tell you lies they like to say as the majority of Americans eat up the propaganda, leaving those of us who study history left to look on in horror.

Unless were willing to admit that some of the decisions made in the past were, in fact, mistakes, well sentence ourselves to suffer more loss of life in vain. Regardless of affiliation, lets allow ourselves to examine and consider the events of the past as they relate to our current situations. Because remembering history is crucial in making the correct political choices today. We may not be able to undo our mistakes, but we can certainly learn from them.

Lets embrace our history and stop pretending that any hot war, whether it be North Korea, Russia, or any of the superfluity of countries weve been involved in militarily the past 15 years will ever result in an improvement by any measurable account. Lets stop acting like more freedom for the individual in society will result in slavery for the rest of us. And for the love of God, lets recognize that collectivist attempts at egalitarianism never bear the results that they were supposed to on paper. This way we can spare our children from having to find themselves being thrown back into the political nightmare that 2017 has been fifty years from now. Lets get our act together, America.

Featured image: Encyclopdia Britannica

This post was written by Thomas J. Eckert.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

Thomas J. Eckert is college grad with an interest in politics. He studies economics and history and writes in his spare time on political and economic current events.

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