Cowboy Confessional

I spent the weekend in San Diego in the company of the entire California State Libertarian Party.

No, I was not doing community service.

The Libertarian Party is my favorite party this side of a naked tequila bash with the Hooters Girls. Long ago, while being reluctantly dragged through a gun show (I find most gun shows a snore), I happened across the LP recruiting table. I had known of the LP for a number of years, and managed not to join mainly due to their reputation of harboring overly flamboyant activists. I don’t need the competition.

What converted me was not their positions (I agree with 90% of their platform), or that the Republicans had gone off into the weeds (to join the Democrats). Nor was I intoxicated (frowned upon at events where there are guns and ammo to be had in quantities).

It was a bumper sticker.

Among the LP propaganda littering their table was a bumper sticker that read “I’m Pro-Choice on Everything!” I appreciated the eloquence of the message, and the core meaning would be clear to even a socialist, though a socialist would immediately legislate against printing bumper stickers after seeing this one for themselves.

History aside, I’m reporting today on a phenomenon I witnessed with a degree of disbelief normally reserved for a politician’s campaign promise. I have seen a transformation of the LP that is erasing their formerly hard-earned brand for lovable lunacy and convention binge drinking that is exceeded only by Ted Kennedy on any given weeknight.

The Libertarians are suffering from creeping respectability.

Ignore if you can Starchild’s perpetual sartorial psychosis (this year he came dressed as a pirate, an unfortunate euphemistic choice for a man from San Francisco). Most of the LP faithful in attendance (myself being the notable exceptions) were well dressed, civil, deliberative, and borderline boring. LP membership is slipping steadily into the mainstream, which may make the party less lively, but it will make it more palatable to the public.

This is very bad news for the increasingly non-credible Republicrats. More than one public opinion poll has shown that by and large people simply want to be left alone. After cops, jails, and weekly street cleaning, the average American wants less government. Yet both of the major parties provide more. In other words, Republicans and Democrats alike are ignoring the demand of the market.

Republicrats will soon be the next New Coke.

Not that the fix isn’t in. A big topic of discussion at the LP conclave was the now infamous, and John McCain damming, Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The very name shows the intent — bipartisan. Two partisan parties, and nobody else is invited. I’ve commented before on both the criminality of this affront to free speech, and the accessory after the fact violations committed by the Supreme Court in support of McCain’s corruption of the Constitution. The act was designed in part to limit the ability of folks like the Libertarians to thrive.

And it ain’t gonna work.

Get enough bulls angry, and they’ll break down any fence you build. Outside of a rodeo, you won’t find a larger pack of pissed off bulls than American voters. The current election is based not on policy but on annoyance. The more Obama and McCain exacerbate the situation, the more people will seek out third parties, and the more the LP gains.

Keep up the good work guys. We’re awaitin’.

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