The ground-glass sandwich
To the editor:
As a committed and practicing Libertarian of some years, I see the incumbent President as being attractive and repellent at the same time, a veritable ground-glass sandwich. (Specifically, if you take a bite, you will get fed and shredded at the same time).
I mean, I enthuse about the attack on the sheer size of the federal government (however brutally), the repatriation of power to the States, and the volte-face in our foreign entanglements. What’s not to like?
At the same time, however, I see here a “man on horseback,” one who has a preposterously aggressive view of the role of the President. This is a man who actively seeks to utterly and ruthlessly dominate the limited-government menage a trois that is so clearly contemplated by our Constitution. He is supposed to see that the laws are faithfully executed, nothing more.
We Libertarians, much more than any other group, enthusiastically embrace constitutionally mandated power sharing, for the simple reason that it is so much better than anything else on offer. Governmental power — to the extent that it is actually needed at all — is best shared by three antagonistic entities.
Worse, this President is haunted by “enemies” and vindictively seeks to root them out. His financial assaults on major universities are a major threat to academic freedom. His deportations are a violation of fundamental human rights. His disregard of due process is profoundly dangerous. Worse, his tariffs will destroy free trade, impoverishing all of us. And trillion-dollar federal deficits don’t faze him at all.
Nah, we’ve got to appreciate that we are endangering ourselves by tolerating this man. He must be resisted across a thousand-mile front, by all lawful means. The effort is gonna make for some strange bedfellows, for sure, but I don’t think we have much choice here.
Larry Gillis
Cape Coral
Director-at-Large, Libertarian Party of Florida