In his own words:
“I know many of you think anything “establishment” is bad... and you’ve got disgust for anything GW Bush and (the party that birthed him) the Republicans (and I would agree with you on many points I’m sure)...”
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Libertarians are supposed to have MUCH more in common with Republicans than Democrats, at least that was the case when I was a member in the mid 1990s.
I hear this as the standard Leftist Republican bashing. Yes, particularly since he is directing this to readers of his blog, who I would be shocked to learn, that as “hip” punk rock fans and musicians, are anything but cool, progressive Leftists.
Johnny Ramone was the vilified punk rock conservative that proves the rule.
That said, he does go on to make some great statements. My only problem was with the qualifier, which he felt important enough to insert at the begnning, before he even got started.
My take on reading this is that the writer is not a self-identified Republican, or even a conservative, yet. What some here are calling his ‘qualifier to stay hip’ is merely his honest views, whether you agree with him and his reasoning or not. The guy has probably voted for Democrats or leftist third-party candidates his whole life.
Lay off his ‘qualifier’ and see the guy for what he appears to be - someone whose worldview and take on American politics are starting to mature and take form as conservative. Not long ago, this is how I started. I kept examining what I saw in the real world and compared it to what i heard and said in the liberal echo chamber of the average early 20’s guy in blue-state ville. Like this guy, my music and social life didn’t expose me to much conservative thought. Fugazi rocks, but they’re slightly to the left the Khmer Rouge.
I issued these qualifiers often early on. I’m still on your side guys, but... (insert rational conservative observation of the world here.) After continuously doing this, one day it simply dawned on me that I was a conservative/libertarian and that my suspicion of the government and media was shared by other conservatives, not by my liberal friends.
This election will be decided by people like this writer. They can issue whatever qualifiers they want. They can call themselves whatever they want. They don’t have to agree with everything and everyone on Free Republic. They just have to decide that Marxism is a step too far for them, and that they’d rather have McCain than Obama as president. Cut the guy some slack.