Legitimacy of Government

I had a long argument (in the comments) with "Chris" (not able to find out his last name easily) at http://www.informationliberation.com. The topic was legitimacy of government.

Don't know if you agree with any of my arguments, but I think it's interesting to see some of his. His are echoes of Lysander Spooner, among others.

It's interesting because these are beliefs held by a broad segment of so-called conservatives and libertarians; beliefs which are really anarchic in nature. Specifically, that no government is legitimate. More specifically: Taxes are theft, any regulation of business whatsoever a violation of the Constitution, and any interference with personal desires, anathema.

I'm inclined to think their anarchy might not be too bad, if everyone agreed, but what it really winds up being is a recipe for rule by the strongest--rule by whoever has the biggest gun.

That is: Their free society would wind up as one of complete oppression, for everyone including most of them.

If you want to see how extremist some of the views out there are, consider that held by Randi Shannon who has quit her race for U. S. Senator, to declare herself as Senator of the "Republic for the United States of America", an organization which holds that it is the only legitimate government of the United States.

This is not a joke, folks: She is dead serious; and so is the organization she's joining.

If you want to know why I left the Republican party, it was because of people like this.

Worse, if you don't agree with their conspiracy-theory view of the way "government really should be", it is you who are insane.

Consider comments made last month after Chief Justice Roberts joined the Supreme Court majority to rule "ObamaCare" Constitutional. Until now, Roberts was their fair-haired boy. But there had to be an explanation why Roberts would do something so unbelievable, so Michael Savage suggested that it was due to Justice Roberts' mentality being slowed by epilepsy medication he is taking.

See? No matter what they believe, if you don't agree: You are insane.