The Southern Avenger is Not a Libertarian

A luchador mask? Really?

Senator and rumored 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul (R-Ky.) looks to have hired this racist shock jockey asshole. Once again, a Paul is suddenly found to be cavorting with less-than-savory characters and is being put in an indefensible position.

It's really frustrating to see this again.

Those of us, who have a respect for human rights as a fundamental component of our core political beliefs, are once again tarred with the ill judgement of the few who manage to enter the national spotlight.

I'm here to set two things straight: racism is not comparable with libertarian morality; and the confederacy was not a libertarian movement or organization.

Secessionists weren't exactly the states' rights-yelping freedom fighters that some of the old halls of conservatism claim them to be.

Even before they formed, they used the federal government, with powers granted by Fugitive Slave Act, to force free states to return human "property" to the South. They were the first to turn to conscription.

They beat up abolitionist members of congress for pointing out that it's a terrible idea to own people. And I don't mean hired thugs, the violence was administered by their own congressmen.

But this was nowhere near the physical, psychological and economic violence administered by the confederacy to the slaves.

Attempt to put the emotional component of slavery aside, if possible, for just one second. Unprovoked violence against another person is a violation of that person's rights in the eyes of a libertarian, whether it's assault or theft (forced labor is the stealing of labor, by the way).

The confederacy was built upon a system of unprovoked physical violence and monetary theft, something well documented and fundamental to the existence of the confederacy itself. Any discussion about this old saw must not be divorced of that fact. The CSA was formed to defend slavery.

In perpetrating the confederate way of living even after the shooting stopped, through all sorts of rights violations, some still ongoing, it took many generations for the conditions for the newly freed to improve in the south. Physical violence, intimidation and all the hallmarks of real racism marked the worst of these times.

And these violations were carried out through immoral laws, if not by outright criminality. State and local governments can easily grow tyrannical too, and torturing, displacing and destroying its own people, even if it's just the black ones, smacks like a pimp of tyranny to me, and likewise not compatible with libertarianism.

Nor is racism enforced by law, which is the logical conclusion of any neo-secessionist agenda.

Just policy must be designed with no regard to race in mind, and I don't trust that of a person like the Southern Avenger, despite his recent, half-hearted attempts at backing up his earlier, insane statements (like supporting the assassination of Lincoln).

The confederacy was not libertarian, nor is Jack Hunter. Get rid of him, Rand.