Thursday, March 04, 2010

Polishing Away the “Patina of Legitimacy”

Wendy McElroy has posted an interesting essay titled All politicians and candidates threaten my freedom.  The title to the essay, itself, speaks a truth which should be self evident, but Wendy expands on this in a thoughtful manner, and in a manner which I would hope bring about deep, personal, individual reflection about what exactly is occurring when you mark an X on a ballot.  From Wendy’s piece.

The foregoing description of a “just” politician doesn’t describe any currently existing one. All politicians today assume office with the claim of having jurisdiction over the lives of people who did not vote for them, of people who opposed them or did not vote at all. The question for libertarians is: how can one human being properly assume immense power over the freedom and person of unconsenting others. If rights, like freedom of speech and association, are inalienable and equal-to-all, then how can you cast a vote that transfers control over my rights to another person? Especially, how can you do this against my will and over my protest? For a libertarian, the answer is clear. You cannot transfer or nullify another person’s rights by making an X on a ballot. All you can do is enable a power-seeker to assume a patina of legitimacy when he claims jurisdiction over and uses force on the unconsenting.

Posted by John Venlet on 03/04 at 02:32 PM
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