We don't need no stinking great leaders...

When one gets through the self-deprecating humor and sarcasm (especially with his use of stupidity), fellow libertarian Penn Jillette makes some very good points as to why he thinks a great leader, in the sense that it has been currently defined (he looks to a new book written by The Cato Institute's Gene Healy for guidance - one on my reading list for sure) is not what we really need. I enjoyed the message, the humor and the way it has obviously gotten under the skin of certain commenters on that site.

Please read the whole thing but I'll summarize most of the good stuff here:

Everyone I talk to seems to think the president of the United States right now is stupid...

...They all seem to think we need to get a smarter guy in the White House fast, and Bush is so stupid, that task shouldn't be too hard...

...The idea, especially from the Democrats that I know, is, we just get a smarter guy in the White House, and all the problems will go away. We'll have smart speeches, smart high gas prices, smart bad economy, smart war on terrorism, smart war on drugs, smart hurricanes, smart global warming, smart war in Georgia -- smart, smart, smart...

...Obama is a great leader. He can fire people up and get them to do what he wants. He does smart speeches that promise everyone everything they need and make us feel good about our country and how much greater our government could be...

...But I don't think our next president being a great leader is a good thing...

...I'm worried about someone smarter than Bush taking over that tremendous power. Charisma and ambition increase my fear exponentially, and a great leader scares me to death...

...We need someone stupid enough to understand that the president of the United States can't solve many problems without taking away freedom and therefore shouldn't try. The only reason John McCain scares me a little less is because I think he's a little less likely to win. They both promise a government that will watch over us, and I don't like that...

..I don't want anyone as president who promises to take care of me. I may be stupid, but I want a chance to try to be a grown-up and take care of my family. Freedom means the freedom to be stupid, and that's what I want. I don't want anyone to feel my pain or tell me to ask what we can do for our country, or give us all money and take care of us...

...The choice shouldn't be which lesser of two evils should have the enormous power of our modern presidents. The question should be, who would do less as president? Who would leave us alone?...

Jillette's humorous commentary struck a chord with me because this is basically how I view things. My committments are to individual liberty, free markets and, perhaps most relevant to this discussion, limited government. Finding these attributes amongst our friends on either the Democratic or Republican side is difficult if not impossible. I am not interested in fancy speeches. I am not interested in broken campaign promises. I would be perfectly content to have a President that faithfully executed the laws of the United States in accordance with the Supreme Law of the Land. A President smart enough to recognize that there are limitations on what government can and should do and what government cannot and should not do would be satisfactory to me.

Jillette, rightly I think, fears the notion of a "great leader" because of the amount of power at that person's disposal, but let us not forget those who would rally around that leader. James Madison's writings on factions, most notably found in Federalist 10, are no less relevant today than they were over 200 years ago so it is worth quoting passages.

It will be found, indeed, on a candid review of our situation, that some of the distresses under which we labor have been erroneously charged on the operation of our governments; but it will be found, at the same time, that other causes will not alone account for many of our heaviest misfortunes; and, particularly, for that prevailing and increasing distrust of public engagements, and alarm for private rights, which are echoed from one end of the continent to the other. These must be chiefly, if not wholly, effects of the unsteadiness and injustice with which a factious spirit has tainted our public administrations. By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community...

...Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency...

...As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed. As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves...

...The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man; and we see them everywhere brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society. A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning government, and many other points, as well of speculation as of practice; an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have, in turn, divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good...

...It is in vain to say that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm. Nor, in many cases, can such an adjustment be made at all without taking into view indirect and remote considerations, which will rarely prevail over the immediate interest which one party may find in disregarding the rights of another or the good of the whole...

I find election year politics painful. Intellectually, it's dull. Worse, having to hear every other minute that I am facing the most important election of my lifetime and, especially one for libertarians, that we better be ready to vote for the lesser of two evils or else be ready for [INSERT FEAR OF DEMOCRATIC/REPUBLICAN PRESIDENCY HERE] at least three times a day wore thin months ago (to the extent I had any patience for it). As far as the lesser of two evils (the last snippet from my quoted passage from Jillette's post), from my standpoint, whether I'm shot in the head at close range with a 9mm pistol or an AK-47 does not change the fact that I am royally screwed. It only determines the size of the hole in my head. That's how I view the nonsense about the lesser of two evils so neither Obama nor McCain gets my support.