Posted on 06/16/2012 6:58:03 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
The Libertarian party probably rejected any claim to normalcy from the get-go by holding its convention in a casino. The Republicans and Democrats hold their conventions in Tampa and Charlotte in a few months, but America’s third largest political party held its nominating convention from May 2-6 at the Red Rock Resort on the edge of Las Vegas. Delegates selected former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson as their presidential candidate. News of Johnson’s nomination garnered a few obligatory headlines but was mostly met with a collective shrug by the political media. The lack of interest in the Libertarian party is a bit mystifying, given that voters routinely express dissatisfaction with both major parties. Well, that and the fact that the Libertarian convention was something of a freak show that descended into near anarchy.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Libertarians, as Ann Coulter says, are sometimes just off the reservation. And some, though they support conservative Republicans, really have views that are at odds with many (especially socially conservative) Republicans.
Hemingway describes a libertarian party that is much like the Democrat and Republican parties in that there is a LOT of "infighting" between the practical "do what we can" wing and the grassroots "burn the bastards who disagree with us" wing.
Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor, is from the former wing...and folks like the cross dressing "Starchild", a guy who wears a "white wig, stockings, miniskirt, and bustier" is of the latter.
One thing I learned from the piece:
"...then there’s David Koch, the energy magnate and philanthropist who, along with his brother Charles, is an oft-demonized money-man behind many GOP causes, though it’s often forgotten that they are longtime libertarians. As the Libertarian party vice presidential nominee in 1980, David Koch ran on a platform of, among other things, abolishing the CIA and legalizing suicide. In light of the dozens of recent Obama fundraising appeals caricaturing the Koch brothers as coldhearted right-wing billionaires, it took admirable restraint for David Koch not to issue a press release congratulating the president for coming around to his long-held position favoring same-sex marriage."
Just how deep is the "infighting" amongst the libertarians? Listen to this description of Gary Johnson, the party's nominee and how he is disliked by the self-appointed true believers:
...consider the plight of Gary Johnson. The former governor of New Mexico is easily the most qualified...candidate the Libertarian party has ever had. He [was] elected to two terms as a Republican in a state that is by no means a GOP stronghold. In 1995, Johnson slowed the 10 percent annual growth of New Mexico’s budget by vetoing 200 bills his first six months in office, and that was just a warmup. During his eight years in office, “Governor Veto” nixed more bills than the other 49 governors combined and boasts of once vetoing a bill for no other reason than “it was too long and I didn’t have time to read it.”...He pursued marijuana decriminalization as governor...
Yet despite his reputation for setting legislative bonfires and a campaign centered around the promise of eliminating $1.4 trillion in federal spending in the first year, the word that came up repeatedly in describing Johnson at the convention is “incrementalist.” This was not meant as a compliment.
Sounds kind of like FR sometimes, doesn't it? :)
I am a bit disappointed the “Americans for Prosperity” guys celebrate homosexuality and the ridiculous notion they can “marry”....I’ve sent AFP money in the past. :(
Sheldon Adelson also supports gay Marriage. His chapels perform gay marriages every day.
What is Kock’s position exactly? If it’s that the government shouldn’t be in the marriage business at all, then I can kind of respect it. If he’s saying that the government should have the final say in what marriage is, and that the definition should be that of the homo lobby and not of the majority of Americans, then I think he’s got flaky ideas.
Add another supporter of gay marriage to the list. Me.
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In fact, I think all marriages such should be gay. Of course that means gay in the original and true sense of the word -- before the sodomites corrupted it. I wish for all marriages between one man and one woman (the only definition of marriage) to be happy and joyous.
I want my country back and I want my word back. The sexual deviants have destroyed so much. They're not going to take my language.
Gary Johnson has no chance of being elected President (the American people are not ready to elect someone who has climbed Everest), but his candidacy may assure New Mexico’s electoral votes for Obama. Of course they may go to Obama anyway.
I hope they all ate at the buffet- the most over priced, crap food I’ve ever eaten. I’d rather go to Denny’s. At least the wait staff were nice. I also hope they had to stand in line over an hour to be offered that swill.
My neighbor said libertarians scare her.
They want unlimited access to guns and pot - she said that combo just can’t be good.
Oh, come on! Sounds like good times. Surely there’s a Southerner that will show this Yankee. Cold beer must be included ;)
(and maybe some hunting and fishing)
If there is no definition of marriage, then everything and nothing is marriage, we wouldn’t even be talking about it.
The question is who defines what marriage is. The true libertarian position is that the government shouldn’t define it and in fact shouldn’t even be in the marriage licensing business at all. The government should be strictly agnostic. It should be up to individuals and private institutions like the church to define it. The conservative position is that the government has a proper role in licensing marriage and therefore in defining it, but that the definition should reflect majority opinion which favors the traditional 1 man 1 woman definition. The liberal position is similar but says the definition should be that of the homosexual minority and the liberal judges who agree with them. Koch seems to have taken the liberal position, not the libertarian position.
When you find that the libertarian is joining we conservatives, then call us.
Libertarians are Liberals.
It’s pretty ignorant to say that libertarians are liberals, but Koch does seem to be acting like on in this case.
Where do libertarians differ with the right?
Versus with the left?
My point of course was that libertarians are liberals, except for wealth and money.
Blind, Simple, God Fearing Morals, doesn’t do much for.
Fine, let’s work on what?
Bull!
What do you think those liberals are?
A Newly discovered liberal?
Two essays frame the debate properly, in my view. The first is Denis Prager's seminal article "Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality". The second is Sam Schulman's observations and reflections on kinship contained in his article "The Worst Thing About Gay Marriage". Both of these should be considered required reading for any serious discussion of the subject of marriage and society's interest in it. Nobody who sees the topic in this broader context would for a moment consider a society's embrace of "gay marriage", as has been the case throughout history, as anything more than a sign of terminal decline.
One small mistake in Prager’s essay: Ishtar does not seduce Gilgamesh. She tries to, but he rejects her and angers her by reminding her of how badly she had treated her former lovers.
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