[ExI] General comment about all this quasi-libertarianism discussion

[F. C. Moulton]

On 02/28/2011 07:35 PM, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>  The early USA is
> the closest approximate, 

To say that the early USA was the "closest approximate" really stretches
the meaning of the word "approximate"  almost to the point of
absurdity.  The early USA was not even close to libertarian.  Just think
for a moment about the huge number of slaves, the second class legal
status of women, the Alien and Sedition Acts just to name a few.  Even
during the late 1800s when slavery was supposed to be illegal there were
still Jim Crow laws in many states and in some areas there was de facto
slavery.  Not to mention censorship under Comstock.  And let us not
forget how the government of the USA disregarded treaties and badly
treated the Aboriginal peoples.

Just because the early USA might not have been as bad as some other
countries does not mean that the early USA was libertarian.

Fred