I have gained libertarian readers since I started publishing FREE WHITEWATER in May 2007. That’s a guess based on email, and on the sites from which I receive visitors, from Wisconsin and beyond.
You are always welcome. I’m from a movement family, too. I know what it’s like to read what you’ve read, follow politics as you have, and be part of a proud, American tradition.
I will try to do a better job of explaining life here so that it will make sense to you, even if you do not know the names of our local politicians and officials. Whitewater is a small town of 14,000, but some of the challenges here are ones you may face in your own cities, small or big.
The narrow government bureaucrat, the smug town aristocrat, the self-interested incumbent politician: you have them where you are, too. I’m sorry that you do, but you do.
When some people hear you, they may think that all you represent is an anti-government attitude. That’s a simplification of what you and I believe. We lawfully oppose state power and influence because of the terrible risks they represent to human liberty. State power tends to corrupt, both inwardly and outwardly.
Do they despise you for your belief in free markets, individual liberty, and peaceful commerce with friendly nations? You know that for a free person, and a free people, much is possible.
Do they feel justified in regulating economic life, restricting adult behavior, and replacing private international exchange with government initiatives, plans, and missions? You know that an intrusive, bullying state leads to misery and poverty.
We represent a political tradition running from our time, through the earliest colonists on this continent, farther back to philosophers in the old world. You have, as I do, Locke, Smith, Jefferson, Paine, Garrison, Douglass, Hayek, Rand, Friedman, and Nozick to call upon. Goldwater and Reagan, whatever their compromises, carried a major-party message against stifling government at home and the despotic state abroad.
Our message is a good, fundamentally American one.