Texas deep freeze points out the absurdity of libertarianism

As Texas was plunged into a fourth day of Arctic temperatures, the cries went out from the uber-wealthy suburbs of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio. “Where’s my power?” “I have no water!” “I can’t buy gas and food!” As Texans looked to their Republican libertarian governor, Greg Abbott, they only received a lesson on the evils of green energy. Blaming the power failures caused by the deep freeze—another warning indicator about the increasingly dire effects of global climate change—Abbott, backed by Republican U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw from Houston, cited frozen wind generators as the main culprit. In reality, a place where libertarians have never existed and never will, the wind turbines failed because Texas’s toothless regulators refused to ensure that they were winterized. Similar temperatures do not affect wind turbines in northern climes or even Antarctica because they have been engineered to withstand sub-freezing temperatures. Texas resorted to using helicopters to “de-ice” wind turbines.

It appears that the only Texas politician who had a plan for the deep freeze was GOP Senator Ted Cruz, who, along with his family, flew to Cancun to enjoy the warm beaches and running water at the Ritz Carlton hotel.

Tim Boyd, the libertarian Republican mayor of Colorado City, Texas, proving to be an actual “lib-tard,” took to Facebook to lambaste those who were without heat, power, and water, writing, “No one owes you or your family anything; nor is it the local governments [sic] responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim, it’s your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn hand out! If you don’t have electricity you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. If you have no water you deal with out [sic] and think outside of the box to survive and supply water to your family. If you were sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your [sic] lazy is direct result of your raising! Only the strong will survive and the week will perish. Folks, God Has given us the tools to support ourselves in times like this. This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW work and others will become dependent for handouts. Am I sorry that you have been dealing without electricity and water; yes! But I’ll be damned if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves! We have lost sight of those in need and those that take advantage of the system and mesh them into one group!! Bottom line, quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your ass and take care of your own family!” Boyd resigned after he was roundly criticized for his Facebook posting. Thousands of other Republican Libertarians like Boyd, elected and appointed, remain in their government positions. Abbott, Cruz, Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee, and Representatives Matt Gaetz, Louis Gohmert, Jim Jordan, and Marjorie Taylor Greene are just the tip of the iceberg.

In Florida, that state’s Republican libertarian governor and Trump addict, Ron DeSantis, faced a barrage of criticism after he contracted out delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine to Publix, the supermarket chain that donates heavily to Republican campaign coffers. There was a catch, however. Only Publix stores in counties that voted for DeSantis and Trump received the vaccine. De Santis then expanded vaccine availability for zip codes of affluent white neighborhoods in the counties of Palm Beach, Manatee, St. Johns, and Collier, as well as Sumter County, the location of that hotbed of white retiree support for DeSantis and Trump, The Villages.

The breakdown of vital utilities in Texas and public health in Florida can be squarely blamed on the transformation of the Republican Party into a party of libertarians and QAnon kooks. In many cases, the two unhinged ideologies overlap. One cannot avoid a libertarian spouting off quotes from the despised sociopath Ayn Rand without also being treated to an incoherent diatribe about the Jesuits, the Federal Reserve, and pizza parlors hiding kidnapped children in their basements.

The most ardent libertarians are always among the first to complain when the power goes out with a high temperature of 17 and when the local supermarket or drug store runs out of COVID-19 vaccines.

If elected GOP Libertarians are so opposed to government, why don’t they just resign from their government jobs and go live off the grid? Because they are, first and foremost, hypocrites. These white racists and a few black “Uncle Toms” (that means you, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina) are only interested in providing government services—but not regulations—for the wealthy and to hell with everyone else.

The Libertarian Party, a longstanding third party of American politics, was always considered to be on the fringe. With any luck, after the schism in the Republican Party fully plays out, the resulting Trump Republican Party will join the Libertarian, Natural Law, Prohibition, Socialist Alternative, Transhumanist, Pirate, and Christian Liberty parties out there where the “buses don’t run.”

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2020 WayneMadenReport.com

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).

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