I want to talk to libertarians for a moment. More specifically I want to talk to those of you who have potentially been blinded by hardliners or are hardliners yourself. Now before I start, let me just say that I am quite sure I’m going to upset some people with what I’m about to say. I don’t care; it needs to be said. So get your feelings hurt if you want. But I need to clarify a few things.

I’ve received a couple of emails, a private message on FB and even a post to the private FB group chastising me for my discussion on taxation.

The first one came from someone who ridiculed me for saying I had not found a way to provide for a common defense without taxation. (something I lamented by the way)

I also got a very hate filled FB post on the same issue where the author incorrectly made the assumption that I was advocating for and supporting such a tax.

Then I got a private FB message from a self-described Tom Woods Fan. I know many of you are fans of Tom, as am I. this fan was ridiculing my discussion this week about the different tax plans offered by the candidates.

Let me try to explain this for those of you who are too hard headed to see beyond the rhetoric you’ve been fed.
I don’t like taxes. I think taxes are theft. I think you have a right to the fruit of your labor. That nobody has any claim to it. No one should be allowed to compel you against your will to provide for good or another or the common good of a group.

Is that clear enough? good.

Now let’s talk about reality. The reality is that taxation is a way of life here in America. And although I’d love to see all taxation illuminated that option is not on the table. Not only is it not on the table, but it's also never going to be on the table. In the last 500 years can anyone point to a society that operated without some form of community contribution?

So other than stating for the record that taxes are theft, and we shouldn’t steal, what good does it do to simply refuse to discuss any option that limit or reduce the injustice being perpetrated by our government?

Libertarians have for years chosen to disengage from government, from activism and from politics itself. Just this week Tom had his 500th episode in which he invited on Lew Rockwell who worked with Ron Paul. And Lew, God love him, poo-pooed the idea of libertarians getting into politics. While at the same time admitting Ron as done more to advance the ideas of libertarianism than virtually anyone else in modern America.

I love Lew, but I just think he’s wrong. You talk about men like Mises, like Rothbard, and what they’ve done for the advancement of libertarian ideas but let me ask you a question. Who outside of a diehard libertarian knows who Murray Rothbard is? Who, other than your committed libertarian has read Man, Economy and State? Nobody!

What I'm trying to do here is take the libertarian ideal and move it mainstream. To take the ideas and principles of liberty and deliver it to an audience that is hungry to hear it. And that means being willing to discuss how we get from where we are now to where we want to be. You’ve got a lot of libertarians out there right now who are living in a fantasy world. Worse yet their living in a nightmare waiting for our entire political and economic system to come crashing down. Some of them are even hoping for it to happen.

That ain't me.

And I’m not suggesting that you need to go out and run for office. What I am saying is that if you have the option of a progressive tax or a flat tax, the flat tax is better. It’s better for economic reasons, and it’s better for libertarian reasons.

There are plenty of places you can go to hear the standard libertarian line and listen to someone bash government, call our troops “Stupid animals” and paint grand visions of how perfect life would be if we all lived in a libertarian society. (if people weren’t all so stupid.)

That is not this show. It’s not ever going to be this show. This is a show about hope about principles and about creating a roadmap for getting from where we are now to a free’er more peaceful society.