"Fear the Boom and Bust", a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Battle

Hilarious and amazingly information-packed rap video from EconStories:  http://www.econstories.tv/

"In Fear the Boom and Bust, John Maynard Keynes and F. A. Hayek, two of the great economists of the 20th century, come back to life to attend an economics conference on the economic crisis. Before the conference begins, and at the insistence of Lord Keynes, they go out for a night on the town and sing about why there's a 'boom and bust' cycle in modern economies and good reason to fear it."



Cameo appearance by Mike Munger as the limo driver at 1:11!

Update: Related links

An interesting article about this video and the debate between J.M. Keynes and F.A. Hayek is posted at The Ludwig von Mises Institute website: The Brilliance of That Hayek vs. Keynes Rap by Jeffrey Tucker.

A recent Rasmussen Reports survey reveals that most Americans reject Keynesian economics: Americans Reject Keynesian Economics.

“Debt as Slavery” with Jim Capo and Mike Munger on LibertyTube TV

In this episode of LibertyTube TV, Jim Capo talks about the debt-based fiat currency, usury as a root cause of the financial crisis, and the connection between debt and the ancient concept of slavery. There are clips of the crowds gathered outside the stock exchange in 1929 and at a bailout protest on Wall Street in 2008. Michael Munger talks about easy credit and the Federal Reserve system.



LibertyTube TV is produced by Dean Garris and Alex Scholz and is broadcast in and around Chapel Hill on The People’s Channel.

Permalink to this episode: http://blip.tv/file/1455893

Post-election thoughts from Mike Munger

"Election Reflections" video from Duke University News

NC Libertarians Keep Ballot Access!

Contributed by Darren O’Connor

The Libertarian Party of North Carolina succeeded in getting more than 2% of the vote in the gubernatorial race, thus meeting the state government's oppressive requirement for staying on the ballot for the next four years without having to complete another obscenely time consuming and expensive petition drive!

Mike Munger, Libertarian candidate for Governor, received 2.87% of the vote. Along the way, he managed to spread the message of liberty to all corners of the state. He showed people fed up with the state-sponsored parties that there is another choice.

The Republicans and Democrats have worked for decades to make sure the public doesn't hear other voices. They don't want people to know that there is a philosophy out there that is based on cooperation and achievement rather than coercion and pandering. Now we have a good four years to focus on breaking through the government's barriers to our message and helping North Carolinians get to know the libertarian philosophy–the only philosophy that's built on freedom in ALL areas of life, not just certain select categories. More on that in my next post.

Again, great job by Dr. Mike Munger and all our candidates across the state!

This article was originally posted at ‘No Coercion’.

Mike Munger takes a dive in the ocean

Mike Munger finishes up his "Murphy to Whalebone" tour of North Carolina by taking a dive in the ocean “for WRAL and WTVD.” See it for yourself in this video.

Update: The YouTube version of this video

Munger Campaign Stop in Raleigh Tonight!

Mike Munger's making an old-fashioned back roads campaign tour from “Murphy to Whalebone,” and he'll be stopping in Raleigh tonight - Saturday, November 1.

Come out and join him for dinner at 7 pm at the Barbecue Lodge on Capital Boulevard.

It's a great chance to meet the Libertarian candidate for NC Governor!

Mike Munger talks about ballot access in North Carolina on LibertyTube TV

In this episode of LibertyTube TV, Mike Munger talks about ballot access in North Carolina and democracy in America. Phillip Rhodes makes a brief appearance near the beginning.

Final Gubernatorial Debate Tonight!

This final gubernatorial debate, the third for Libertarian candidate Mike Munger, is also a first this election season, because it's the first debate in which all three candidates for governor will participate. It's sponsored by WSOC-TV, WTVI Charlotte and the Charlotte Mecklenburg League of Women Voters, and will be rebroadcast by television and radio stations across the state, beginning at 7 pm tonight.

Mike Munger participated in two previous UNC-TV debates with Mayor McCrory of Charlotte. If you missed either of these previous gubernatorial debates, you can still catch them online. You can find a link to the first one, along with some quotes from Mike Munger posted here. You can view the second of these two debates on PBS.org.

If you're in the Triangle area, you can watch tonight's debate live on WRAL-TV or listen live on WUNC, 91.5 FM. UNC-TV will also rebroadcast the debate this Sunday, the 19th, at 1 pm.

10/16/08: WTVI has provided a podcast of the October 15 debate that you can view here.

Mike on the Move: Munger Campaign Updates

The following is adapted from a message from the Munger campaign. Subscribe to Munger campaign updates here.

Last Day to win a Debate Ticket!

There are a limited number of tickets to the October 15th debate in Charlotte between Mike and his two opponents, Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory.

If you want to be entered into a drawing to win a seat in the audience, just make a contribution of $50 (or more) at Munger08.com TODAY, October 6! If you've snail-mailed a donation, let us know to enter you into the lottery.

Rules for entering: If you are selected, you agree to attend. The debate will be at the WTVI studio in Charlotte. Mike's guests should plan to arrive by 6:15pm; the debate will be broadcast live from 7 to 8pm. Winners will be notified by email.

This Week on the Campaign Trail

Monday: Mike will travel to Whiteville to be part of the Columbus County Fair.

Tuesday: Mike will be headlining a Green Party forum in Durham on ballot access on October 7.

Wednesday: Mike will speak to members of the Senior Tar Heel Legislature about his campaign at the Brownstone Inn in Raleigh. AND Mike will face off in a second live televised debate with his Republican opponent Mayor Pat McCrory on UNC-TV at 8 pm.

Thursday: Mike will speak to members of the Campaign for Liberty Meetup at Café 101 in downtown Raleigh. Dinner starts around 6:30 pm and the program begins around 7:00 pm.

Friday: Mike will participate in a live interview and web chat at WXII in Winston-Salem. AND Mike will greet voters at the Libertarian Party booth 7 to 9pm at the Dixie Classic in Winston-Salem. The booth is in the Annex Building. Come chat with Mike and pick up a yard sign or two!

More Information

LAWN SIGNS: Lots of folks are asking about lawn signs and bumper stickers. You can request them from the campaign by replying to this email*, but you can also pick them up at the LPNC's booth at the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem this week or the State Fair in Raleigh Oct 16 to 26. If you'd like to work a shift at either Fair, information can be found here.

NEW LIBERTARIANS: The State Board of Elections registered over 230 new Libertarians last week! We've had to start from ground zero after being disaffiliated by the state,and Mike's campaign is generating a lot of new Libertarians. There are over 1,700 registered Libertarians already, and we've only been able to register folks as Libertarian for the past few months.

* email updates from the Munger campaign (subscribe here)

10/11/08: The 2nd UNC-TV debate is now available as an online video.

Mike Munger says the bailout bill will do more harm than good

Mike Munger, a Duke economist and the Libertarian candidate for governor, is among dozens of university professors nationwide who are telling Congress the proposed bailout will do more harm than good.

Check out this news clip of Munger talking about the bailout on WRAL-TV yesterday:

http://www.wral.com/news/state/video/3654603/

Mike Munger on the Issues -- Share this!

The short statements below were taken from the more detailed Issues Page of Mike Munger's website. Please share this post with fellow North Carolina voters.

Mike Munger on the Issues
The reason I want to run for Governor of North Carolina as a Libertarian is that I want to restore good government to our great state. My themes, a moratorium on capital punishment, control of municipal aggression against property, a broad-based education vouchers system and ending corporate welfare, are all echoes of this one central theme. I am a liberal, in the way that Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were liberals. I believe in the human spirit more than I believe in government direction and control of human activity. As Governor, I will lead North Carolina towards a rebirth of liberty, tempered by the requirements, and the ethics, of personal responsibility.

Annexation
As Governor, I would work to persuade the General Assembly to pass legislation to curb this assault on freedom and property.

Corporate Welfare
We are being played for saps, and it is time to end this wasteful and corrupting practice. The way to attract new business, and to retain existing factories and jobs, is to create an atmosphere that is good for business. Low taxes, no burdensome regulations, and an educated and productive work force are the things that make an economy prosper.

Death Penalty
Get the state out of the killing business! As Governor, I would immediately impose a two-year moratorium on executions in our state, and would ask for legislation ending executions completely.

Election Reform
Elections are the means by which the citizens control politicians. We cannot rely on politicians and elected officials to police their own activities. I would favor a relaxation of ballot access and retention rules for 'third parties'. I would reduce signature requirements for 'write-in' challengers. I would also favor relaxing restrictions on campaign contributions, though keeping the disclosure requirements as they now stand.

Continue for complete short version of issues list … Eminent Domain
The first piece of legislation I would try to persuade the General Assembly to pass would be a statute sharply limiting the use of eminent domain to public uses. Second, I would support an amendment to the state Constitution curtailing the use of eminent domain forever.

Marriage
I would support legislation that allows legal civil unions between same sex couples, under the same conditions that this contract is offered to female/male couples. The state cannot tell churches or spiritual groups to award or withhold a sacrament or ritual of marriage. But neither can churches require that the state deny the economic benefits of the civil union contract to citizens.

School Choice
It has become customary to bash public education, and the state of our educational system in general. I want to sound a positive note; there are a lot of good things happening in North Carolina education, and I would want to continue that advance, to guide continued improvement. And the path to continued improvement is to foster choice. School choice would be the central premise of the education policy of a Munger administration.

I would offer each parent in the state of NC an education voucher, financed by lottery proceeds, of $1,250 per child in their household. This voucher could only be spent at a state-accredited school, or be credited to the household in the case of home-schooling. But I would make the accreditation process streamlined and simple, fostering the growth of charter schools, religious or theme schools, or any other kind of innovative educational program that can attract the children of parents who want to exercise their choices as parents.

Victimless Crimes
The US incarcerates by far the largest proportion of its population of any country in the world, accounting for nearly one fifth of the world's prison population.

Our state must strike a better balance, on two fronts. First, we must stop criminalizing so many behaviors that represent addictive personalities or recreational pathologies. I do not advocate the legalization of all, or even most, drugs. But I would favor decriminalizing most drug possession, and most other victimless crimes including prostitution. Second, we must stop spending so much of our money and effort on incarceration, and more on rehabilitation and alternative sentencing.

Please forward this post to your friends and associates and encourage them to check out Mike's website - Munger08.com

Print this article.

Mike Munger to debate McCrory on UNC-TV

Dr. Michael Munger, the Libertarian candidate for governor, will participate in his first televised gubernatorial debate to be held this Wednesday evening at 8pm on UNC-TV. While Perdue has apparently declined to participate, McCrory has accepted the challenge.

This will be the first time ever that a Libertarian candidate for Governor of NC has participated in a televised debate for the general election, so make plans to watch. What to expect? Here's a sample of what Mike Munger had to say in response to last week's debate on education:

Competition and school choice will be the central premise of the Munger Administration's education policy, to give parents more control over their children's education. I would streamline and simplify the accreditation process, lift the cap on charter schools, and foster the growth of charter schools, religious or theme schools, or any other kind of innovative educational program that can attract the children of parents who want to exercise their choices as parents.

An article on Munger's response to the education debate is available on LPNC.org.

Campaign website: Munger 2008.

The Debate that Should Have Been

Brad & Britt in the Morning featured Dr. Mike Munger, the Libertarian candidate for governor of North Carolina, on FM Talk 101.1 Wednesday, the morning after a debate aired by WTVD that failed to include him. Munger commented on the other candidates' answers, talked about his own views on several issues, and responded to live callers.

Listen online here --> Munger on Brad & Britt Show

Brad & Britt in the Morning is broadcast on WZTK, FM Talk 101.1, from Burlington to the Triangle and the Triad regions of North Carolina, including Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point.

Update 8/25/08: Michael Munger has been invited to participate in the UNC-TV debates scheduled for September 24 and October 8, in addition to the debate in Charlotte on October 15.

Update 8/26/08: Munger and McCrory, but not Perdue, have accepted invitations to a candidate forum co-sponsored by WWAY News Channel 3 and Big Talker FM in Wilmington on October 24.

Munger Holds Shadow Debate

Contributed by Brian Irving

The Libertarian candidate for governor may be excluded from the gubernatorial debates, but that does not prevent him from responding to the questions.

Dr. Mike Munger will hold a "shadow debate" tomorrow on WZTK FM 101.1 from 8 to 9 a.m. courtesy of the Brad and Britt Show. The format will be to replay the questions and answers from the Democrat and Republican candidates debate tonight on WTVD-TV 11, then air Dr. Munger's comments.

"It will be like the old TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000," quipped the Duke University political science and economics professor. "I listen to the lieutenant governor and the mayor tonight, then offer my own answers." He said he probably will think of some witty retorts "having had all night to think of them."

"I appreciate Brad and Britt giving me the opportunity to respond to Bev and Pat, something most of the other so-called major broadcast media have refused to do." Munger said.

"Honestly, I expect more people will hear this than the TV debate," Dr. Munger said.

Bob Barr Should be Included in Presidential Debates

According to a Zogby poll released Friday, 55% of likely voters nationwide say that Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party nominee for President, should be included in the presidential debates. While support for his inclusion is strongest among independents (69%), the majority of Democrats (52%) and half of Republicans also believe he should be included in the debates.

What about Munger in the Gubernatorial Debates?

If most Americans want Bob Barr included in the presidential debates, it stands to reason that most North Carolinians would also like to see Michael "Mike" Munger included in the gubernatorial debates. So far, Mike Munger has been invited to the final gubernatorial debate scheduled for October 15 in Charlotte, and sponsored by WSOC-TV, WTVI Charlotte, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg League of Women Voters.

Three debates are scheduled in the Triangle area between now and then. It remains to be seen whether any of the Triangle-area sponsors will invite Munger to participate.

Update 8/25/08: Dr. Munger has now been invited to participate in the UNC-TV gubernatorial debates scheduled for September 24 and October 8.

Zogby Poll: Majority Want Libertarian Bob Barr Included in Presidential Debates
Zogby International, August 15, 2008

Libertarian Munger In At Least One Debate
LPNC news release, July 28, 2008

Michael Munger for Governor '08

Michael Munger on NBC-17

In an interview with NBC-17, Michael Munger, the Libertarian candidate for governor of North Carolina, stated his opposition to capital punishment, his support for school choice for all NC students, and his opposition to involuntary annexation.

Some quotes from this interview with NBC-17:

"It's much more likely - if you're black, or retarded, or have inadequate legal representation - that you'll be executed."

"Wealthy people have choices. I want to give poor people choices. I want to put responsibility and choice back into the hands of parents who are desperate for some kind of better school for their children."

"North Carolina is one of only seven states that allows involuntary annexation. We don't annex fairly. We annex wealthy neighborhoods that we can use as a revenue source."

Source: "Third Party Candidate to Appear on NC Ballot"
NBC-17, July 21, 2008

Munger Money Grenade Brigade

The following is a message from Michael Munger:

As you know, I have been working to run for Governor of North Carolina, as a Libertarian, for the past two years. Well, we got the 105,000 signatures, and we got on the ballot.

But then things got…weird. I was invited to the final debate, in October, at Queens College in Charlotte. But then that debate got cancelled, and ANOTHER debate, only without the Libertarians in it, got scheduled instead.

The state of NC is really dragging its feet in getting out new forms, so Libertarians can register. The state Board of Elections will barely meet with us, and the county Boards of Elections won't accept checks for filing fees for our candidates. I put up more than $1,000 worth of yard signs, and the state took them all down, because (get this) there is "no election going on at this time"! Ouch.

The only thing that can change this is participation at the grassroots.

And the only kind of participation that matters is….small contributions, from lots of folks!

That's why we are running a small money bomb tomorrow. It's so small, it's really just a money grenade.

Read more!Won't you join the Munger "Grenade Brigade"? Here's what you do, ANYTIME ON JULY 3 or JULY 4. Yes, ANYTIME:

1. Go to http://www.munger08.com/


2. Click on "contribute"


3. Give $25, or less (the amount doesn't matter as much as the fact you show your support for democracy and free choice in politics!)

That's it. That's all I need.

Please help! Even if you have already given, PLEASE just give something. It isn't the money, as much as it is the message that lots of folks care

Mike Munger
http://www.munger08.com/

----- end of message ------

Click to activate ------>

Related posts:
Munger's Keynote at the LP National Convention
Libertarian Party Back on the Ballot in NC
Munger on News 14 Carolina
Munger on Fox 8
Michael "The Body" Munger

Michael Munger's Keynote at the LP Convention

Michael Munger, the Libertarian candidate for Governor of North Carolina, delivered one of the keynote speeches at the national Libertarian Party Convention in Denver. The text of that speech is copied below, and there's now an audio version and a podcast of it at Munger08.com.

Google Video of this Keynote speech (added 6-22-08)


Read more! (full text)[Click here to print this post.]

Libertarians, What Are We For?
May 23, 2008

Friends, it's great to be here, today. I know a lot of you already, and I hope to get a chance to talk with the rest of you soon. I look around this room, and I see a lot of friendly faces, a real sense of shared purpose. It's exciting.

Unfortunately, the reason that so many of us feel that spark of purpose is that we're having hard times. This administration in Washington is a really great recruiter for our party. Everywhere I go, people are disgusted.

They glance around, to make sure no one is listening, and then tell me, "You know, I never considered voting Libertarian before. But when I see the Patriot Act, when I see the casualties in the war in Iraq and the war on drugs, then I start to think Libertarian."

The government is not providing the basic services that our more optimistic fellow citizens have come to expect. When I talk to people in the cities, Latinos and African-Americans, people who send their children to schools that look like war zones, schools that may be the single most disastrous examples of the failure of statist social engineering, I hear it: "I'm starting to think Libertarian."

Of course, some folks also ask me, "Why don't Libertarians care about real people? The Democrats and Republicans are interested in real people."

I answer, yes, Democrats and Republicans are interested in real people. And fleas are interested in real dogs. We don't elect them mayor.

Why would you think that if I care about you, I should want to run your life? Or, if I don't want to run you life, why would you think I don't care?

As I said, this year is a great opportunity for Libertarians, for an alternative. The humorist PJ O'Rourke was researching farm subsidies, a remarkably expensive program with essentially no real benefits. While O'Rourke was doing research, he visited a farmer, who was going to artificially inseminate a cow. While the farmer was doing what he needed to do to inseminate the cow, at the cow's hind end, he asked PJ to hold the cow's head. The farmer, of course, was manipulating a two-foot-long plastic turkey baster, in the part of the cow where it needed to go. PJ, holding the head, said that he would never forget the look on that cow's face.

But that look was familiar. And then PJ recognized it, and you recognize it, too. Millions of taxpayers have the same expression that cow had, every April 15th. And for the SAME REASON!

That same reason, for taxes, for failures in foreign policy, and for disastrous corruption at every level of government, is the reason that people are starting to think Libertarian.

If people are presented with a better choice, then they will make a choice. And a lot of those people in America today are thinking of making a LIBERTARIAN choice.

But what will our message be? How will we present that "better choice?" What are the ideas that we want to communicate to all those voters, to all those people who never even considered voting for us before. Friends, we stand at a crossroads. We have an opportunity we may never have again. Our message has to come down to the answer to one question, the response to four simple words. Those four words…you've all heard them. Those four words….we often stumble over our answer.

The question….the four words we have to face….it all comes down to this: What are we for?

What are you for?

Our success, our very future as a party, is going to depend on how we answer those four words in the next five months.

The simplest and best answer I can think of is this. Libertarians are for the American dream. For everyone, all over the whole world.

The American dream is simple, at its core. If you work hard, you will succeed. And hard work multiplied by merit will bring you success beyond your wildest dreams. In spite of all its flaws, all its taxes and regulations, America itself is still, STILL, the greatest human invention for producing wealth that the world has ever seen.

In the America that I am for, that I work toward as a Libertarian, no one can tell you what to work on, and no one can take away the fruits of your success.

Now, when you present this message, when you tell people what we are for, you will have a problem. You have to accept that we are confronting the accumulated nonwisdom of decades of a state-controlled educational machine.

And you will get questions. You all know the questions: Who will take care of us? Who will organize the society? We need the government to tell us what to do….

This message, of needing a government to tell people what to do, seems to have permeated the very souls of our nation. Even if we are advising people in developing nations, you can see it. Remember, these poor folks are desperate to become free and prosperous, to have enough liberty to raise their children and enough money to support them.

What do we tell them, when they ask about the American dream? That they need the rule of law? That they need to guarantee private property? That they need honest judges, and a system for adjudicating disputes that is fair and predictable. And a private banking system, to mediate complex financial transactions and provide the loans and liquidity necessary for growth?

No. Our leaders tell developing nations that what they need to copy, the first thing they need to do is….have elections! Sweet fancy Moses! Look how well that works for us!

We tell developing nations to adopt the worst, most dysfunctional part of our system, our electoral system, and expect them to climb that stairway to the American dream. Just have elections! You'll be rich in no time.

As is all too evident in daily news, this path has led them not toward the dream we all prize but toward the nightmare we all fear. Nations that have tried to develop by adopting majority rule institutions have nearly always failed unless they have already put in place the other institutions necessary to guarantee liberty.

Why? Because, by itself, without judges and rule of law, majority rule is always two wolves and a sheep deciding what is for lunch.

Libertarians are not "for" majority rule, as any kind of moral principle. In a democracy, we are sometimes forced to use majority rule as a way to decide things. But it is not the core of our system. Majority rule can be a protection against tyranny by an elite, but it creates another danger that may be greater. There is no moral force in the majority; it is just what most people happen to think. This cannot be the bedrock for a party that wants to stand for what is truly American.

Then, what are we for? What is the system that we think other nations should look to, and adopt? It's democracy, not majority rule. What do I mean by democracy? Let me tell you a brief story. Examples of this story, almost exactly the same facts, have happened all over the world, over and over again.

In the late 1990's, a number of people were living in a town called "Niono," in the west African nation of Mali. A number of Peace Corps and other aid agencies worked to help the 50,000 residents of Niono. One problem they faced was the control of water. There was a large drainage ditch that didn't really drain anywhere. But it was a huge collector of animal carcasses, human waste, and mosquito larvae.

A Dutch group installed a pump, and it made a huge difference in the quality of life in the village. Waste water was cleaned up, malaria and other diseases were greatly reduced, and when rain water did collect in this ditch it could be pumped out for irrigation for crops. After the pump was installed, the drinking water supply was no longer fouled by floods of waste.

The aid agencies, one by one, moved on to other projects, other villages, maybe even other parts of the world. They left the care and maintenance of the Niono pump up to the local government officials.

When one of the Peace Corps workers returned to the village, five years later, things looked pretty much the same. Same streets, same trees. But the pump had broken, years ago. And the agent of the government had made no move to fix it, preferring to keep the taxes for himself.

All the pump needed to work again, and solve the problem, was a machined part that cost less than $100. But because no one fixed the pump, 10% of the town contracted malaria every year. That's every year, mind you. New cases.

The returning Peace Corps worker asked why no one had fixed the pump. The people of the town said that they were waiting for the government to do it. And they were very angry, because they were sick and weak, because no one would help them. Far from lifting them up, the help of the NGOs had only left them more dependent on government, less able to care for themselves.

You see, once a society comes to believe that no one has the power to fix things, and that we have to wait on the government, we ALL become sick and angry. Those people in Niono, they could have worked together, pooled their resources, and fixed that pump. But they have no sense of private, personal empowerment. They have been taught since birth, since their grandparents' birth, to think of themselves as children in a family headed by the state.

The well-intentioned help of the Peace Core volunteers only made this worse. The towns-people sat around waiting in vain for the government to save them, dying of malaria. If when the pump had been installed the Peace Corps workers could also have talked about self-reliance and liberty, many lives would have been saved. Once started, that process is self-perpetuating. Once I can use my own money, my own ingenuity, rather than waiting for the government…well, that is the stairway to the American dream.

In 1831 a Frenchman, named Alexis de Tocqueville published a memoir of his travels in the U.S. It was called, called "Democracy in America," but it could have been called, "How Americans Get Things Done." Tocqueville marveled at how Americans worked together privately to solve civic problems.

Now, Tocqueville was no fan of majority rule. The problem with political democracy, he said, is that citizens are isolated and feeble. They can do hardly anything by themselves, and they can't force others to help them. He admired the American solution to this problem: organize into private groups, and leave government out of it.

I'm quoting now: "They all, therefore, become powerless if they do not learn voluntarily to help one another. If men living in democratic countries had no right and no inclination to associate for political purposes, their independence would be in great jeopardy (pause to restate: nations have to defend themselves from external aggression), but they might long preserve their wealth and their cultivation: whereas if they never acquired the habit of forming associations in ordinary life, civilization itself would be endangered."

Translation: TO HELL WITH POLITICS, AND VOTING! Equating democracy with majority rule misses the point completely. Private voluntary associations are the essence, the very essence, of liberty, and hence of authentic American society. Citizens freely associating promote liberty, protect liberty, and provide increased welfare for everyone.

And that is what we are for – and why we joined a party dedicated to liberty. If you want to go out and persuade some people to work with you, and all voluntarily work for the benefit of each, then that is libertarian democracy. If someone wants to drop out, and form a different association, then they are free to do so.

Tocqueville criticizes his countrymen in France. He had seen, in the legacy of the French Revolution, the damage that political democracy and a reliance on majority rule could do.

But when I read his critique today, I get a sick feeling. His criticism on France in 1831 is an even more scathing indictment of American society today. We have become a political democracy, where voting is the extent of civic action, where interest group lobbying for power and wealth is the only route open to solve civic problems.

Tocqueville said that the mistake the French made was to believe this: The more enfeebled and incompetent the citizens become, the active government ought to be, so that the state can do what individuals can no longer do for themselves.

Friends, that has become the very core argument of American politics. It was false in 1831, and it is absurdly false today. But it sounds like a Presidential campaign speech, for any of the major candidates.

The truth is that, if we accept the lie that people are weak and useless, and that only government can help us, we end up like those forlorn townspeople in Niono, Mali. We are waiting for the government to come save us. And we are fooled into believing that the bigger the problem, the more money we take out of private hands and give to government, so we get help faster.

What happened in Mali was extreme, but you recognize it also in the U.S. In fact, it's typical: No one solves the problem and the money the government has received goes to produce more ineffective government, and even more enfeebled citizens.

The real answer is not more, but less, government. Given the freedom to do so, and the responsibility to act, citizens organize to solve problems. Look, after Hurricane Katrina, thousands of people tried to help. They organized mountains of contributions of food and supplies, they donated money to rent trucks, and they gave their time to drive those loaded trucks towards New Orleans. And they were turned away. Turned away! Instead of keeping order inside the ruined city, the one job government really does have, the one thing it can do, federal troops "kept order" by turning away relief supplies at the borders. That's not in Mali, that's in America.

The depth of the conceit that Tocqueville punctures is remarkable. Many of you know the political economist John Stuart Mill, a sometimes libertarian thinker. But he had a blind spot about things the government had to do for citizens. In 1850, he wrote that it was obvious, just as if OF COURSE, the state had to provide lighthouses for navigation.

He just sat in his study and wrote that, because looking out his window, by himself, he became convinced that no private person could collect fees from the ships as they pass the lighthouse. That meant that no lighthouse keeper could charge the fees needed to live, even though everyone valued the service.

At the time that Mill wrote that, take a guess, what proportion of lighthouses were privately owned? 5%? 10%? Try 75%! Fully three quarters of the lighthouses in England were privately owned and operated. By what miracle was this accomplished? By private, voluntary organization, a subscription service run in cooperation with the provisioning concession in local ports.

Many academics, even today, still point to Mill's admission that government was required to produce lighthouse services. But Mill was mistaken! It was not true, and it is not true now. Voluntary private organizations are better for nearly every purpose than coercive government organizations.

Imagine a group of shipowners, losing ships on the rocks in the foggy airs off the English seacoast. They are losing money, losing time, and losing ships. They figured out a way to raise money for lighthouses. Sure, some ships that didn't pay ALSO benefited, but it is always that way with voluntary solutions. There's more to go around, for everyone! Small voluntary groups are more flexible, and better solve Olson's "collective action" problem, than large government "solutions," no matter how well-intentioned.

That's what we are for, ladies and gentlemen. We are for the kind of private organizations that arise, in all their profusion and richness and complexity, in the absence of government decree. Churches, not-for-profits, for-profit firms, clubs, partnerships…the list goes on and on. That's what we are for.

I talked about this in a lecture at one of our universities this semester, because I think the comparison is so striking: The man who said lighthouses couldn't be private lived in a country where three quarters of the lighthouses were, in fact, private!

A student in the audience raised her hand and said, "But that is really a government solution, isn't it? Anything that involves more than one person is the government. Libertarians just believe that we should all be by ourselves, as individuals, right?"

As a college professor, as you can imagine, this was a proud moment for me. We are turning out graduates who have no frame of reference on the nature of the state. How could it be, how could anyone believe, that the spontaneous, voluntary organization of a group for mutual benefit, is identical to coercion, to taking by force?

They are as different as night and day. And, exactly as Tocqueville said, the more we come to depend on government, more we become dysfunctional, and the less we are able to organize ourselves to solve local problems.

The spirit of America does not allow for sitting back and waiting for the state do it. If you are my neighbor, I'll help you. And you'll help me. We have a direct, powerful voluntary connection. Reciprocal obligations, complex organizations, relationships voluntarily negotiated and ended.

Government crowds those out. If the government is supposed to take care of all of us, then I have no moral obligation to pitch in, to help out. I see you attacked, and I look up and down the street and cluck to myself, "Why don't the police do something?" If I see a bad school, I wonder why the state doesn't improve it. If I see a broken pump, I wait with my neighbors, and we watch our children die of malaria.

The great Murray Rothbard diagnosed the problem perfectly when he said that leaping from the necessity of social connection (that's real; we need that), to claims about the necessity of state action is the world's greatest non sequitur. It does not follow. It is false. Yet it is accepted in our schools, and in the halls of our government, as if this lie were self-evidently true. Not just true, mind you. Self-evidently true.

Well, back to the main question: What are we for? Libertarians are for voluntary action, always. It is because we are for society, a vibrant, active society that we resist the expansion of state power.

It is because we are for giving people a chance to reach their full potential that we doubt the motives and effectiveness of government. Political coercion corrupts the human spirit; political leaders tell us they take our wealth for our own good, and straitjackets independent thought – the essence of liberty.

We are for individuals, working together in complex, interconnected organizations that they have designed, trying to solve problems. We are for liberty, for celebrating the infinite and infinitely varied capacities of the human mind.

Libertarians are for a limitless sense of the possible, for the idea that for a society of truly free and responsible citizens, nothing is impossible.

Now, when we all go back to our home states, people are going to disagree with us. Hell, we disagree with each other! But as David Nolan said last night: There are NO enemies in this room. We are all for smaller government, personal autonomy, and groups of people working together as equals, as partners. And we are the only party that is for those things.

The Republicans and Democrats are the ones who are (as our own Michael Cloud puts it) tied up in their own nots. Our opponents are all knotted up.

They think we should NOT be able to ride a motorcycle with a helmet. Not just a helmet; an approved helmet. We cannot ingest, or even possess, plants that grow wild in nature. We can't start a business, hire whom we want, produce what we think is a good product.

They will not let us run our own schools, live our lives. They will not let us sell our property, and they may even take our property to transfer it to some other person or group, NOT caring at all about the so-called doctrine of "public purpose."

In short, it is the actually the positions of our opponents that can be reduced to lots and lots of nots.

Libertarians are for the rights of individuals. As Thomas Jefferson said, "It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all." Not establish, not create: "Secure."

Government, if it is to be legitimate, must secure our rights to our persons, our property, and our consciences. As Tocqueville argues, and the experience in Mali proves so painfully, any government that tries to do more than that paradoxically does less. A government that tries to engineer a society always destroys society, because the constitution of society and the nature of the state are antithetical.

So, when your neighbors back home say that they disagree with one or another of the things Libertarians are for, agree with them. Understand their position. As the great Harry Browne put it, of course we disagree on some things. No two people agree on everything. But you, and I, and our neighbors back home, do agree on something, something very fundamental. We agree on what we are for.

We are for a Libertarian society, where a couple wakes up, in their own home, on land that they control, on property that they can defend. This couple formed a bond, by mutual consent, without needing the license or endorsement of any outside agency. They send their children to school that they have chosen, whose curriculum they endorse.

When they go out to their car, they don't take an I.D. It's no one's business who they are, or where they are, so long as they initiate no violence and break no laws.

They work in jobs they have trained for, and they enjoy the full fruits of that labor. They contribute to charities or work for causes they believe, and are not forced at gunpoint to support causes they loathe.

What do these schools, these jobs, these causes, look like? What will people do? I have no idea! Isn't it arrogant to think that I could know? Wouldn't it be despotic to think that I have to know?

We are for each American. We are for families, and for groups of people working together to solve problems, serving their consciences and their own goals. We are for responsibility, and choices. We are for a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution. And only the Libertarians can give America back that sacred gift- liberty.

Friends, thank you, and think Libertarian. Think Libertarian.

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Libertarian Party Back on the NC Ballot

Libertarian Party of North Carolina
Brian Irving, Communications Director
(contact: 919.538.4548)

RALEIGH (May 22) -- The Libertarian Party is back on the ballot in North Carolina. The State Board of Elections formally certified the party today. North Carolina voters who so choose can now register Libertarian.

"This was our eighth ballot access drive. Without a doubt, it was the most nerve-racking and exhausting one we've conducted," said Barbara Howe, state chair. "We are now back on the ballot, but we are out of funds, so we have no money to support candidates."

Nevertheless, the Libertarians will field a slate of candidates in November, she said. At their 2008 convention in Burlington held in April, the party nominated Dr. Michael Munger, chair of the Duke University political science department, for governor. They also nominated candidates for the General Assembly, U.S. Congress, and the Guilford County Commission.

Read more!Libertarians have until July 1 to submit a complete list of candidates to the SBOE, Howe noted. "We expect now that we are officially on the ballot, we will have more people come forward who want to spread the message of liberty."

North Carolina ballot laws are the most restrictive in the nation. "They're designed by the Democrats and Republicans to keep independent candidates and third parties off the ballot," said Dr. Munger. The LPNC spent an estimated $134,000 and logged 2,200 volunteer hours to collect the nearly 70,000 valid signatures needed.

"This also costs the taxpayer, stifles democracy, and, worst of all, kills trees," Dr. Munger quipped. "County BOE clerks spend 4,000 hours verifying the more than 108,000 signatures we submitted." That's based on an estimate of two minutes to verify each signature. In some cases, it takes 5 to 10 minutes, Dr. Munger said.

"And we used more than 20 reams of paper, 400 pounds," Dr. Munger said. "And after all this time, effort and expense, we essentially arrive at the starting line breathless."

"Since the process keeps most parties out completely, the real cost to taxpayers is democracy." Dr. Munger said. "No choices, no new ideas, and no competition in a system that could surely use it.

"Nearly half of the seats in the General Assembly will be unopposed again this year because we have had to spend all our resources on this bizarre exercise instead of recruiting candidates and campaigning."

Meanwhile, Libertarian delegates have departed/will depart for the 2008 Libertarian National Convention in Denver May 22 to 26. The Convention will nominate a candidate for president, who will be on the ballot in 48 states. A debate featuring the Libertarian candidates seeking the presidential nomination will be aired live on CSPAN Saturday, May 24 from 7 to 9 p.m. (MST).

"Unlike the Democratic and Republican national conventions, ours is not subsidized by taxpayer money," Howe noted.

Highlights of the LPNC Convention

The primary items of business of North Carolina Libertarians attending the annual LPNC convention last weekend were to nominate candidates for state and local offices, consider amendments to the party platform, and select delegates to the national Libertarian Party Convention in Denver.

Michael Munger was nominated as the Libertarian candidate for governor of North Carolina. Chair of the Political Science department at Duke, Mike Munger is running as a reformer who, if elected as governor, would use that office to counter the waste and corruption in state government. In addition, three Wake County Libertarians were nominated for the North Carolina General Assembly:

Susan Hogarth for NC House District 38;
Brian Irving for NC Senate District 17;
Stephanie Watson* for NC Senate District 16;

and Mark McMains was nominated for Commissioner of Insurance.

In other business, convention delegates amended their platform. They added a plank calling on the state to refuse to implement national identification programs like Real ID. Additional new platform planks address state and local issues including water rights, local sign ordinances, and fluoridation of public water supplies.

Convention attendees heard from several candidates for the Libertarian nomination for President, including former Senator Mike Gravel and Wayne Allyn Root. Former Congressman Bob Barr also spoke to the convention as our regional represenative to the Libertarian National Committee. Having recently launched a presidential exploratory committee, Barr is another possible Libertarian nominee for President.

Of the possible presidential nominees attending, Dr. Mary Ruwart was the favorite of this convention. A libertarian activist since 1982 and the author of Healing Our World in an Age of Aggression, she won the straw poll, receiving a whopping 68% of the vote.

* The Watson campaign has been postponed till 2010.

Pictures from the LPNC Convention in Burlington

Munger on News 14 Carolina

Libertarian candidate for NC Governor, Michael Munger, was featured as part of a News 14 Carolina report about third parties and the struggles they face in NC. News 14 archives their stories online, so you can still view this interesting discussion.

Asked what issues he would raise in the gubernatorial race, Munger mentioned same-sex marriage, the death penalty, and education reform. About the proposed Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in NC, he said:

"We need to stop that Constutional amendment. That sort of legislation about morals shouldn't be in the Constitution.”

He supports a moratorium on capital punishment, and he wants to lift the limit on charter schools.

Political Connections: Third parties (video)
News 14 Carolina, 3-22-2008

Michael Munger's Issues

Munger on Fox 8

Michael Munger, Libertarian candidate for NC Governor, made an appearance on Fox 8 about halfway through Bob Buckley's report on Michael Crichton's view of environmentalism as a new religion.

Munger didn't exactly agree with this view; instead, he stated that “a lot of the environmentalist movement and the anti-global warming movement is just a way of repackaging anti-capitalist sentiment.”

Buckley Report: Church of Environmentalism (video)
MyFox WGHP, 24 Feb 2008

Michael "The Body" Munger

Michael Munger, a Libertarian Duke professor running for governor of NC, is described in a News & Observer article as a reformer who "wants to create a robust school-voucher program, end the death penalty, curb cities' power to annex property, slash many state departments and generally be a thorn in the side of a legislature he sees as corrupt and wasteful."

Remember Jesse Ventura, the professional wrestler who was elected Governor of Minnesota?

"When [Ventura] was first elected, everybody thought it was a joke. But he was a pretty successful governor in a difficult state. In some ways that would be the model I would use. I would be Michael 'The Body' Munger."

Libertarian Duke professor wants to be N.C. governor
News and Observer, Politics, Feb. 14, 2008

Munger's campaign website: Munger08.com