Xopher on Jacoby on Browne on the way out of this mess

Jeff Jacoby comments on the unfortunate recent passing of Harry Browne, two-time Libertarian candidate for president (whom I voted for in 2000):

IT CAME as a jolt to learn that Harry Browne -- scholar, gentleman, apostle of freedom, and two-time Libertarian Party candidate for president -- had died on March 1 of Lou Gehrig's disease.

It was a jolt to me as well, as I didn't think of Browne as a particularly old 72. A jolt moreover as I'd come to more than enjoy - rely upon perhaps - his weekly financially-oriented radio show and excellently researched and thought-out articles on various public policy issues. One of those I have listed under my "Recommended" reading items on the left: Whatever Happened to the U.S. Economy? I suppose I'll archive that article here now, as I've no idea what will happen to his site.

I'd no idea Jacoby is such the libertarian:

Twice I had voted for him for president -- a distinction, I once told him, he shared with Ronald Reagan. The first time was in 1996, when I wouldn't vote to reelect Bill Clinton and couldn't bring myself to support either of his two leading opponents, the feckless Bob Dole or the bizarre Ross Perot. Instead, I pulled the lever for the distinguished-looking Libertarian who spoke with such refreshing bluntness about the maddening inability of the state to get things right. Of Dole's proposal that year to use the military for drug interdiction, Harry had said, ''Government can't keep drugs out of the country; it can't even keep drugs out of its own prisons." Social Security he defined as ''a fraudulent scheme in which the government collects money from you for your retirement -- and immediately spends the money on something else."

Four years later, unwilling to back the younger George Bush when the elder Bush had been such a disappointment, I voted Libertarian again.

Browne, as with many Libertarians, strongly differed with Republicans on the idealistic intervention in the Middle East. Today, one wonders if he was not right. Prominent thinkers such as William F. Buckley have recently opined as much. I am sensitive to the argument.

Ultimately, Browne's passion was the sovereignty of the individual, which came across handily in his best writing and speaking. A nation of sovereigns is something close to what the majority of the Founding Fathers had in mind. It worked for a long while.

Where I diverge with Browne is in the interpretation of sovereignty. For me, it is the maximum freedom I can have to guide my own life, but surrendered to my Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. That is, I desire the Federal government reduced to its constitutionally authorized roles (perhaps a quarter the size it is today), the same with the state governments, local governments, the majority of powers transferred to the individual, who then makes the choices what to do with those powers. In my case, the first choice is to ask the question, "Lord, what would you have me do with these powers?" I do not ask this question oft enough.

And I fall prey sometimes to a sense of powerlessness, brought on by analyzing how much power the Federal, state, and local governments have absconded. Still, I must ask the Lord what I should do with what little power remains. And I should not kid myself that I do not still have power within my dominion. A burgeoning family relies on my understanding this.

Transferring power back to the individual might seem foolish, with the individual today largely unprepared to handle that power. But the salient question is "does the government do any better?" And who has left the individual unprepared? Some blame must be assigned the individual who does not take upon himself the onus of quality education, both formal and experiential. But a large bit of blame must also be attributed to the governments which have sought ever greater control over the education and experiences of the individual.

I digress. Goodbye, Harry. I would sooner vote for you deceased than I would most politicians alive. I am praying for your family in their time of grief.

Here is some commentary on the passing of Browne:

Harry Browne, RIP by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
Thanks for Changing My Life, President Browne by Jim Babka
Memories of Harry Browne by Anthony Wile
Harry Browne's Cogent Wisdom, and Why I'm a Libertarian by Anthony Gregory
Remembering Harry by Sharon Harris
How I Found Harry in an Unfree World by Stephan V. Funk
Harry Browne: Right on the megatrend by Peter Brimelow