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Dan's Political and Controversial Site:
Political Parties, Philosophies & Poppycock
This section links to various groups, individuals, and sites representing various sides in the political debate. If you're not sure what side you're on, try these quizzes to see where you stand:
The Right...
Do they have the Right Stuff?
Do you want a smaller and less intrusive government, except for
the parts that peek into your bedroom to enforce standards of "decency,"
intervene overseas to make sure the "right" dictators stay in power
(instead of being overthrown by the "left" ones), and line the pockets
of the military-industrial complex? Then check out these sites...
- The Christian Coalition periodically attempts to flex its political power. This political organization using a religious name is seeking a right-wing, "family-values" platform, claiming to speak for all Christians of America, though there are many Christians of various denominations who disagree with this platform, not to mention the many non-Christians who are also citizens of the U.S.A. and who would rather this not be declared a "Christian Nation." (The Senate and President Adams endorsed a treaty, early in the history of the U.S., that declared that "The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.")
- These folks think the Christian Coalition is too liberal.
The Left...
Is that all that's left?
Do you want freedom of lifestyle, as long as your chosen lifestyle
is politically correct, and you don't mind being taxed heavily to
redistribute wealth to the "socially just" causes favored by the
politicians and bureaucrats in power? Then check out these sites...
- Turn Left: The Home of Liberalism on the Web
- The African National Congress, the majority party of South Africa, has a link here in the "Other Political Sites" section of their web site! This shows that they've got some good taste, even if they are a bunch of commies! (However, they're linking to an outdated URL of this site that no longer works.)
Libertarians
Feel free to check out these sites!
Do you, possibly, desire freedom in all areas, so you
an do as you wish with your life, body, and money? Then, these
sites are for you...
- Libertarian Party national site
- Harry Browne was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000.
- The Libertarian Victory Fund is aiming to help Libertarians win in the future. (But I wish they'd use the proper .org for the address of their nonprofit site, not the "trendy" but wrongheaded .com.)
- Advocates for Self-Government -- creators of the World's Smallest Political Quiz!
- Foundation for Economic Education -- publishers of the journal The Freeman with ideas on economic liberty.
- LibertarianThought -- an Objectivist / Libertarian site.
- Quebecois Libre -- a libertarian-oriented magazine in Quebec.
- The Fully Informed Jury Association aims to encourage jurors to nullify bad laws.
- David Friedman has been writing Libertarian / anarchocapitalist books and essays since the '70s.
- Many in the Libertarian movement regard Ayn Rand as an important formative influence in their philosophy. However, Rand herself denounced the Libertarian movement, and her own Objectivism was often criticized for its ironically anti-individualist cult aspects. Since Rand's death in 1982, a small group of "official Objectivists" has kept the "cult" going (complete with "official book-bannings"; members of the Objectivist orthodoxy were implored to stay away from "immoral" works by excommunicated unpersons such as Nathaniel and Barbara Branden). On the other hand, a more reasonable unofficial Objectivist movement has sprung up, centered on the Institute for Objectivist Studies, headquartered in the town I grew up in, Poughkeepsie, NY. Personally, while I was influenced by Rand's books myself in my adolescence, I see no current need for the rigidity of Objectivist philosophy in any form, but if I did, I'd prefer the IOS's brand of "reform Objectivism" over the stodgier "orthodox" variety.
- Ayn Rand Quotes
- The Independent Institute supports nonpartisan studies on public issues, with a generally libertarian/conservative pro-free-market perspective.
- The Spiritual Basis of Libertarian Government makes the case for libertarianism from a spiritual basis that's not tied to any particular religion or mysticism.
- stormy MON's site contains his book "Imagine Freedom: from Governments and Churches", which he promotes widely in libertarian publications. It's both anti-government and anti-religion.
- The Intellectual Matchmaker matches you with the freedom-oriented organizations and publications most suited to your temperament.
- Walter Olson's Reason columns take a libertarian direction.
- The Tragedy & Hope For An End To Our Two Party Monopoly
- World Wide Libertarian Pages used to be a good collection of libertarian links, but its author has lost interest in politics and doesn't maintain it any more.
- Doing Freedom, an e-zine about living a free life.
Anti-Libertarians
Don't take any liberties with them!
- Just to give at least a semblance of fairness, I'll put in a link to the Critiques of Libertarianism site, full of misguided attempts to attack the obviously-true tenets of libertarianism!
- An article in the Salon online magazine indicates that the "lone-wolf digital libertarians" of computerdom are allegedly turning into leftists.
Get Away From It All
Plans for a great escape
- For those of you who think true freedom can never be achieved in any existing country, check out the New Utopia project, the latest attempt to create a "libertarian utopia" via founding a new country in the middle of the ocean. This one uses the structure of a constitutional monarchy, with "Prince Lazarus" and his descendants as the rulers.
- An earlier such attempt was the Oceania project, no longer in progress.
- SeaLand actually exists, on an offshore platform abandoned by the British Navy. A company is now trying to build an Internet host co-location facility there for sites that want to escape the reach of all governments. Though the site I link to above says it's the official sovereign government site for SeaLand and is not trying to sell anything, it's fallen prey to the present-day trendy nonsense of using a domain name ending in .com, the commercial-site suffix. (However, .gov is reserved for the U.S. government, and SeaLand hasn't been granted its own country code domain, so there really isn't a perfect suffix for cases like this -- but .org would be a closer fit, I think. See my domain name site for more information.)
- Ladonia is an alleged independent country covering one square km that broke free from Sweden, containing, apparently, two buildings which are actually art projects, and a Ladonian language with one word: "waaaall". (2016 update: Apparently it's added a second word, "ÿp".) They used to have an online application for citizenship, but had to remove it when they got a flood of applications from Pakistani refugees who seemed to think they could move to Ladonia and get jobs there. Its website is now at ladonia.org, after "an unscrupulous and unsympathetic to our cause host/registrar" stole the .com and .net versions.
- The Republic of Anodyne doesn't actually have any territory, just a "North American Embassy" near Miami. It's seeking citizens and issuing passports and driver's licenses, however.
- Or, for a more out-of-this-world approach, join the Artemis Project to build a settlement on the Moon! (This isn't actually a political project, just a general private-sector space-settlement project, but there are plenty of political implications to it if it gets "off the ground"!)
- Why stop at the Moon? The Mars Society wants to settle the Red Planet!
- The Orion Initiative aims to gather together high-IQ people and eugenically create a race of superhumans which can then settle the stars. Kind of "Mensa with an attitude".
- Some countries, however, make it hard for their citizens to ever leave. FreeEmigration aims to publicize this fact and hopefully change it.
- A less radical approach has been taken by various efforts to get freedom-minded people to move into one section of the United States so they can move the local and state governments in a positive direction. The latest is the Free State Project.
If At First You Don't Secede...
Try, Try Again!
- The Homelands Site tracks various secessionist movements.
- The Parti Quebecois favors secession of Quebec from Canada, and has come very close to achieving this by referendum.
- The Republic Of Texas claims that the annexation of this state was unlawfully accomplished and that the 1800s Republic is still in effect. They've formed a "provisional government" to re-establish independence. Unfortunately, they seem to have a major splintering problem... I've found at least four different web sites claiming to be their official site; some of them condemn the recent standoff and hostage situation in west Texas committed by a leader of one Republic faction. Not all of these sites are reachable at any given time; their servers seem to come and go.
- The Nation of Hawai`i aims to undo the unlawful annexation of America's 50th state and make it an independent nation, as it was prior to the U.S. takeover by force and fraud in the mid-1800s.
- Of course, there are some people who aim to secede from all governments, and not set up any new ones to take their place. For instance, the Utopian Anarchist Party thinks that there's no government like no government.
- On the other hand, the American Monarchist Movement wants to enthrone its leader as King of the United States.
This page was first created 04 Jan 1996, and was last modified 7 Feb 2021.
Copyright © 1995-2021 by Daniel R. Tobias. All rights reserved.