Harry Browne Was Right on This

Stuart K. Hayashi


Just three posts ago, I took Harry Browne to task for his comments on 9/11. Of course, most of his remarks on domestic politics were still very much accurate, and it is with sadness that I look upon his recent passing.

Back in 1996, when the Republican Party took control of U.S. Congress and promised to shrink government, Browne accurately predicted that the party would fail to follow through:

...Republicans are moving in the wrong direction -- voting to enlarge the government by $45 billion a year for the next seven years, to raise the minimum wage, to censor the Internet, to take away more civil liberties in the guise of fighting terrorism, to drive the health insurance companies out of business with oppressive new regulations. This may be incremental change, but it's change in the wrong direction [emphasis addded].

What Browne said about taking away civil liberties in the fight against terrorism was particularly prescient since it was ten years ago.

In Memory of Harry Browne

Pablo Wegesend

Harry Browne, the Libertarian Party Presidential candidate in 1996 & 2000 elections, has died on March 1, 2006.

http://www.lp.org/media/article_294.shtml

I have learned about Browne through some politically minded friends in the summer of 2000. At the time, I was struggling between voting for Al Gore or George W. Bush. I knew what their political tendencies were, I just don't always agree with either of them.

Anyways, I read Harry Browne's political advertisement and his book "Why Government Doesn't Work" and I found his writings very convincing, especially on controversial viewpoints on ending the War on Drugs, privatizing all health care, selling national parks to those committed to preserving them, privatizing education, etc. His writings on those topics were so convincing that it changed the way I viewed those issues.

Though after 9/11, I became more of a foreign policy, and was disillusioned with Browne's anti-war politics. I thought that Browne spent too much blaming America, and not enough time on denouncing the Islamic Fascists.

I also think that while Browne's views on privatizing government services are very convincing, I think that having an immediate privatization of all those services (which he advocates) would cause mass confusion among the people who might be unprepared to deal with it. Which is why I prefer a more gradual approach to privatizing most government services.

I dont agree with the Libertarian Party on everything, but I do think they have valuable things to say about very important political issues, so please check out www.lp.org to learn more about it. Even if you don't agree with it, you would learn something from it.

And you can still check out www.harrybrowne.org