Not everyone abstains from voting, but those who do...

The white part of this image came from a tweet someone posted after the presidential election, most likely a Hillary supporter.  The black part was added as a response to the tweet(maybe a Trump supporter).  Here is my response:

Not all of us abstained from voting. But those of us who did refused to participate in an immoral system of aggression against our neighbors designed to create the illusion of legitimacy for a government that uses force, coercion, and violence to steal the wealth and freedoms of our friends, family, and neighbors.

Government is a weapon

Hillary Clinton supporters react to Hillary's loss to Donald Trump on election night.

The Hillary supporters in this photo are likely not really thinking about how government is going to be used against them. They are probably just upset because their "team" lost. But one of the reasons they are upset is because of how Donald Trump being president is going to negatively affect them. I think it's a shame that the office of the president is so powerful that people have to be fearful of who has that office. The founding fathers created a presidency that was so weak that it shouldn't matter who it is to regular Americans.

But every president pushes a little further outside of the boundaries that the Constitution sets for him. This has happened with every president, but really took of with Abraham Lincoln, and hasn't slowed down since then. There is now a cycle that repeats every time a new president is elected.

The cycle goes like this: People spend 4 or 8 years supporting the president with the R or D behind his name (just because it’s the same letter they carry behind their name) as he grabs more power for the office of president than his predecessor did, cheering him on as he further erodes liberties, enslaves the residents of the nation through taxation and inflation, and makes government more authoritarian. Then they spend the next 4 or 8 years in a panic as they fear how all these powers will be used against them as they prepare and plan to win next time so that they can start the cycle again.

A better system would be one where people respected the non-aggression principle, which says that you don't use force against anyone unless you are defending yourself, you family, your property, or your rights. It says that you can use force, just not to be the aggressor, only to be the defender. Libertarians believe that this principle applies to all areas of our live, including government. It's wrong for a person to use force to take their neighbor's property, and it doesn't become okay when it is the government taking your neighbor's property. If we vote for a politician, we are choosing someone who will use government to take our neighbors wealth or freedoms, and this violates the non-aggression property.

The democrats in this picture likely cheered on President Obama as he used government to spy on Americans, to punish their enemies, to steal wealth from Americans to fund programs they wanted, and to murder innocent people, and now they are afraid that President Trump is going to do the same, but he is going to use government against democrats.

Of course, now republicans will spend the next 4-8 years cheering on Trump as he grabs even more power for the office of the president and uses the power against their enemies, only to be weeping and gnashing their teeth when the next democrat is elected as president as they fear how government will then be used against them.

Democracy is freedom's enemy

Americans believe that democracy is equivalent to freedom. Or they at least believe they are able to be free because they live in a democratic country. They believe that their ability to participate by voting in making decisions about their community protects their freedom.

But in truth, living in a democratic society is exactly the opposite of freedom. Democracy allows other people to have a say in whom we may marry, where we may live, with whom we may trade, what products we may purchase or sell, with whom we may be at peace with and whom we must be at war with, how much of our income we may keep for our own needs and pleasures, what kind of business we may operate, and what we learn in school. Democracy allow our neighbors, people across town, even people a thousand miles away who we have never met and shall never meet, people we have little in common with and may even be religiously, politically, morally, and socially opposed to, to have a say in how we live our lives and how we are allowed to pursue happiness.

In a free society, we would be free to make all our own decisions, as long as our actions didn't cause harm to others or their property.

Playground Rules

If you continue follow the rules you learned on the playground when you are an adult, you will live a peaceful and prosperous life.

Is it right for a large group of people to use government to rule a smaller group of people?

This is a pretty simple diagram that shows us a pretty important idea. I'd just like to re-state what each of the boxes says to be sure you understand the idea of the diagram.

The first box has an idea that will seem naturally logical to us, that if John told you that you had to obey him or he would violate you, that would be wrong. By violate, the author means to steal from, kidnap, cage, or murder you. So to put it in other words, it would be wrong for John to make you pay a fine, lock you in handcuffs, put you in jail, or kill you if you didn't obey him. None of your friends, family, or neighbors have the right to do any of this to you.

The second box has another idea that will naturally seem logical to us. Nothing changes about what was said in the first box, even if John can get 2 or 3 or even 10 friends to join him in trying to make you obey him. As a group, they still don't have the right to violate your rights to force you to obey them.

These first two boxes make sense to most people. But the ideas in the third box seem un-natural to most people. Government schools teach you that when people get together and have a vote, that somehow(they never explain how) the winners of the vote get to use the power of the government to force the losers of the vote to obey the winners. The winners of the vote are given control of the police, jails, and courts to force anyone who doesn't agree to follow their rules to pay fines, go to court, be locked in a cage in jail, or even be shot and killed by the police.

What I hope you have been learning from my podcasts and blogging and our discussions is that John cannot give any power to the government that he doesn't have himself. So if there is any action it would be wrong for John to do, the same action is wrong for the government to do. Let me finish with an example: It would be wrong for John to force you to pay him for a piece of paper that allows you to get married. Since that action is wrong for John, it is also wrong for the government to require us to buy a license from them before getting married.

I Do Not Consent

The Declaration of Independence states that the only good government is one people agree to be ruled by. The American tradition is that the government is one run by and agreed to by the people. But is it realistic to believe that all 300 million Americans agree to be ruled by their government or agree with the things the government does in their names and with their money?

Good ideas don't require force

Americans like to call their country the "Land of the Free."

In a free society, the only actions that would be crimes and prohibited would be actions that hurt others, harm their property, violate their freedoms, or force them to do things they don't want to do.

So things like murder, theft, vandalism, and breaking contracts would still be crimes. But things like smoking in a private restaurant, not wearing a seat belt in a car, or carrying a weapon for self-defense would not be a crime.

But American democracy is a system where someone is always trying to get control of the government so they can make rules to stop people from doing things they don't like, and force them to do things they do like.

There are usually just two sides to vote for, the democrats and the republicans. Both sides want to force their ideas on other people who don't agree with them. So they want to make laws to keep people from doing things they think are bad like I mentioned earlier. And they want to force people to do things against their will, like fight wars all over the world, help countries like Israel buy nuclear missiles, and spy on their friends, family, and neighbors.

This isn't to say that some of the ideas aren't good. But if they are good ideas that people want to support, they shouldn't need to use threats of force, violence, and theft to accomplish them. People can voluntarily support ideas they agree with and try to persuade others to join them by presenting the benefits of the ideas.

Using government to force your ideas on others is immoral, unjust, and just plain wrong.

American Democracy is Not a Fair System

What your teachers don't want you to know about democracy.

The Failure of Checks and Balances

Learn how the system of check and balances created by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution has failed, and what can you do about it.

Government, politics, and parties!

Republicans vs. Democrats vs. You

The two biggest political parties in America are the Republicans and Democrats. They pretend to be opposites of each other, like black and white, or night and day. But that's mainly just an act. For example, republicans are known to be in favor of a big military and war, and the democrats are known to be anti-war. But president Obama is a democrat and has started several new wars since becoming president. Democrats are known to spend lots of government money and the republicans are known to be against government spending, but president Bush was a republican who spent billions of dollars on war and the military. They talk like they are opposite of each other, but in all the areas that really matter, they are just the same. What this cartoon tries to illustrate for you is the fact that although people(represented by the sheep) get very enthusiastic about voting for "their side," the two sides are really the same. No matter if the sheep elect a lion or a wolf, they are going to be in trouble. Either way, they have to be worried about being eaten for dinner. It's the same for us. No matter if a republican or democrat are elected, we have to worry about how much of our money they are going to steal and how many of our freedoms they are going to make illegal.

Democracy is nothing more than mob rule.

Voting

Freedom Lost

Reasons why you shouldn't vote

Problems with Democracies