Comments on: Another Notable Libertarian Bolts

by: Don King

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 12:16:37 +0000

The so-called libertarian defectors are more interested in doing what a REAL political party should be concerned about….......WINNING elections.

The current LP just ain’t what it used to be! Just look at its current neocon exit plan posted on its web!

The So-called “party of principle” has none.

by: George Whitfield

Fri, 26 Aug 2005 08:09:00 +0000

Cox, Bludorn, Featherman, and Hawver have jumped into a bigger Republican pond thinking they were too big for us. As Sean Haugh mentioned above, we have seen this type of defection before (Dick Randolph in Alaska and Murray Sabrin in New Jersey come to mind) and I think the results for these four current gentlemen will be the same as for those defectors of the past. The Republicans will obliviate them and then they will go over the dam.

by: George Phillies

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 21:03:09 +0000

One of the other standard blogs has a post on Cox. It is asserted by a fellow Oregonite that Cox supported the War On Iraq, opposed drug legalization, and in some sense pushed for funding of public schools, i.e., he was more of a right republican than a libertarian. Your milage may vary.

by: David A Spitzley

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:05:48 +0000

George Phillies’ comment somewhat resonates with my thoughts. Were/are the defectors known to be more interested in the rights of industry and commercial ventures than in civil liberties?

by: Don King

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 17:10:19 +0000

And now Ron Paul is back in Congress…..........as a Republican!

by: George Phillies

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 17:04:07 +0000

Don King:

First Ron Paul was an elected Republican Congressman. Then he was our candidate for President. Then he was again an elected Republican Congressman from the same district, by beating in the Republican primary the Republican incumbent who was actually a Democratic defector to the Republicans, and then beating the Democrat in the general election.

So you were not dreaming, and were right in what you remembered,but you may have made the good choice of sleeping through a few of the odder steps.

And now Ron Paul is back in Congress.

George

by: Don King

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 16:39:36 +0000

I thought at one time Ron Paul wasa Libertarian and its candidate for President? I must have been dreaming!

by: George Phillies

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:41:44 +0000

Ron Paul was an elected Republican. After he switched over for a bit, he went back to being the same elected Republican.

by: Don King

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:35:03 +0000

Yeah…...Ron Paul…........right?

by: Sean Haugh

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 15:29:37 +0000

When will Libertarian candidates learn that switching parties does not help you in the slightest? There are many examples of strong Libertarian candidates who switched parties and ran again hoping for a better result, yet got the exact same vote totals in their new party’s primary as they did previously as a Libertarian. And yet I know of none who got elected after making such a switch. But like a lot of Libertarians, apparently Tom Cox thinks he is so smart that he can blithely ignore reality and all past experience and somehow it will all be different for him.

It should be noted that Richard Burke and the Oregon LP were extremely gracious in their response. They get kudos from me for that.

by: Don King

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 14:57:28 +0000

Ahhh the discontent is wider than just confined within the Garden State. Why not?

We have seen the national LP go to hell and its recent proposed “exit policy” is nothing but a parroting of the duopoly neocon view. It is enough to make anyone sick!

The national LP and state LPs need to look at the fact that they have been around for three decades and gained what? Nada.

However, abandoning the true doctrines of Libertarianism for a watered down contemporary bastardized verzion make me think that the LP is no longer the party of principle…. but of sell-out. Are none of our founders from those early days not still around? Those that are dead must be doing 360 degress turns in their coffins!

by: George Phillies

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 14:03:22 +0000

There was a period a half-decade ago when the national party did letter recruitment. Publication of the list of mailing targets by now-deceased political director Ron Krickenberger revealed that the targets were almost all drawn from the far right. As the Republican Party has prepared to march off the right edge of the world, these people have found a home that has become receptive to them.

There may also have been arrangements. The Small Government Bog http://smallgov.org has maintained that there has been far-right-republican infoltration of the national party operation.

As I recall, there were hints of this issue in Oregon during the last election.

by: R.D.

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 12:21:24 +0000

Why not have the local Libertarian parties come out and say we like this candidate who’s a noted libertarian (note the small L) and will agree to not running a candidate against him.

Maybe the local Republicans realize with such person running they’ll lose, so they throw out the carrot of him going for the Republican nomination, but he’ll lose to a candidate they prefer, and he then couldn’t run in the general.

Then again, maybe the Libertarian Party are attempting covert fusion.

by: Tim West

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:01:44 +0000

I dont know – I surely would not go R – they are going to have a very bad next 2 cycles becuase of Iraq.

by: NewFederalist

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 10:55:12 +0000

But one has to wonder why jump to the Republicans? It was the Democrats who showed the willingness to adopt “radical” ideas when they co-opted the Socialist platform in the 30’s. I am not certain the Republicans have any incentive to change at the present time.