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View Full Version : David Leyonhjelm: The Ron Paul of Australia ... ?




Occam's Banana
09-29-2013, 04:21 AM
h/t Charles Burris: http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/ron-paul-and-australia/

FTA: http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-features/9029251/in-praise-of-the-liberal-democrats/

In Praise of Australia's Liberal Democrats
Far from being dismissed, David Leyonhjelm may spark a genuine libertarian renaissance.

http://cdn.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Spect_Lib_Dem.jpg

Anyone of good sense, or with a political sensibility placing them to the right of Lenin, couldn’t help but celebrate on Saturday 7 September. Electoral defeat of a disintegrating and duplicitous Labor government was a glorious event. But for Australians whose souls burn with the flame of liberty, that day delivered an additional and more important victory: the election of David Leyonhjelm to the senate.

[...]

If you believe in liberty, you can’t pick and choose rights. You can’t just support those individual rights that complement your temperament and taste, but spit on those that don’t. Denying the freedom of others makes you a tyrant. This applies even in a democracy. Even if you are in the majority, if you disagree with a certain right and your vote helps outlaw it, that doesn’t make you justified, it just means you belong to the tyranny of the majority. Shame on you if you do. More so if you pay lip-service to the ideals of liberalism.

Being a true liberal — today the term libertarian better reflects this position — means that you are often embattled by both the Right and Left establishment (intrusive government is a blight long nurtured by both sides of mainstream politics). It also means yours is a voice of reason in a world where "bipartisanship" has become code for a two-party duopoly introducing overreaching policies that only benefit power-broking special interests and a control-hungry bureaucratic machine. In a recent internet panel discussion, Julian Assange recognised this trend in America: "The only hope as far as electoral politics is concerned in the United States presently is the libertarian section of the Republican party… It will be the driver that shifts the United States around. It’s not going to come from the Democrats. It’s not going to come from Ralph Nader. It’s not going to come from the co-opted parts of the Republican party."

This resurgence of libertarianism among Republicans owes much to Ron Paul. The retired Texas congressman’s steadfast philosophy was marginalised for decades, but paved the way not just for his son Rand Paul (Republican Senator from Kentucky, and 2016 presidential hope for liberty-minded Americans), but a growing cadre of other libertarians.

Leyonhjelm acknowledges the influence or Ron Paul on Liberal Democratic policy. Indeed, when the senator-elect speaks — "There are two guiding principles that determine our approach to legislation: We would never vote for an increase in taxes and we would never vote for a reduction in liberty" — you can hear the spirit of freedom channelled not just from Paul, but from centuries of liberal thought. All too often Australia’s Liberal party loses sight of this original mandate. "The political middle ground is now left of where it once was," Leyonhjelm tells me. "We have to shame the Liberal party into moving in our direction." And while aware he is now just "one voice" in the senate, the Liberal Democrat’s "aspiration" is that his will be "the first of many."

Just as the once solitary figure of Ron Paul paved the way for what is now the only alternative in American politics, David Leyonhjelm may well spark a libertarian renaissance here. This is the real significance of his election to the senate. As George Washington once recognised, "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."

Origanalist
09-29-2013, 07:40 AM
As George Washington once recognised, "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."

Isn't it rather ironic it actually had to take root here......again?

TruckinMike
09-29-2013, 08:16 AM
Isn't it rather ironic it actually had to take root here......again? At least when know the formula now.

(Government controlled schools + laziness) / willing dupes = tyranny

tod evans
09-29-2013, 08:20 AM
At least when know the formula now.

(Government controlled schools + laziness) / willing dupes = tyranny

Don't forget the tax-ticks, they grow exponentially every day..

Smart3
09-29-2013, 08:22 AM
An electoral alliance between the LD and Sex Party is crucial. The Sex Party falsely accused the LD of costing them a seat in the Senate.

compromise
09-29-2013, 03:01 PM
There's another guy too who's probably good on most issues.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/a-shock-to-the-senate/story-fn59niix-1226728836333

Bob Day, chairman of the Family First Party is set to enter the Senate next July for South Australia, with profound ramifications for policy and politics alike.

"If I can achieve a fraction of what Bert Kelly did I'll die a happy man," says Day, founder of the Bert Kelly Research Centre, named in honour of the Liberal parliamentarian who died in 1997.

Kelly was an eloquent defender of freedom and a thorn in the side of big-spending Labor and Liberal governments of the 1960s and 70s but never held the balance of power.

"Most Liberals today are hopeless, even if they are generally better than the Labor alternative," Day says, before putting in a good word for Trade Minister Andrew Robb and new parliamentary secretary Scott Ryan, who, he says, "still sometimes get proper liberalism". He adds: "Howard was a big spender and was lucky to have people like Minchin and Costello reining him in."

"Bob will eloquently propound the old conservative values of self-reliance, cutting back on government control and freedom," says Evans. "He will have no truck with the wets of the Liberal Party."

"We support genuinely liberal policies based on 'Austrian economics' in contrast to the Keynesian claptrap routinely espoused," Day explains.