On the way to and from work the other day, I listened to a lecture Howard Zinn gave at Reed College regarding his book, "A People's History of the United States." And at lunch that day, I listened to Rush Limbaugh.
This doesn't make sense to the average person. These men are opposites. In each political world, the other is the enemy. One, a communist. The other, a fascist.
Yet, listening to both inspire me to freedom. And there is actually a huge overlap between the two men's political philosophies. Now, is libertarianism the overlap? No. Is libertarianism the moderation between the two? No.
Libertarianism is the extreme. It is the liberty that connects both men. And while to me, this seems so clear, it apparently escapes them both. Because at the end of Zinn's beautiful lecture about the tyranny of the majority, the overreaching military-industrial complex, and the egregious corporate welfare that has colored our nation's entirety, his brief close asks us simply to expand this corporate welfare to the individual level as well.
And at the end of my lunch hour, Limbaugh had chided every democratic candidate on the campaign trail for even their slightest support of using government as a catalyst for change, yet his constant calls for governmental humility have not done a single thing to penetrate his outlook on the warfare state.
If Howard Zinn and Rush Limbaugh had a baby, its name would be Liberty. And both fathers would hate him.
By: Eric Olsen, Regular Columnist
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