Steve Baker - The Pragmatic Constitutionalist
Steve BakerProgressives have incrementally eroded away our freedoms for decades. Incrementally, we must begin taking them back.
THE PRAGMATIC CONSTITUTIONALIST IS...
. . . GUIDED in philosophy and political activism by one simple axiom: “There’s the world we want, vs. the world in which we actually live.” Purist libertarian ideologists imagine a world and human interactions in which all beings don’t care what you do with and to yourself — or in interactions with similarly consensual persons — so long as those activities do not negatively impact anyone else’s life, property, or pursuits. In other words: we should, individually, be able to do whatever we damn well please, so long as we don’t “break the bones or pick the pockets” of anyone not also voluntarily engaging in the same, said activities. The “PRAGMATIC” view understands that human nature is not so simplistic. A majority of humanity are going to choose “safety over liberty.” Most people prefer governmental remediation over free-market solutions . . . even though both are ultimately the product of HUMAN ideas and administration. How are humans who run big government any better than humans who run big corporations? How about humans first be allowed to “run themselves”— for better, or worse?
. . . A CONSTITUTIONAL libertarian, but in no way associated with the Libertarian Party. While I hold many things in common with that Party, I have found them to be, well – a typical political party. As such, they are often prone to look more after the interests of the Party, above the interests of libertarianism, or the nation. One visit to a Party meeting, and you might see them more as a social club of political misfits and outcasts than a viable political force, with too many of the Libertarian Party stereotypes on full display. Most “small l” libertarians believe the Founding of the United States was the first true libertarian experiment, and our Constitution is more than just the law of the land, but the guiding framework for the type of small government to which we need return — limiting the interference of government into our lives, but also protecting our individual liberties.
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