What do you do when the lunatics are threatening to take over the asylum? And the asylum is the federal government of the United States?   And the lunatics are presidential candidates and elected representatives?

I came across a news report that the Republican majority  in the House of Representatives is pushing legislation for "voluntary taxation," meaning that individuals would have the choice of "overpaying" their federal taxes with the "overpayment" going to deficit reduction.  This is actually in the form of a bill, HR6410, which was pased by voice vote and without debate in the house on  September 19th(so much for democracy). 

Nobody really takes it seriously except the House Republicans.  Few even believe that it will be ussed to make Mitt Romney look good for supposedly look better for his "voluntary" overpayment  of  federal income tax for 2011(which still left him with an effective rate of 14%) and encourage the view that the rich will patriotically contribute huge amounts to reduce the deficit(and will have more to contribute  when their formal tax rates are further lowered)

But all of this, interests me as an historian.  It is new twist on the old Gospel of Wealth doctrine promulgated in the late 19th century which contended that the more millionaires a society had, the better of it would be, assuming that the millionaires would through voluntary contributions to private charities advance social improvements(there was no income tax then and a constitutional amendment was needed to establish it)

And then there was the philosophy of "voluntary cooperation" of Herbert Hoover, expressed in his treatise, American Individualism, when he was Secretary of Commerce and before he became president.  Instead of government regulation, the various industries would form associations to voluntarily regulate themselves, advance technological improvements, encourage efficiencies that would reduce prices, and enable  everyone to live in a world of "service" would replace profit as the driving motive of capitalism and everyone would live happily ever after with the slogan of Hoover's 1928 presidential campaign, "a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage" becoming a neverending reality.  The depression put an end to that

Then there was George HW Bush's "thousand points of light" his celebration of voluntary organizations that would  replace public responsibility for all sorts of social welfare policy.

But voluntary taxation?  That would create something like a government by for and of the rich, if there was any government left.  Some who have commented on this piece of legislation have mentioned that the idea was pushed by Ayn Rand,   who combined  laissez-faire capitalism with the philosphy of Friedrich Nietsche, in an article titled "the Virtue of selfishness."  Rand has her fans, including Vice Presidential Candidate Ryan, in the right Republican leadership,  even though she was a thorough-going atheist who worshipped only the "supermen" of wealth who provided their worth by their accumulation of wealth in an economic jungle.

These Republicans are "Tea Party" all right, but the party is from Alice in Wonderland, a sinister Alice in Wonderland that would mean greater inequality, poverty and social decline if it became a reality