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May 25th, 2008I’m sipping whiskey for the fourth straight night in Denver, while I and the Libertarians sit in stunned amazement.
The Libertarian party (LP) has gone mainstream. They have developed creeping respectability. They may soon risk becoming boring.
Not that their convention was boring. Far from it. Being the completely anal retentive ideological purists they are, the seeming invasion from ex-Republicans (Bob Barr) and ex-Democrats (Mike Gravel) made for tense conversations, endless hand wringing, and a lot of late night power drinking as many LP members came to terms with the Gawd awful decision they faced.
Do we vote for a pure Libertarian and get no media coverage (as usual) or do we accept a 90% candidate and get the attention of a nation.
They chose the latter, and it was a wise choice. I learned from some private polling that the LP is the second choice for nearly everybody – Democrats and Republicans alike. 52% of Republicans and Democrats think the LP should be in the presidential debate. Though they are not well acquainted with every element of Libertarian philosophy, swing voters have said they want to learn more.
And there lies the danger for those who love the two party stranglehold. I spoke with many new LP members over the weekend and all came from either the Republican or Democrat camps. They all felt abandoned by their parties. They sought and found a home that stood for something, and what’s more, something that gave them trust.
And “trust” beats the Sam Hell out of “hope” any day.
Nobody, not even the most involved LP insider, is predicting a win come November. But every LP member sense a shift, one that puts the LP candidates in the debates, the LP freedom mission in televisions from coast to coast, and and forever changes the two-party system into a three-party system.
While I’m coining and copyrighting slogans, I’ll add the following and save them for my own use and licening.
Trust is hope.
Trust brings hope.
Freedom is hope.
Trust in freedom, trust is hope.
Trust beats hope.
Trust, hope and change.
… and all minor variations tereof.
‘Trust beats hope.’
Nice phrases, shame about the spelling.
I was quite amazed to see that Richard Hoagland gave a talk there, I’m not very familiar with his work, but he does pose an interesting question – ‘Why does NASA continue to represent itself and its programs as “civilian Space research,” when its official Congressional Charter reveals that the President can legally classify – under the rationale of “national security” – ALL of NASA’s findings?’
So does that mean the government can use tax payer’s money for just about anything and keep it secret, justified by ‘national security’?
Fair play to the Libertarians for being willing to consider Richard Hoagland’s point of view.
Hi bob, you look kinda stoned.
http://brushfires2008.com/2008/04/07/bob-barr-2008-from-anti-drug-warrior-to-lobbyist-for-the-aclu-and-marijuana-policy-project-mpp/
Actually I have a few other favourite bobs –
bob dodds
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/images/2007/06/01/change_of_subject_seal.png
and robert anton wilson –
http://www.blackcrayon.com/image/RobertAntonWilson.jpg
Both Discordians – ‘All Hail Eris’
I see there was also a 9/11 Justice Debate, it’s nice to see discussion into these conspiracy theories promoted.
‘Liberty is the air that we Americans breathe. Our government is based on the belief that a people can be both strong and free, that civilized men need no restraint but that imposed by themselves against the abuse of freedom.”
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
But how many of us are civilized, when we are content to allow people to starve, while we spend our money on luxury?
‘There is no quicker way to clear a room,
no better method to destroy the party or, “change the subject”,
no surer method to cultivate the very deepest and longest-lasting enmity
amongst family and neighbors alike,
than to speak the truth.’
Now it’s my bad spelling, I meant the ’subgenius’ bob dobbs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius
http://www.subgenius.com/
‘If organized religion is the opium of the masses, then disorganized religion smokes the marijuana of the lunatic fringe.’ — The introduction to the Principia Discordia
My favourite bob dobbs quote – ‘F*** em if they can’t take a joke.’ … (or a toke?)
He’s almost as funny as you.
I wonder what you mean by ‘90% candidate’ anyway, someone said that trying to get libertarians to agree was like trying to herd cats.
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’
So if marijuana makes one happy, one should have the liberty to smoke it – yes?
I still don’t understand the objection to it, especially since there has been no connection found between it and cancer. –
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html?referrer=digg
Is the fear that people will become less productive if they smoke it? But do we really need to waste our time energy and resources making things we don’t need?
Is it because of mental health worries? But there are also mental health worries in connection with meds and antidepressants etc, yet they are still used liberally.
Daniel Pinchbeck refers to entheogens as ‘medicines’ as do indigenous people. To deny sick people these medicines is itself sick.
I find it quite fascinating the way Bar seems to have completely changed his mind about so many things. I think it is natural for people to do this, without needing to feel shame.
He says “Tell them my conversion is sincere.”
http://thirdpartywatch.com/2008/05/27/kubby-urges-support-for-barrroot-ticket/#more-3008
(But is he sincere..maybe he is a spy or kind of ’sock puppet’, and this is a plot hatched up by the republicans…or maybe I’ve just been reading too many conspiracy theories..)
I trust no-one.
Also interesting that ‘In Congress, he also controversially proposed that the Pentagon ban the practice of Wicca in the military.’
Seems bizarre, I wonder what he thinks of Wicca now..personally I think that everyone should be doing it.
Also interestingly -
‘Barr hosts a political talk radio show on Radio America called Bob Barr’s Laws of the Universe, … His first “law of the Universe” is that “the world is full of idiots”, and he features an “Idiot of the Week” on his show, along with a top ten of “Idiots of the Year” selected from the Idiots of the Week.’
Reminds me of someone else.
I see there is a ‘Guns and Dope Party’ -
‘a ‘United States political party envisioned by cult author and libertarian Robert Anton Wilson. While the party has proposals that can be considered generally libertarian in its principles, it presents these positions in a facetious manner, and advocates extremely absurd things, for example replacing one third of Congress with ostriches. This is consistent with Robert Anton Wilson’s and chaotic Discordianism’s tradition of advocating freedom through parody and surrealism.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_and_Dope_Party
Shame bob’s dead now.
He also wrote Celine’s laws -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celine%27s_laws
Looks like Barr got the witches worked up –
‘The US Military attempts to train “moral soldiers,” he said, “and we have always been a country that recognizes that moral foundation as coming from God–not from a tree, not from a blade of grass, not from the sun, but from God. If people want to go out on their own and worship trees or grass or the sun, they can do that. But I don’t think it’s appropriate for our military to say we won’t draw any lines or set any standards about what people can do with military sanction.”
‘Witches say Barr’s position is a threat to their civil rights. “His demands are not only outrageous, they are unconstitutional,”
http://www.witchvox.com/military/bobbarr.html
Funny you mention that part of Barr’s past. I attended the convention in the company of a mid-west girl who dabbled in Wicca (she calls herself an EpiscaPagan).
She shrugged it off. Everyone comes with baggage. The real question is how much and does the luggage hold any thing in the process of rotting.
Nothing funny about it, anyway, good luck to him, in his career as ’spoiler’.
It just gets wierder…and hopefully this will be my last comment on the matter.
Maybe the ‘pure’ libertarians should defect to the ‘guns and dope party’ and burning man party, (’Members of the Guns and Dope Party regularly host a theme camp at Nevada’s yearly counter-culture rich Burning Man festival.’)
Robert anton wilson who envisiond the party was a member of the ‘church of subgenius’ a ‘religious group that satirizes religion, conspiracy theory, UFOs and popular culture’
Maybe it could be ‘The guns, dope and ufo party’ ridiculing iself and presenting ’strawman’ (burningman) arguements that are easily refuted.
Does Starchild like ufos? Presumably judging by his name, he does. He’d be the perfect leader, and you never know, maybe these conspiracies may be true, and he really would be a star.