Review of— ter Maat, Mike, ed. A Gold New Deal: Teh Government We Will Tolerate.

 

Review Essay

By Tim Krenz

April 6, 2024

Review of—

ter Maat, Mike, ed. A Gold New Deal: Teh Government We Will Tolerate. (No data on publishing information). https://goldnewdeal.org/

What does the editor and these authors mean by “a Gold New Deal?” Why do they present this book of eclectic essays as “the government we will tolerate?” The answers come from the collector/editor of the book, Mike ter Maat, and himself the author of the particular essay entitled, “A Gold New Deal.”

How the essays succeed depend on the reader’s understanding of two very important realities of American politics today. First, where does the United States find itself heading under the corruption and absolute power held by the relative few who currently control almost 350 million America lives? Second, how can the country break the hold of those few by embracing a Gold New Deal, and then move forward to more freedom for people?

As a candidate for United States President in 2024, Mike ter Maat takes the central role in the book’s most important contribution. His essay incorporates the name from his campaign theme, “A Gold New Deal,” and he presents a clear and literate statement of what he thinks can help restore the country, by his policy statements mostly in the essay, and some by those of his contributors.

Ironically, readers will recall the New Deal in American history, promised by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 national elections. No matter what a person thinks of FDR and his program, that President in the 1930s radically changed the social and political power relationships in the United States, away from a heritage of localism, away from family-centric households, and away from benevolent societies, like churches. Whether or not necessary, FDR’s New Deal stopped a revolution, and a counter-revolution, and realigned American politics for a century, creating the individual’s dependency under a central Federal government.

To overturn that dependency ter Maat and friends present an insightful outline of how a Libertarian Presidency can transform the country. The Gold New Deal, if ter Maat succeeds, would reserve the poles of power, realigning a central government on a balance that unequally favors both people and the individual states where they live.

All of the essay contributors help point the direction the country can take under a libertarian philosophy of life and maintenance, with or without any government involvement. The essay “Medical Freedom,” by Irene Mavrakakis, states the obvious need for a government—all and any government—to stay far away from the personal healthcare decisions of humans, and to stay out of the private relationship of informed choices and consents between a patient and her or his medical advisor. Mavrakakis also clearly spells out a need far past its necessary time to implement, that of the separation of science and the state, in order for the most objectivity of science to avoid the corruption of the government and its subjective manipulations.

Other critical essays in A Gold New Deal include “The Age of Meritocracy: Bitcoin is NOT Democratic,” by Alexander Svetski, which describes a new era of political-economy possibler by the development of cryptocurrencies. Joel Extine, in “Our Abusive Relationship with Government,” sets forth the ethical examination of how government subjectively creates the fear and oppression complex, from which arises the slavish submissions among intimidated and rather co-dependent citizens. Extine’s ethical objective analysis of the need to make better decisions for ourselves, by protecting the rights of all to change the abusive coercion of government, provides convincing, intelligent and “smart ammunition for a peaceful struggle for freedom, on the inside and outside everyone.

All of these Libertarian essays reinforce Mike ter Maat’s central theme—of the collection, of his own essay, and of his hopes for the Presidency. In the country, mired in corruption, and ruled by an elite few over the many multitudes, a Libertarian administration can provide new political relationships of power. These new relationships build in favor of the many and away from the few. The new relationships proposed by the ter Maat’s Gold New Deal promise to devolve powers, firstly to the people, and then to the local and state governments closest to them. How well this can succeed will depend on those multitudes willing to listen to his message of A Gold New Deal. The messenger has proven his willingness to advocate for them, in turn.

A Gold New Deal, like the book says, offers a radical change as significant in 2024 as it proved in 1932, but for the opposite reasons. In 1932, FDR’s New Deal inaugurated the Federal government’s primacy and purpose to expand its own reach and power to shape life in America, and eventually in the post-depression/post-war world. A Gold New Deal promises to undo that, in favor of a balance of constitutional limits, as conceived and devised, to separate and preserve powers between the central government, the states as partners, and ultimately to the judgment and discretion of the people individually. Empowering the people’s latent desire for freedom from coercive and ruinous government by the few opens the vistas of a peaceful future.

As a whole, A Gold New Deal: The Government We Will Tolerate brings these half-vignettes and half-platforms of Libertarians to a format that promotes a candidate with a vision, one more complete and more whole than voters usually hear or read. The book forms a starting of the “why, when, where, how, and what” of Mike ter Maat’s campaign for United States President in 2024. As the “Who,” Mike ter Maat as editor, essayist and candidate presents his case AS the reason that voters should cast their ballots for him, and for the “best deal,” a Gold New Deal, that Americans might get for freedom in a world that needs a new start.