The approaching anniversary of Liberty for Utahns! inspires me to explain why I came up with the title for this blog that I did.

Doing so requires an exploration of some differences between both libertarianism and statism, and liberty and democracy.

If you glance at the upper-right section of the LPUtah's homepage, you will see a diamond-shaped graphic that contrasts not only left-liberals and right-conservatives, but libertarians and authoritarian-statists.

The position of these labels describes the degree of economic and personal freedom favored or disfavored by those who hold these political philosophies.

According to the Advocates for Self-Government:

Statists want government to have a great deal of power over the economy and individual behavior. They frequently doubt whether economic liberty and individual freedom are practical options in today's world. Statists tend to distrust the free market, support high taxes and centralized planning of the economy, oppose diverse lifestyles, and question the importance of civil liberties.

In his essay, "The Anatomy of the State," economist Murray N. Rothbard describes the state as "that organization in society which attempts to maintain a monopoly of the use of force and violence in a given territorial area ...."

In my view, Rothbard's use of the term "monopoly" to define the state is important because libertarians can favor a multitude of governance organizations, such as community associations and mutual-aid societies, but oppose monopolistic states.

Libertarians are the opposite of statists, and generally oppose the initiation of force by individuals -- whether organized as a political class, a state, or otherwise.

The English language gives an unfortunate advantage to those "statesmen" who, through their rhetoric, conflate the interests of the political class with the interests of every individual.

Columnist Joe Sobran, paraphrasing a friend, writes that "the state achieves its real victory when the people call the state 'we.'"

For example, consider a recent column by Don Gale. In it, he writes "Last week, we traveled out of state." Read in context, Gale is referring to leaving the geographical boundaries of Utah.

But earlier in his column Gale writes: "[F]ew business leaders speak out publicly in favor of issues which will truly move the state forward" (emphasis added). Gale is no longer referring to the land within the geographic boundaries of Utah, but the political entity known as the "State of Utah" ... and possibly the people who live within its jurisdiction.

And although the following passage correctly distinguishes between individuals and the State of Utah, note which entity Gale describes in ownership terms: "[B]eing 'nice people' legislators doesn't help the state and its citizens if the nice legislators don't understand, care about, and deal with the needs of the state and its people — especially its young people."

Other local examples of statist writers confusing, perhaps inadvertently, the interests of the political class with the interests of every individual include:

• "You feared this would be a direct offense to Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of our president, who appointed the Board of Regents, your own Board of Trustees, and your donors, many who are supporters of the Bush brothers."
  --Terry Tempest Williams
• "If our elected officials do not protect our borders, we should remember their inaction at the ballot box."
  --John L. Hotchkiss

Delegating responsibility for a problem to the political class invites a corresponding loss of liberty.

For this and other reasons, many prefer engaging in direct action over pressuring politicians.

Similarly, most libertarians acknowledge the tension between liberty and democracy. A source of disagreement among libertarians is the extent to which lower-valued democracy threatens higher-valued liberty.

And that's why -- despite my efforts to make elections in Utah more fair and inclusive, and my profound appreciation for this place where I was born and raised and the people who live here -- my agenda and the title for this column is not "Democracy for [the State of] Utah," but "Liberty for [individual] Utahns!"

Yours in liberty,

Rob Latham, Chair

Libertarian Party of Utah

P.S.: In my previous post about libertarian media outlets, I omitted references to the visual medium. The links below lead to many televised resources:

• Libertarian Television
• Liberty InterNet Radio/TV Playbacks Archive & Live 'PeerCasting'

The revolution may be televised after all. ;-)