When it comes to the movie in general, much can be said about Captain America’s budding libertarianism.
When Tony Stark (Iron Man) presents Rogers with a peace offering of the pens that FDR used to sign legislation that would allow the country to help arm the allies, Rogers rebukes the gift, noting correctly that “some would say that action brought us closer to war.”
There was even a passing blow to the patron saint of modern liberalism. Marcotte, who only has a deep mistrust of politicians on the wrong side of the aisle. What if they send us somewhere we don’t want to go, or if they won’t let us fight someone we feel we have to?” Captain America has a deep mistrust of politicians in general, unlike Ms.
In Civil War, Rogers stands up for his own individual right to self-determine what he does with his own body, remarking “The safest hands are still our own…” and “Politicians have agendas. In this instance, it is the domestic state who is the bully who needs standing up to. In the second movie, he doesn’t fight against the Hydra-SHIELD-state spying/drone machine because the program wasn’t voted on by the populace, but because the data collection and green-light to kill anyone on a moment’s notice is a blatant violation of individual rights. Note that Rogers here is abiding by the non-aggression principle- initiation of violence is wrong, but self-defense is justifiable. When asked in the first movie if he “wants to kill Nazi’s,” he responds that he doesn’t wish to kill anyone, but that bullies need to be stood up to. He has, however, been consistently the representative of individual liberty. The bottom line here is that Captain America, in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, has never been the poster boy of American Democracy. In two out of three movies, he has actively fought against it. In every prior installment, Steve Rogers has defied the government. Why is it surprising, then, that Cap would take a position in opposition to the United States government, or worse for leftists, the Holy United Nations (which I would also like to point out consists of non-elected bureaucrats so much for “democracy”). In Winter Soldier, Captain America becomes an enemy of the state which had been co-opted by Hydra Operatives in secret. In the first movie, he illegally enlists and forges his forms, and later defies orders to enter into enemy territory single-handedly to retrieve hostages that others had written off as dead. In each prior movie, he has broken the law and taken actions against the wishes of the federal government. I’d like to point out, however, that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America has never simply been the “fighting face of democracy.” Also, it should come as no surprise to the viewer that Cap would refuse to sign onto the Sokovia Accords. Then, she reasons, that somehow Marvel went and broke the reddest hearts of leftist comic book movie enthusiasts in Civil War by Cap suddenly breaking from his defense of Democracy by refusing to be conscripted into the United Nation’s Avengers Oversight Program (In the movie, the Sokovia Accords). Best Price: $2.96 Buy New $18.00 (as of 06:00 EST - Details) Winter Soldier, it is perceived that Rogers does the right thing by putting a stop to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secret spying and drone assault program that was never OK’d by the voting public. Supposedly, this was established early on in Cap’s first movie (when he enlisted in WWII to fight the Nazi’s parallel, Hydra). Marcotte, and many on the left, Steve Rogers was always a good ole rule following American patriot who stood up for Democracy and its values around the world. (I, for one, am shocked to see someone use that “d” word to belittle someone else. Besides, any movie that can send into a tantrum has to be good, right?Īmanda Marcotte’s laughable attempt to complain about how Marvel ruined the character and to smear Cap as a “douchey libertarian” and “Ayn Rand acolyte” rests on an assumption of some perceived inconsistency of previously established “liberal” values. In a world where political correctness, state worship, war cheerleading, and socialist propaganda have infected the very nurseries of American culture (namely higher education and Hollywood), Civil War shines as a beacon of pride that will have libertarians in the audience smiling brightly. Captain America: Civil War is most definitely the latter. However, great movies that withstand the obscurity of history reflect the emergence of some sort of counterculture. Good movies often reflect the attitudes of the times in which they were created.