Just a quick thank you to the Constitution Party for NOT nominating arch neo-conservative loony bin Alan Keyes. Thankfully we will be spared his "contribution" to the Presidential race. By the way, they nominated Chuck Baldwin, for whatever that is worth.
Third parties are a miserable waste of time and votes, in my opinion, But more power to them!
Don't allow leftists to play games with definitions! Some of the libertarian-leaning leftists at this forum will try to redefine "left-wing" back to its original defition (Third Estate, limited government, free-markets, laissez-faire reforms, etc.). Fine! We non-leftists can't stop them from using their own personal definitions; they can use whatever labels they want to describe any concept they want.However, they have the audacity to then use their personal definition of "left-wing" (remember, the original definition, which is no longer valid) to prove that modern leftists are more libertarian than modern rightists! They will say that libertarianism is "inherently leftist" (again, using the original, no longer valid definition), and use that to insist that we should prefer and side with modern leftists over modern rightists.
Question their motives.
double-post
Obama would exactly the same as McCain on foreign policy and infinitely worse on domestic policy. Plus, he'd get away with anything.
Ego: Obama would exactly the same as McCain on foreign policy and infinitely worse on domestic policy. Plus, he'd get away with anything.
My left hand puppet would be exactly the same as my right hand puppet on foreign policy and infinitely worse on domestic policy. Plus, it'd get away with anything.
Since I'll be forced to shake one of your two hands for the next four years, I'd rather shake your right hand.
JAlanKatz:I'm not sure what it's worth. It gives right-wing Christian RP supporters an excuse not to consider themselves libertarians. On the one hand, this is good, since it prevents some public confusion. On the other hand, it means that those folks now have a reason not to look into the books Ron recommended, which is a missed opportunity for them to possibly become libertarians.
Baldwin is a Ron Paul True Believer. If anything, he may pick up the baton and run with it for awhile. Not to mention that anyone is better than W.A.R., the corporate libertarian.
scineram:McCain would be the worst. I still root for Billary.
That would be good only because it might do a lot to convince people how evil government is. People might start remembering the mass murder(s), trampling of property rights, and disregarding of warrant requirements for search and siezure of the last two Billary terms and make the connections.
Edit:
By the way, what is this Constitutional Party I keep hearing about and what is its relationship with the Libertarian Party?
CShirk: By the way, what is this Constitutional Party I keep hearing about and what is its relationship with the Libertarian Party?
It is actually the Constitution Party. It has no formal relation at all to the Libertarian Party. Here is the link to main site and platform:
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php
It is not a libertarian or Austrian leaning party. They do promote strict adherence to the Constitution, obviously implied by the name of their party.
JAlanKatz: I'm not sure what it's worth. It gives right-wing Christian RP supporters an excuse not to consider themselves libertarians.
What is a libertarian if not someone who defends his rights? Building a "pure" Libertarian party is a fantasy. The interests of liberty are general interests, not party interests. It will take a grand confederation of all opposition groups to successfully resist the state. The more opposition parties there are, the better. The problem libertarian activists should be concerned about should not be whom the best candidate for a Libertarian president is, but how to establish a constitution for the confederation of opposition parties.
The fallacies of intellectual communism, a compilation - On the nature of power
Mark B.: CShirk: By the way, what is this Constitutional Party I keep hearing about and what is its relationship with the Libertarian Party? It is actually the Constitution Party. It has no formal relation at all to the Libertarian Party. Here is the link to main site and platform: http://www.constitutionparty.com/ http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php It is not a libertarian or Austrian leaning party. They do promote strict adherence to the Constitution, obviously implied by the name of their party.
However, I do see a scenario where Baldwin becomes the small-l libertarian choice if the LP nominates a non-libertarian, which is quite likely this year. So far, the candidates we have are:
*Bob Barr, who advocates a national sales tax
*Wayne Allyn Root, whose support for waging war on "Islamofascism" made Glenn Beck refer to his platform as "conservative porn"
*George Phillies, the "fair" trader who advocates government regulation in marriage, immigration, roads, etc. and has a disdain for states' rights
*Mike Gravel, who advocates world governance and nationalized health insurance
*Christine Smith, who recently endorsed the federal government's war on child pornography
When it comes down to it, there are only two real libertarians running for the nomination (Ruwart and Kubby), both of whom have little chance at the nomination.