Presidents a distraction from issues

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for July 28, 2024)

Is Joe Biden still the US President? Will he soon be forced out, by using the 25th Amendment, due to his cognitive decline? Is he physically healthy enough to continue in the position or to survive his term? Will Kamala Harris be any better? Interesting times.

What you may not realize is how little it matters. US Presidents have always been figureheads; this has become more obvious over the years. Presidents hold little power; most of it is exercised by unelected bureaucrats and those in intelligence agencies who tell the Presidents what they'll be allowed to do.

There's a joke making the rounds that America is running out of conspiracy theories because they're all being proven true. This is more accurate than most people want to admit.

I know "The Deep State" sounds like a conspiracy theory, but if you think rationally for even a minute, you'll see it has to be how things work.

A President takes office and changes the head of some agency, choosing among candidates for the position who have been pre-approved to pick from. The agency doesn't change, its agenda speeds up or slows down.

My go-to example is the unconstitutional BATFE. This agency may change the ways in which it violates natural human rights, but it never relinquishes power willingly. It never admits its policies are all unconstitutional and therefore criminal acts. No, it simply speeds up, slows down, or picks a new target.

This is how something on the edge of the Deep State works. Now imagine how it is for nameless agencies which are completely hidden from public view. It's worse than you can imagine.

The most any President can manage is to ask an agency to double down, to concentrate more on something else, or do what it does a little differently. So far no President has had the ethical courage to start abolishing these agencies. Nothing really changes; it just gets a new paint job and the doorknobs get updated. Even if every employee were replaced the agency has a life of its own and will continue doing what it does.

Whatever your feelings on the topic, the truth is the President is neither the problem nor the solution. Some are worse than others, but they are mostly a distraction to keep you from seeing who the real enemy is. The root problem must be dug out and burned before liberty can thrive.

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How 'bout neither

Statists love the false dichotomy. Such as the one above. You either accept government violating you or Venezuelan gangs violating you. There is no third option of not being violated.

I'm protecting the identity of the "libertarian" minarchist who posted it. Whether I should or not.

I waded in where I knew I wouldn’t be welcome.

I pointed out that "No gangs would be taking over anything had government not whittled away the natural human right to defend life, liberty, and property with the most effective modern tools available. Government is the problem; more government is not a solution."

Instead of addressing my point, he said: "Yet here we are, in the real life world. Not a philosophical thought experiment in a vacuum."

Me: "So you believe a real world tighter border wouldn’t require a much stronger, bigger government than currently exists? In real life? I’m talking real world, not utopian 'necessary government' delusions."

Him: "I subscribe to the minarchist view on this, that pragmatically, securing a border is one of the few “legitimate” functions of govt in our current reality. Allowing culturally distant, militant, organized, criminal, communist people or organizations to come free is suicide" There's that evil "pragmatism" again-- the belief that anything is excusable if you can make the argument that it "works".

Me: "Are you a libertarian or a minarchist? There are libertarian solutions and there is statism. The gulf between the two is unbridgeable. 
https://kentmcmanigal.blogspot.com/2024/08/it-seems-almost-intentional.html"

He stopped replying, but someone else jumped in: "Given that our government is already the most overblown, powerful force in the history of the world I think we could conceivably direct some of that power to the border without 'expanding it'”

Me: "'Could conceivably'… But they wouldn’t. Nothing in the history of government gives any indication that they would."

Person 2: "So you’re fine with millions of people from 3rd world countries pouring in who cost taxpayers billions a year, who do not share your values whatsoever and who will cement a permanent one party state if they are naturalized, as long as the gov doesn’t get a little more power?" Mind reading must be such an exciting superpower... if only they could do it well.

Me: "Read the blog post I linked to and you’ll find the answer."

And so it goes. Of course, I eventually got blocked. I get it- I'm frustrating. I'm the tar baby. I have patience and I've heard it all before.
Anyway...

If government can get you to beg them to save you- with legislation or border control- they win. And you won’t actually be saved.

To those who believe government holds the answer, the statist approach is always the "pragmatic" way, even if you know government will never do it. Government might close the borders, but if they do, it won't be to make you safer or make your life better in any way. It will be to trap you. To control you. You'll still need to take up arms to defend your own life, liberty, or property.

To them, the libertarian approach, even when it’s no more far-fetched than the statist approach, is “philosophical” and not realistic. Just because they seem to believe so strongly in government. Even when both approaches are on equal footing as far as the state agreeing to the conditions. (It won't.)

"Close the borders", using the government power that already exists so you don’t end up with more powerful government, knowing that this isn't how government has ever worked, and it's not going to magically change now. It might work this time?

But respecting the natural human right to defend life, liberty, and property? The ONLY thing that has ever worked or ever will? This is unrealistic. You've got to beg government to save you from the conditions it created and sustains with its illegitimate power.

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