http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/03/17/gary-johnson-won-the-libertarian-key-party-in-tukwila Comments On: Gary Johnson Won the Libertarian Key Party in Tukwila by Paul Constant en-us Copyright 2013 The Stranger. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, The Stranger readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sun, 19 May 2013 02:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
http://tinyurl.com/AnthonyGregory-S4L
Posted by Starchild]]> Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:10:13 -0700 The Stranger
Thank you for covering the Libertarian Party of Washington convention. I kind of wish you'd dug a little deeper, because there is definitely more substance behind most of the one-liners that you quote, but I suppose that would have taken a longer article and maybe bored some of your readers.

Nevertheless I'm somewhat disappointed that you seem to have jumped to the common liberal conclusion that Libertarians are essentially just conservatives who aren't religious bigots and who are actually serious about cutting government (counterpart to the common conservative conclusion that Libertarians are essentially just liberals who get economics).

The Advocates for Self Government ( http://www.TheAdvocates.org ) have a chart (invented by LP co-founder David Nolan) that illustrates how libertarianism is really neither left nor right, but represents a genuinely different point of view. Unfortunately in the polarized world of contemporary American politics it's easy to lose sight of this, and sometimes libertarians themselves get sucked into the phony debate, which doesn't help.

Behind the current headlines and the controversies, the central political question of our era -- perhaps any era -- goes something like this: How much power and control should governments have over our lives? Republicans and Democrats are all over the place on that question, depending on the issue (and often, sadly, upon which party is in power), but Libertarians stand pretty reliably for power belonging to the people and not to the State.

There is a vast arsenal of philosophical, economic, and historical ideas and analysis to support this position, but the media often do not take the time to explore these underpinnings and how they measure up to those of liberalism and conservatism.

For a clearly libertarian take on some of the most important current issues of the day which spares neither left nor right, I recommend this humorous and yet deadly serious talk that Anthony Gregory gave to the Students for Liberty chapter at UC Berkeley last fall:

http://calsfl.com/2011/12/18/anthony-gre…

I only hope that enough Americans can avoid being distracted by the partisan clamor and remain sufficiently open-minded to a different point of view, for us to keep the United States from becoming a police state as those in power play one faction off against the other while steadily ratcheting up the level of control.
Posted by Starchild]]> Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:07:54 -0700 The Stranger I was a young man when I started reading this post.
Posted by Edmund Burke]]> Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:17:20 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Fritz]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:34:13 -0700 The Stranger Posted by mikethehammer]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:29:41 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Fritz]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:13:40 -0700 The Stranger
Appreciate and respect it. That said, overwhelmingly is not unanimously. You should seek out whoever was in opposition to the resolution and tell 'em to get lost (since they'd likely be goofball wingnut Christians anyway, who'd hold plenty of other beliefs that were in direct contradiction to your party platform.)

And I hope that doesn't make me sound like an asshole or anything. It's just that I think a big component of the Repubs current problems stem from a willingness to accept and cater to those same freaking wingnuts.
Posted by mikethehammer]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:02:32 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Fritz]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:24:54 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Sorry for the redundancy]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:39:18 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Drekfletch]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 10:19:06 -0700 The Stranger
Don't underestimate the capacity of the national LP to fuck this up.

Great piece, Paul. Thanks for covering it. I hope you enjoyed some time away from the Republicans. :)
Posted by bleedingheartlibertarian]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:41:25 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Chris Govella]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 08:43:25 -0700 The Stranger
The fallacy of these weak/no-government people is that we would be free if not for government. But we would always be serving a powerful force, if not a government system then an industrialist/business system, or a plutocracy, or your local warlord. It's a fantasy that we, the citizens, would ever be left alone and, given my options, only a representative government would look after my interests, particularly if I'm a weak member of society. Big democratic government? Yes, please!
Posted by floater]]> Sun, 18 Mar 2012 07:37:21 -0700 The Stranger
If you come back tomorrow, I'll buy you a beer. I'm one of the middle-aged bearded guys.


Posted by Fritz]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 23:36:39 -0700 The Stranger Posted by cliche]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:50:33 -0700 The Stranger Governor Gary Johnson, who announced back in December that he was going to abandon the Republican Party and run for the presidency on the Republican ticket... That's quite a trick. I wonder if that leaves the Republicans scratching their heads.
Posted by Free Lunch]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:18:22 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Nitidiuscula]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:15:18 -0700 The Stranger Posted by Nitidiuscula]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 19:13:22 -0700 The Stranger http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/st…

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/0…
Posted by passionate_jus]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:59:39 -0700 The Stranger Posted by mootsagootsa]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:44:57 -0700 The Stranger Posted by internet_jen]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:37:13 -0700 The Stranger
"Two off-duty St. Peters police officers, who had been hired for the event by Republicans, called in for support from five law enforcement agencies, including the Missouri State Highway Patrol. A police helicopter arrived at the scene. Dokes made a motion to adjourn the caucus, and two people were arrested for trespassing after they refused to leave, police said.

"Today's events in St. Charles were unfortunate, and the meeting was adjourned to protect the safety of all participants," said state Republican Party Chairman David Cole.""

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/st…

It's not the first caucus screw up either.

The swing states of Maine, Iowa and Nevada all had messed up caucuses as well. Plus, it's never good to piss off your activist base. Especially in swing states.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/0…

Republicans can't even run their small caucuses properly. How could they run this country?
Posted by passionate_jus]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:18:30 -0700 The Stranger Posted by pupuguru]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:07:13 -0700 The Stranger Posted by madcap]]> Sat, 17 Mar 2012 17:42:34 -0700 The Stranger