Power, the ultimate goal

An unpopular truth

[Reprinted from Issues & Views December 24, 2001]

Obscured by a motley crew of seemingly disparate ideologies, the basic political divide is between those who believe that individuals should be free to live and act according to their own judgment (e.g., Jefferson), and those who think that people should be compelled to live according to the judgment of those in charge of the ruling collective or government (e.g., Mussolini). . . .

Superficial differences between and among various ideologies on the basis of the kinds of government intervention they favor, are essentially illusory. All government intervention--foreign, cultural, or economic--involves the use of force to transfer life, liberty or property from some people to others, causing negative consequences for the victimized group, and leading to demands for further intervention to remedy the problems caused by the initial intervention. . . .

Since power is their ultimate premise, conservatives and liberals will logroll over liberty to maintain their power. In the end, we got all the bad stuff even though certain groups paid lip service against each program: Cold War, hot war, war on poverty, drug war. Notice that all these wars were brought to you by a coalition government of liberals and conservatives and featured massive centralized state coercion aimed at preventing Americans from living their lives as they wished. You cannot trust a liberal or a conservative to advance liberty. In the end, they will always pick power over principle and power over you.

-- James Ostrowski, attorney; excerpted from "A Time for Liberty," on the LewRockwell.com website.

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