Freedom, interrupted
Samizdata calls Barry Goldwater “the greatest president America never had”. The quotation they offer in support of this view is, indeed, compelling:
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ‘needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents ‘interests’, I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.
Since a change in South Africa’s ruling party is not very likely in the next generation or so, who in the African National Congress would approximate such a position? Who is honest (and brave) enough to state publicly that although the liberation struggle succeeded in casting off the injustice of racial oppression, it has yet to achieve true liberty? Who recognises that ending poverty and creating sustainable prosperity requires true liberty? One can dream, can one not?
I think those goals may be a little too lofty for our ruling party at this stage. It still has to get used to the idea of serving the citizens of this country and taking steps that are generally in the public interest as opposed to their own, post-office interests.