Ruwarchy!

by Liberty and Power

[cross-posted at Austro-Athenian Empire]

I note with interest that my old friend Mary Ruwart is entering the race for the LP nomination. Leaving aside the tangled question of whether electoral politics is an appropriate venue for libertarian activism (for the record, my view is that it shouldn’t be central but is not forbidden either), I have to point out that Mary is clearly a more acceptable candidate to those of a left-libertarian persuasion than is Ron Paul.

On such issues as abortion, immigration, punishment, plutocracy, constitutionalism, gay marriage, and patents and copyrights, her positions, while not always perfect, are at least broadly left-libertarian, while on the issues of foreign policy and the war on terror she’s actually more radically antiwar than Paul. Plus she’s even an anarchist, though she doesn’t trumpet it or use the term. Go Mary!

In not-especially-related news, I’m pleased to see that Ken MacLeod’s Fall Revolution tetralogy, the ultimate left-libertarian science-fiction epic, is being re-released in a two-volume edition.

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Roderick T. Long - 3/28/2008

I don't claim a copyright in "Ruwarchy," but I do claim a patent on the concept of a "website."

Less Antman - 3/26/2008

I hope you don't mind, but your topic title was so good that I stole it for my unofficial site to support Mary. As of a few minutes ago:

http://www.ruwarchy.com

is open for business!

Mary told me she was going to update her Short Answers to the Tough Questions to be her campaign book, and I offered to help. My first task will be a search and replace of all exclamation points with periods, then some of the great answers from www.askdrruwart.com. It'll be a labor of love to help this campaign.

Roderick T. Long - 3/25/2008

Yes, Mary is a perfect example of Hayek's slogan suaviter in modo, fortiter in re ("gently in manner, strongly in substance"). Indeed her approach is so suaviter in modo that readers initially tend to assume it must be wishy-washy in re as well.

I wonder whether she'll issue a new edition for her campaign. If so, it would be nice to have a version that looks a bit more professional than the existing ones.

Less Antman - 3/25/2008

Amen. I'm embarrassed to admit that I paid no attention to her book, Healing Our World, when it first came out, as I'd assumed it was a touchy-feely outreach to liberals that most likely offered compromise proposals so that they would sound "compassionate".

Years later, after signing up for the free monthly email newsletter from The Advocates, I started reading her "Ask Dr. Ruwart" column, and was impressed enough with her answers to check out her book. I was blown away with its absolute consistency and the manner in which she wrote an entire book that promoted complete market anarchism, including private defense and free banking, without once using the word anarchy. It was also very well researched and documented with its historical examples and very persuasive. My only significant criticism was an excessive use of exclamation points!!!

If Ruwart gets the nomination, as I think probable, her campaign will be the most radical in LP history, and certainly will be a test case as to how useful the LP can be to the movement to promotes our ideas. Best of all, it should improve sales of her books (Healing Our World and Short Answers To The Tough Questions) for years to come, and since neither book actively promotes voting or politics, this will aid the entire movement, including those who reject political campaigning as a persuasion technique.

Inside the LP, her campaign should be especially persuasive to the Ron Paul Youth on campus, who trend liberal/independent and were typically uncomfortable with Paul's abortion and immigration stands: I think there will be an increase in the overall percentage of LP members who consider themselves market anarchists, and a consequent decrease in the percentage who believe the best way to protect free market capitalism is with a socialist monopoly. ;)

Anthony Gregory - 3/24/2008

Across the board.

Roderick T. Long - 3/23/2008

Oh, one more: on the issue of the environment, Ruwart is once again, if not perfect (from my point of view), still better than the libertarian mainstream; see here and here.