Just throwing this out there, but I am one of the more radical libertarians (a la Rothbard) and I STILL think Mike Gravel joining the LP will do more good than harm to the Party and himself.

Likewise and likewise.

In fact, I agree with every word in your entire post, not just the ones I quoted above.

Mr. Kiernan writes,

As one of the people who took part in making this happen, I would like to ask people to think realistically. No party ever gets candidates they agree with 100%.

Had Mr. Gravel gotten the nomination of the Democratic Party, I would have held my nose and voted for the Democratic Party. I like—and definitely respect—the guy that much. But when it comes to voting for a candidate running under the Libertarian banner, especially for high office, I need the candidate to be much more in line with my views. What’s the point in having a Libertarian Party if our presidential candidate wants government health vouchers, minimum wage, social security, and a national sales tax? I agree with you that he’s a national hero, and will say that I adore him, but I have my standards.

Mr. Gravel has the potential to become libertarian—many of his views already are—and I hope that with his being around libertarians, he will begin to adopt more libertarian viewpoints. Maybe by 2012, he would be sufficient to be our standard bearer. For the time being, I heartily welcome him into our party, but will not vote for him for president.

Respectfully yours,
Alex Peak

The campaign for liberty is going to require that Americans from ALL parties come together. Your party now has a man who many feel singlehandedly ended the Viet Nam War. Who philibustered the end of draft. He is a national hero. If you don’t agree with all of his policies then wouldn’t it fall to you to help him? To constructively debate with him? Maybe win him over? Don’t you think that would be a lot more constructive an answer to the problem then flaming him before he even gets a chance to speak?

We might even be able to revive the “hippie-leftist”/libertarian alliance that Rothbard forged during the Vietnam War to combat the Iraq War.

That said, I would not support him for the LP nomination unless he (genuinely, not opportunistically) renounced his position on government-mandated health care and instead targeted the true cause of our health care problems which, as Conrad pointed out, is the fact that business interests use government regulation to stifle the influence of free-market competition. Still, from what I’ve read of Gravel, he would be perfectly willing to take on these special interests if we could convince him that this is the best way to tackle the health-care problem.

Peace, and always remember, TANSTAAFL.

Here is the reply I received a few minutes ago:

Senator Gravel would be very interested in endorsing L candidates; how do you propose he help?

Skyler

I’m starting to like the guy a lot more, now!! Any suggestions on how to reply?

PEACE
Steve

gravel kucinich paul nader
cynthia mckinney too

dare speak truth
demand peace

There are goals, and then there are methods to achieve those goals.

Certainly the Libertarian Party is open to finding ways to enable everyone to get the health care that they need. But where big-government folks look for places where they accuse the “market of failing” and correct them with more big-government mandates and programs, Libertarians generally look for places where the government is making things worse and try to reform those things. This means taking on big medicine though: patent reforms, forcing insurance companies to honor their contracts, ending the artificial limits on the supply of doctors – all these things will require taking on a lot of entrenched special interests…

I thought that Bob Barr started working as a lobbyist for Marijuana Policy Project ( www.mpp.org ).

1. no real marijuana lobbyists

2. it’s not a mainstream issue, so most politicians just ignore the issue and they leave it prohibited because they don’t have any incentive to decriminalize it.

It’s sad. but that’s how corruption works in America.

I would LOVE to have Senator Gravel tape a radio endorsement for me (in my Congressional race) to run on my local AirAmerica station.

GREAT idea. Ask him! Please let us know what his reply is.

####

And why can’t we exploit Gravel?? I would LOVE to have Senator Gravel tape a radio endorsement for me (in my Congressional race) to run on my local AirAmerica station.

PEACE
Steve

LOL! Sad to say, you’re probably right.

As far as suggestions go, it seems to me that Gravel should reach out to mainstream, long-time Libertarians, especially Dr. Mary Ruwart. I think she is one of the most articulate and intelligent advocates (no pun intended) for libertarianism. I think she could help him see that the results he wants to achieve with his non-libertarian policy prescriptions are actually better served by libertarian approaches instead.

And, hey, there’s this very smart lady down in North Carolina who used to hold some leftist views…she would be a good person to have on board, too.