If We Want Liberty, It’s Time to Start Thinking Outside the Box

Anarcho-capitalists, minarchist libertarians, and small government conservatives have always been plagued with the same problem. We want to shrink the government and expand our liberties, but can never figure out how.

Liberty is lost at the federal level. This is no secret. Sure we have Justin Amash, Thomas Massie, and Rand Paul doing their best to maintain checks and balances in Congress, but their strides towards liberty are greatly outmatched by the progressives’ expansion of the state.

The federal government is not going to shrink itself. Thomas Jefferson recognized as early as 1810 that the American Republic was an utter failure, and Americans have been trying to vote back their freedom ever since. We are wasting our efforts by continuing to play this failed game, and the clock is ticking our liberties away. It is time for us to think outside of the box and explore new avenues to freedom.

The first that we should consider is state nullification. State nullification is “the idea that the states can and must refuse to enforce unconstitutional federal laws.” While it is difficult to elect freedom loving politicians into office in order to effect change in our favor, this is a tool that can be used to meet the same ends. State nullification is a legal application that can be used to halt the state’s growth, and a tool that would help restore power to the people.

The next tool that Americans should implore is an Article 5 Convention of the States. Article 5 of the Constitution allows the states to convene and propose new amendments to the Constitution. A Convention of the States would be useful in drafting an amendment once proposed by Benjamin Franklin; term limits in Congress. Term limits would help expel the career politicians who have made a living out of expanding the state’s powers and leaching off the taxpayers.

These two tools are paramount in the fight for liberty, though we cannot stop there. State nullification and an Article 5 Convention will only halt the growth of the state, but it will not reverse it. A third tool is needed as well.

If we want to effectively decentralize society, a state must take lead and secede from the Union. A state which declares itself to be independent of the rule of the federal government would directly restore more power to the people than any vote at the federal level ever will. The government which is closest to home is easiest to control, and decentralizing will make it easier for us as individuals to chart our own destinies.

If we as freedom fighters wish to truly attain liberty, we must start fighting the battles that we can win. These are the three avenues that we must start investing our time and energy into. We will never win at the federal level. But we can win at the state and local level, just as our forefathers once did three centuries ago.