The Fall of Bureaucrash

Less than two weeks ago I wrote about how to connect with other libertarian Christians via the Internet. One of those ways I mentioned was Bureaucrash Social, a libertarian activist social network. Unless things change very soon, I must retract this statement, because I can no longer support Bureaucrash as a principled libertarian organization. What follows is my rather ineloquent exposition on why I must now do so.

Bureaucrash was founded in 2001 by the defunct Henry Hazlitt Foundation, but has recently been supported by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a conservatarian think tank. Last week, CEI hired one Lee Doren to head Bureaucrash. As far as I know, Lee is only known for his YouTube videos where he talks politics from his particular conservative Republican bent. But his obscurity is not the issue. Rather, CEI has spurned what heretofore has been an excellent, principled group of activists in favor of a new mission: to increase the number of conservative Republicans in Bureaucrash. CEI has decided that Crasher quantity is more important than Crasher quality, so they have hired someone to do it.

The strikes against Lee Doren are plenty, you can see many in his faux-apology to the BC crowd. You’d think that any of these should make Murray Rothbard turn over in his grave and any true libertarian go ballistic. His statement is not even consistent with the Bureaucrash Manifesto.

• He supports the FairTax Plan and the FlatTax plan. (Any reader of LCC should know that the FlatTax is not flat and the FairTax is not fair.)
• He supports “school choice” programs. (The only school choice a true libertarian can support is disassembling the public school system.)
• He supports the Iraq War and other wars of aggression.
• He openly admits that he voted for Mitt Romney in the last presidential primary rather than consider the principled Ron Paul.
• He does not consistently hold to the Non-Aggression principle, as admitted on Free Talk Live.

There is much more that could be mentioned, but ultimately this is not about Lee Doren. I’m sure he’s a decent guy, but he is no libertarian. No, this is about the clear direction in which CEI is taking Bureaucrash, epitomized in their pick of Lee Doren to lead. This move will only take Bureaucrash in an inconsistent, unprincipled, statist direction. Reaching out to people on the right or left is one thing, bringing in one of their own to change the gameplan and who does not even agree with the non-aggression principle is simply not acceptable.

Unless CEI gets their act together and fixes this – and perhaps even if they do – I suggest moving on to other social networks of principled libertarians and avoiding Bureaucrash from now on. Two potential up-and-coming networks could be Anarch.Me and Fr33Agents.net. There is also a Facebook Group called After Bureaucrash Action looking forward, and a Countering the Crasher in Chief group on Bureaucrash itself.

For me, I plan to get active in forging a new libertarian network of activists to replace Bureaucrash. Perhaps it is time to begin a real social networking site for libertarian Christians as well? I don’t know what the future holds, but it does not lie with CEI and Lee Doren.

R.I.P. old Bureaucrash…

Others talking about BC’s fate:

• Todd Barnett at The Freeman Chronicles – Bureaucrashed
• Public Statement of Xaq Fixx, former host of the PodCrash on BC
• Dale Everett from Anarchy in Your Head: Part 1 and Part 2.
• Free Talk Live’s June 4th, 2009 radio show.

UPDATE 6/10/09 — RadGeek has a good article explaining the positive aspects of BC’s fall, check it out.