Monday, March 2, 2009

Huckabee, The Kid, and Principles of Freedom

What do Mike Huckabee and a 13-year old conservative prodigy have in common? The
kid's name is Jonathan Khron, he is the author of the book "Define Conservatism,"
and I will let him speak first.

Quite the "wunderkind," isn't he? Did you catch his "Four Principles of
Conservatism"?
Respect for the Constitution
Respect for life
Less government
Personal responsibility
"Conservatism," he said, is the principle of protecting peoples' rights.

Now what did former Arkansas Governer Mike Huckabee say? He said (on Fox and
Friends, 2/28/09) that capitalism is "better" in the marketplace with its "free
hand" versus the government with its "heavy hand."

Where is the similarity? Both of them think conservatism is about principle, when
in fact it is about "preserving" the status quo from the liberals attempts to rip
apart conservative values any further than they already have. Conservative
principles are not based on objectivity, but rather on the subjectivity that the
free market is the best; not that it is right.

Neither of them mentioned the principle of the free market as the right of men
with individual sovereignty. What is individual sovereignty? In a civilization it
must be defined as the most freedom available while living under the rule of law.

"Individual sovereignty was not a peculiar conceit of Thomas Jefferson: It was the
common assumption of the day..." Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D.

Man is born with absolute individual sovereignty, because where no government

ruled him, and where no men enslaved him, all the unalienable rights given him by
nature would remain with him. In a civilization of laws, some of those rights are
alienated in order to secure the rule of law, but in return the individual
actually gains.

He gains the freedom of having to police other men to secure the natural rights he
is left with. He is free of having to enact individual justice when he has been
wronged.

Because he is free to be himself without worry that others will--metaphorically or

actually--put their fist, or a gun, in his face, he is free to use his energy in
the pursuit of happiness.

The principle of "respect for life" means the respect for individual sovereignty.
This does not mean the sovereignty of the people in the aggregate when defined as
"the greatest good for the greatest number."

Huckabee meant just this very thing when he said capitalism was "better."

The problem with conservatives is they don't understand that capitalism is not
"better." It is man's right by nature, by his nature as a free sovereign, and as
the "rational animal."

Krohn said "respect for the Constitution" was a principle. Well, under the Tenth
Amendment whereby the States have all the power not specifically given to the
Federal government nor denied to the States themselves, the people have all other
powers.

There is not one word in the Constitution that allows for the men operation of
free men in a free market with the "heavy hand" of the government when it has a
gun it that hand.

"Less government" means nothing except as a comparison. In the 21st century we

need a government that is immensely larger than what was required in Jefferson's
time. "Less" is not a standard. It may be a goal compared to what we currently
have.

But the goal is a government that rules free men, not a "smaller" government. We
can create a smaller government tomorrow and yet not get rid of the collectivism
that the gun in the hand of government has pointed at our heads.

Capitalism is not a "better" system; it is the only system commensurate with free
men operating in a free market under the rule of law that protects individual
sovereignty.

The Republicans lost the last presidential election and the previous Congressional
elections because they don't know what a principle is. They compete for the minds
and hearts of the American people by offering them bromides about freedom while
chosing an economic system based not on the freedom offered by that system, but on
the fuzzy idea that it is a "better" system.

And they don't understand why it's better.

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