There’s a reason Libertarians fail to solve issues.  They are the political equivalent of a debating society arguing over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin at one time while sipping tea and congratulating themselves on how astute they are.

I suppose it’s the inevitable result of pursuing an ideology that relies on people acting directly against their human nature to succeed.

Lofty diatribes over how people ought to think and act are fine when trying to persuade people to think and act in a particular way, but they’re utterly worthless (and ultimately dangerous!) when relying on such idealistic behavior for real-world success.

Where collectivists see only an imperative to insert themselves into every possible human interaction, libertarians see a utopian vision of everyone behaving responsibly just because, in the long run, behaving responsibly brings better results.

These are two sides of the same valueless coin.  One relies on the certitude of coercion, whereas the other relies on people acting with self-restraint when there is no immediate consequence for doing otherwise.

Senator Rand Paul — a man I’ve long admired — groused about the use of military force against a drug boat full of Venezuelan gang members heading to the United States. The gang is duly designated as a foreign terrorist operation by our federal government.

“I guess it’s hard to have any sympathy for drug dealers trying to import product into our country.  But at the same time, you might ask the question: Where does it end?  Are we the world’s policeman — the international policemen?  Are we going to be blowing people up off the coast all around the world trying to interdict?” said Paul in an interview with Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt.

Drawing false equivalencies is a juvenile debate tactic, presenting an inaccurate set of choices, one being the act in question and the other a ridiculously absurd assertion that said act is really something entirely different.  In this case, the choice presented is between what we did — destroying a drug boat — and a fantastically overblown scenario involving the U.S. destroying every boat all over the world whenever drug-trafficking is suspected.

It’s indicative of the silliness of the Libertarian’s penchant for rigid isolationism, a folly based in the magical thinking that holds that people (even desperately evil and violent people) will act with enlightened self-interest when given the chance.

I hate to draw the esteemed senator kicking and screaming into the real world, but people with the responsibility to protect others don’t have the luxury of idle musing and feckless dithering over how closely we can adhere to an ideal that is unattainable until the return of Christ.

What is required of us, if we are to regain control of our future, will involve more than the hugs and coddling the left offers and the radically hands-off approach of the Libertarian-minded.

The time for these intellectual luxuries comes after the battle is won, not before, and certainly not during the fight.  And yes, this applies to dealing with our domestic enemy within.  Especially to the enemy within.

Image via Pxhere.