Driving libertarians out of the Tea Party movement

insidecatholic.com ^ | 12/29/09 | Brian Saint-Paul

[Publius804]

It appears that some state and county Tea Party groups are trying to cleanse their ranks of libertarians. That's a shame since the movement started with Ron Paul and his libertarian followers, and was then co-opted by mainstream GOP Sean Hannity types.

Lawrence Samuels, editor of Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer and participant in the Monterey County Tea Party, is witnessing the purge firsthand:

[A]fter a successful 4th of July Tea Party parade and Freedom Rally in Monterey, the cracks in the alliance split wide open. I was accused of belonging to too many leftist organizations. In fact, I am co-chair of the local Libertarians for Peace, which joined the 27-member Monterey County Peace Coalition to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Libertarians for Peace is neither Left nor Right….

Obviously, the Tea Party conservatives were neophytes; never before had they been involved in political activism. Some had never heard of Congressman Ron Paul. Prof. David R. Henderson, one of the libertarian Tea Party Board members, described this curious phenomenon as "activism without ideals." I thought my phrase captured it best: "a cause without a rebel." In fact, as demands to purge the libertarians intensified, we got the distinct feeling that the purgers fit the category of "reactionary" since they seemed to know only what they were against, not what they were for. Amazingly, they never pointed out any philosophical differences that they found objectionable. It was as if they were devoid of ideas, marooned with empty rhetoric and no real solutions….

In retrospect, it did not help our case when we asked these rookies embarrassing questions. We asked them why they had done nothing when President Bush bailed out the banks and auto companies, spent money like a drunken sailor, bashed civil liberties and advanced socialized medicine with Medicare Prescription Drug law, a program that some in Congress estimated will have a price tag of $1.2 trillion by 2016. I suppose our questioning merely rubbed their noises too deeply in their ignorance.

You can read his entire account here.

If the Tea Party movement is to function merely as the activist wing of Republican talk radio, it won't get very far.

[mnehring]

The problem with that entire premise is that Libertarianism and Objectivism are two different philosophies and Rand despised Libertarians (party). It can be said there is a difference between the Libertarian party and libertarian philosophy (I call it the difference between the “Reason” libertarians and the JBS Libertarians.)

[jimfree]

That $20 million Dr. Paul raked in 4th Quarter of 2007 was s--ts and giggles then?

Let's give proper credit. Dr. Paul indeed had a following. Most of the Tea Partiers were not of that following though indeed many were. I was not and as you are discovering on this thread most Freepers were not.

I don't want to be insulting, but, I project that more (former) Paulite money will go to Sarah Palin in the 4th Quarter of 2011 than goes to Paul and/or the Libertarian candidate.

[TigersEye]

Don’t know about you, but the first tea party event early this year in Ft. Worth had absolutely nothing to do with Ron Paul...if it had, I wouldn’t have gone.

Same here. I went to the April 15th Tea Party in my little town and there were only 4-5 Paulites out of the 200+ that showed up. That was the first Tea Party here but far from the first around the country. Ron Paul and his followers had nothing to do with the Tea Party Movement other than joining in like everybody else. No person or group led it.

[hellbender]

But drugs are already being abused now, and they're illegal.

If drugs are legalized, the price will go down and abuse will go up! How can libertarians, of all people, not understand the law of supply and demand in markets?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I have relatives serving overseas too, and I come from a military family as well.
Paul is wrong that he doesn't see Islam as the evil it is but he is right when he believes we don't need to stay over there for decades fighting and fighting...when we can easily seal the borders and utilize our own energy resources here.
And if they attacked us, there wouldn't be any of this nation-building or training Afghan soldiers or whatever. Paul would obliterate them and give them a hanky and tell them to wipe their chin.
That's how you fight terrorism instead of pussyfooting around

[manc]

no names needs to be mentioned for me as for Paul, well during the campaign I heard him and though WOW this guy is off it, then he said that we did not need a CIA, FBI, NSA etc . Now that is when I said the guy is totally nuts. I then read an article on him yesterday from here and that just confirmed that I was initially right the guy is off his trolley sad part is that there is a couple of things like about him like the constitution, cutting Govt but then he opens his mouth and sounds like a left wing nut. Sorry not even the left wing DU kooks would say some of the nutty things Paul has said.

[manc]

no names needs to be mentioned for me as for Paul, well during the campaign I heard him and though WOW this guy is off it, then he said that we did not need a CIA, FBI, NSA etc . Now that is when I said the guy is totally nuts. I then read an article on him yesterday from here and that just confirmed that I was initially right the guy is off his trolley sad part is that there is a couple of things like about him like the constitution, cutting Govt but then he opens his mouth and sounds like a left wing nut. Sorry not even the left wing DU kooks would say some of the nutty things Paul has said. If it were up to Paul and some of his supporters we would have men marrying their daughters, women marrying horses and dogs, no Govt agencies, no allies, drugs of all sorts on the street corner, sex in the street etc.

[TigersEye]

There were Tea Parties held in 2007 during Paul's campaign.

I would love to see a source for that assertion. Rick Santelli made his rant on Feb. 19th '09 which started the Tea Party Movement. Whatever Ron Paul's supporters did had no part in it.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Governor Palin has spoken favorably about Paul and shares his limited gov't philosophy.
His supporters are now Palin's supporters, which makes this thread and the bickering among it so ironic

[alicewonders]

AMEN to everything you said.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

If drugs are legalized, the price will go down and abuse will go up!

How will abuse go up when employers and state governments reserve the right to prohibit their usage?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I would love to see a source for that assertion. Rick Santelli made his rant on Feb. 19th '09 which started the Tea Party Movement. Whatever Ron Paul's supporters did had no part in it.

READ THE THREAD
The only thing Santelli did was give it the title. That's it. The Tea Parties were already bubbling as far back as 2007.

Paul's supporters make up the majority of Tea Parties and all you need for proof is that the Stupid Party isn't going after them for support. Either that, or they're denigrating them like the Dems.

[TigersEye]

The Tea Parties were already bubbling as far back as 2007.

Complete and utter horse puckey!

[TigersEye]

Paul's supporters make up the majority of Tea Parties ...

Also completely ridiculous.

[onyx]

News flash to Ron Paul and his followers:

It took CNBC’s Rick Santelli to call for A TEA PARTY

before anyone actually took notice.

[hellbender]

So then you do not in fact support legalization or decriminalization of drugs? Many libertarians do, and post that position here on FR.

[brytlea]

Yep, you’re right, altho I remember mentioning that we should send teabags to our reps before that. Not that I think I thought of the idea first, but I think it was being bandied about amongst regular people first. Ron Paul certainly didn’t think it up. It was TRULY a grass roots movement.

[hellbender]

Paul's supporters make up the majority of Tea Parties

Uh...what's the largest gathering ever held by the Libertarian Party or pure Ron Paul supporters before the real Tea Parties got started? Then compare that number with the hundreds of thousands of Tea Party types who descended on Washington, DC. Case closed.

[SoConPubbie]

I don't have a problem with social conservatives until they start with the holier-than-thou, nanny-statist crap! I want to focus on limiting government and reducing spending first and foremost. This is what libertarians want as well.

STOP BASHING LIBERTARIANS. WE NEED THEM TO FIGHT THE SOCIALIST, MARXIST PIGS

You totally ignored my post.

I'm not BASHINBG LIBERTARIANS.

But the LIBERTARIANS will have to agree, just like other conservative factions, to allow each faction to get what is most important to them or we all lose.

Like I said before, each group needs to grow up and not be so selfish that they think they can get everything they want at the expense of another faction.

If they don't, kiss this nation goodbye, the leftists, Marxists, and Commies have won.

[tfecw]

Paying attention to the news stories, and actually getting out there and holding a sign, marching with like minded folks, are two entirely different things.

Agreed.

Liberals haven't been paying attention to anything for years and are quite good at getting out there and holding a sign, marching with like minded folks, chaining them selves to trees, getting tear gassed, thrown in jail, pepper sprayed, etc.