19A042 Adam's Apple by Jim Davies, 10/15/2019    

One a day, fruit retailers insist, will keep the doctor away. Perhaps they're right, that apples have the power to cure illness and strengthen immunity; if so, it's worth considering Adam Kokesh's prescription for America, because for sure, the country is very sick.

He's hoping the Libertarian Party will nominate him at Austin, TX next May, and has shown here what he will do if subsequently elected President.

I'm impressed with his book FREEDOM! which I reviewed here three years ago. I still wish he'd rewrite its Chapter 10, but otherwise it's excellent. The book is yours for free, ready to download.

The "apple" - Adam's cure for America - is that he will abolish the Federal Government at once. Just like that, with an Executive Order. He will then resign, and become a "custodian" of its parts, winding them down in an orderly way, rather as is done in bankruptcy receivership. He makes the good point that the FedGov is going out of business anyway because it is obviously insolvent, but by electing him on that platform, the process will be done with least resultant shambles.

Not in the two decades since the late, great Harry Browne has the LP nominated anyone with a platform anywhere near as radical. Adam deserves success, and is working for it very hard.

Every archist knee will jerk when news of this gets around. Oh! no, Executive Orders are meant just to be vehicles with which the Prez can instruct his staff. (Funny they haven't pointed that out before.) Oh! no, the Constitution does not authorize any of its three branches to abolish itself (or all three) - that would have to be done by a convention of the States! Funny they haven't mentioned that before when every one of the purportedly granted powers has been wildly exceeded, or when every one of the Bill of Rights has been trampled. But rely on them so to dismiss the platform of Adam Kokesh.

It's possible to quibble, here and there, with the platform. One item is that offensive weaponry would be liquidated, ie sold. To whom? Foreign states? So that they can more easily wreak death and destruction around the world? - no, I don't think so. Many of the FedGov's assets could indeed be sold, but those swords ought to be beaten into plowshares. Also, I'm not excited by the idea of transferring national parks to the States; that property too should go under the hammer, and begin to be owned by real people. But overall, Adam's Apple is a dramatic and positive proposal.

Could it happen? - could the apple be eaten, for real? - Yes, if. Those objections and many others like them will not withstand the onslought of public opinion, which is the premise applying here: that Adam Kokesh is elected President. That would mean that over half the country supports him, and so wants the FedGov terminated. The losers will be sore, and possibly some of them, like those in Russia in 1993 will bring up the artillery and aim shells at the White House; but, as in Moscow, they will fizzle out because the people are no longer behind them. Even the most brutal government depends on public support - the "sanction of the victim."

What, then, is that "if"?

Just that Adam is, in fact, elected; ie that a plurality of the voting population wants the FedGov to be dissolved. That would mean bringing around 50 million people (assuming a 3-way race) to the state of understanding that you and I now have. If "you and I" number about 0.1 million, in 12 months Adam has to expand that base by 500 times. He's a remarkable man, but I doubt that he can do that. It's just not a feasible task; it can't be done. I don't think it could even be done in the UK, where disgust and dissatisfaction with the BritGov has never been greater, due to Parliament's wicked intransigence in failing for three years to obey the people's decision to exit the EU. Here, I don't sense that people are anywhere close to even that degree of disgust.

That's always been the paradox of the LP: it has often had a superb set of ideas and platforms, but due to gross and persistent mis-education, the people simply do not want them. They have little or no idea of the systemically vicious nature of government, nor of the priceless value of freedom. Elections purport to offer voters something at someone else's expense, while Libertarians offer only the liberty to obtain everything we wish, at our own expense; there's a total mis-match. What's needed is not a fine, principled political candidate (forgive the oxymoron) but: education.

Regular ZGBloggers know where one good source of such re-education can be found, and Adam might respond that his book FREEDOM! - and, indeed, his campaign itself - provides another fine facility; they do. So does Louis Carabini's fabulous Liberty, Dicta & Force, and many other good books - click on the ZG Book Store icon above. But can these and others multiply the freedom-seeking population by 500, in one year? TOLFA is (in my unbiased opinion...) the best, and no it can not. An annual doubling, yes; but a 500 multiplier would take it nine years.

So as I see it, bidding for President is premature, however good the apple. First, re-educate. And when that is done, there won't be employees of government at any level, so there won't be a Presidential office to which to elect anyone, or a desk on which he can sign Executive Orders.

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Post Script:

Adam read this ZGBlog (so setting a fine example to all Presidential Candidates) and commented:

Thanks! Shared on Twitter. BTW, the weapons will be deweaponized before being liquidated. That will mean returned to raw material in some cases as necessary.