<"Remember, remember the fifth of November."
If you saw V for Vendetta, you’ll recognize this infamous line. If you understood the movie’s social commentary, you probably know why Republican candidate Ron Paul chose November 5th to hold a fundraising campaign. Ron Paul raised over $4 million USD in less than twenty-four hours, which is added to the more than $5 million he raised in the last fundraising quarter. Most election ’08 coverage thus far has revolved around the great Hillary versus Obama race. So why is such a long-shot Republican candidate raising funds on par with top-tier candidates, and more importantly, why should anyone care?
Paul is running as a Republican, but his politics are more aligned with classical liberalism, commonly known as libertarianism. Perhaps Paul’s fundraising success is a result of embracing an optimal intersection of the left and right political spectrum, which–one might suggest an exercise for Stelmach to learn–certainly ain’t in the middle.
Paul has satisfied the right, despite his platform being nearly unrecognizable as Republican, with his policies on reduced government, lower taxation, upholding the second amendment and the freedom to bear arms, protection of property rights, and ensuring health freedom. Paul encourages a free market economy and closely aligns himself with Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises. He is also a proponent of a limited constitutional government.
At the same time, Paul’s policies cater to the more Democrat-minded in his commitments to protecting privacy and personal liberties from the government, and a desire to withdraw from an unconstitutional, commercially driven, pre-emptive militant policy, such as the one in Iraq. Libertarian policy does not seek to wield unnecessary political power or influence over citizens, rather it seeks to protect personal autonomy, liberty, freedom, and dignity of the individual.
So why should we care what goes on below the 49th parallel? First, like it or not, the U.S. is an integral part of our economy and influences a great deal of Canadian policy. Second, and more importantly, the popularity of a Libertarian-leaning candidate in the U.S. could serve to convince us that maybe it’s time Canada, and especially Alberta, should start to consider how much better off we’d be if our own government adopted these policies.
The government is in place to protect individual freedoms, not to act as some surrogate paternalist body over its people, nor the people of other countries. The government does not exist to impose a small group of people’s ideological structures and values on an entire society, it exists to protect that society’s right to live their life within their own ideological structures, assuming no direct harm is posed against other members of that society.
I consider it an affront to human intellect, ability, and dignity to hold that politicians, or any person, are better equipped to decree how an individual ought to live their life than that individual himself. And so should you.