{"id":18694,"date":"2017-11-21T17:01:04","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T22:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=18694"},"modified":"2017-11-21T17:03:45","modified_gmt":"2017-11-21T22:03:45","slug":"no-rand-paul-didnt-have-it-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/11\/21\/no-rand-paul-didnt-have-it-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"No, Rand Paul Didn’t Have It Coming"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I read Elie Mystal\u2019s\u00a0article<\/a>\u00a0on Rand Paul\u2019s assault, which suggests such violent encounters are the inevitable result of libertarianism in practice. He makes two errors. First, he contends Rand Paul ignores the rules of his HOA based on his libertarian philosophy.\u00a0Second, he contends basing a legal framework on the libertarian non-aggression principle (NAP) is unworkable.<\/p>\n

Private Contracts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regarding the first error, libertarianism is based on the sanctity of voluntary contracts. An HOA is a perfect example of what libertarians would replace zoning regulations with \u2013 an enforceable contract voluntarily entered into by every individual, instead of a set of rules imposed on the whole by a supposed majority.\u00a0Mystal conflates voluntary contracts with regulations near the end of his piece, writing, \u201cRand Paul\u2019s broken ribs are a g**damn case study in why we need regulations.\u201d This begs the question, \u201cWhy do we need regulations, rather than just enforcement of the HOA?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neither Mystal nor I know the terms of Rand Paul\u2019s HOA contract, but if they prohibit either pumpkin patches or compost heaps, then Rand Paul appears to be in violation of that contract. Libertarians would side with the HOA, not Rand Paul. However, the HOA contract also provides penalties for violation of the terms, which I\u2019m fairly certain don\u2019t include bum-rushing him and breaking his ribs.<\/p>\n

This all assumes there is any truth to reports Senator Paul used his property in ways his neighbors found offensive, whether compliant with the letter of his HOA agreement or not. Several of his neighbors have come forward since Mystal\u2019s piece was written to\u00a0refute\u00a0<\/a>those reports.<\/p>\n

Even in the absence of a written agreement, libertarians recognize longstanding local conditions as binding on new property owners. Thus, I cannot come into a quiet community and build an airport on my land, subjecting my neighbors to the noise and other inconveniences of having an airport border their land. By the same token, I cannot buy the land next to an existing airport and then demand the airport stop making noise or doing the other things an airport must do to conduct its business. This principle extends to all sorts of questions, including air pollution, zoning, etc. Murray Rothbard wrote about this concept many times.\u00a0Here<\/a>\u00a0is an example.<\/p>\n

The Non-Aggression Principle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Second, Mystal\u2019s article includes this passage:<\/p>\n

You can do what you want and I can do what I want and, so long as we\u2019re not hurting anybody, the government can do nothing.\u201d It\u2019s\u2026 cute, as theories of social interactions go. It\u2019s not a workable basis for law and governance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I would\u00a0refer the writer to\u00a0this passage from Thomas Jefferson\u2019s First Inaugural\u00a0address<\/a>:<\/p>\n

With all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens \u2014 a wise and frugal Government,\u00a0which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement<\/em>, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. [emphasis added]<\/blockquote>\n

In fact, Jefferson reiterated\u00a0the NAP as the\u00a0basis for law and governance many times over the course of his life. Examples include\u00a0this<\/a>,\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0this<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather than a \u201ccute theory of social interaction,\u201d the NAP was the guiding principle of American liberty for well over a century until Woodrow Wilson specifically\u00a0called it out<\/a>\u00a0as no longer adequate for what he considered too complex a society for the NAP to govern. Libertarians disagree with Wilson. Mystal may not. But it would be a much more valuable discussion if libertarianism would at least be represented correctly when criticized, rather than presented in the cartoonish fashion our sound bite media so often resort to.<\/p>\n

Reprinted from tommullen.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n


\nTom Mullen
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Tom Mullen is the author of Where Do Conservatives and Liberals Come From? And What Ever Happened to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? <\/a>and\u00a0A Return to Common\u00a0 Sense: Reawakening Liberty in the Inhabitants of America<\/a>.\u00a0For more information and more of Tom’s writing, visit\u00a0www.tommullen.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read Elie Mystal\u2019s\u00a0article\u00a0on Rand Paul\u2019s assault, which suggests such violent encounters are the inevitable result of libertarianism in practice. He makes two errors. First, he contends Rand Paul ignores the rules of his HOA based on his libertarian philosophy.\u00a0Second, he contends basing a legal framework on the libertarian non-aggression principle (NAP) is unworkable. Private Contracts Regarding the first error, libertarianism is based on the sanctity of voluntary contracts. An HOA is a perfect example of what libertarians would replace zoning regulations with \u2013 an enforceable contract voluntarily entered into by every individual, instead of a set of rules imposed on the whole by a supposed majority.\u00a0Mystal conflates voluntary contracts with regulations near the end of his piece, writing, \u201cRand Paul\u2019s broken ribs are a g**damn case study in why we need regulations.\u201d This begs the question, \u201cWhy do we need regulations, rather than just enforcement of the HOA?\u201d   Neither Mystal nor I know the terms of Rand Paul\u2019s HOA contract, but if they prohibit either pumpkin patches or compost heaps, then Rand Paul appears to be in violation of that contract. Libertarians would side with the HOA, not Rand Paul. However, the HOA contract also provides penalties for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1031,1425],"class_list":["post-18694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-libertarianism","tag-rand-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}