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I’m not one to believe [2] that the state possesses exclusive moral authority to create, define, and enforce law. And yet I get the creeps whenever I read or hear about the current crop of so-called "Minutemen" — self-appointed enforcers of immigration restrictions.
These "Minutemen" today likely believe that they are the intellectual and moral descendants of the Minutemen of revolutionary-era America. But they aren’t.
One of the main motivations of the American revolutionaries was to free themselves from burdensome restrictions on their economic activities — restrictions meant to protect monopoly privileges for British merchants — restrictions enforced with threats of violence by what was then the world’s most powerful army and navy.
Today’s "Minutemen," as this story [3] in the Washington Post makes plain, are enemies of freedom. They are officious, narrow-minded, xenophobic, selfish meddlers seeking to inspire the state to unleash greater force against peaceful foreigners who want to work.
While the Minutemen [4] of Concord and Lexington fought in an effort to abolish the British empire’s monopoly privileges in North America, today’s "Minutemen" seek to create and enforce monopoly privileges.