I’ve often seen the claim made by anti-libertarians that libertarians view people as basically good. These anti-libertarian claim that libertarians are being utopian in assuming this.

Personally, I do not see people as “naturally good” or “naturally bad.” The whole question is moot, because either way, Liberty is what works. If people really are naturally bad, then we would desperately need Liberty all the more to protect us from the corrupting, destructive tendencies of man. Politicians, at the end of the day, are only men, and are no more or less virtuous than average people.

A commentor writes, “The field of credible candidates keeps shrinking. Smith has just joined Root as unacceptable (in my book) so we are down to Ruwart, Kubby, Barr and Phillies. The rest are all either too weird, too nasty, or too un-Libertarian.”

I haven’t listened to Smith’s new interview, and if I do, I might change my mind about her. But currently as it sits, I would far far far prefer her over Barr, who it seems to me is not actually a libertarian, despite his party affiliation. Hell, I’d prefer Root and Gravel over Barr.

Re: Statements made by Mr. Knapp on Ron Paul and the LNC:

Despite being a radical and a Ruwart supporter, I had no problem with the LNC asking for Dr. Paul to consider joining the LP to run for President.

A) If Dr. Paul had accepted, we’d have the most popular libertarian in America right now fronting our party.

B) If Dr. Paul had turned us down (which he did), at least we reached out to Ron Paul supporters from the two major parties who may not have heard much about the LP before but who now know that at least there is a party out there that agrees with Ron Paul on 95% of his issues. This can only help the LP.

In short, this was a win/win step.

I also have no problem with using Libertarian tools to help get calls out on behalf of Ron Paul since I’m in no way dedicated to party affiliation, and in every way dedicated to furthering my ideology.

Respectfully,
Alex Peak

You’re welcome.

Can’t someone ban, or at least moderate, the moronic trolls like “beer cans” and “pervy”.

hey fuck you!

...exposing was done by Phillies, not Root. Root just ran with it and made an ass of himself in the process…. Phillies…backed away… expect Ruwart to NOT defend herself? ..read my take on this back on the hubballo thread. It explains all rather cleanly.
Michael Seebeck Says:

Instead of going in circles in an LP Blame Game that has no end, I think that Steve Gordon should come up with some kind of ‘gentle’ moderation of the comments section of this blog site, lest the gob’ment impose reg’lashuns ‘pon our a$$.

“My personal opinion is that both Ruwart and Barr’s later entry to the race is that they both support Paul … and waited to see what happens with him in the GOP primaries/caucuses and were ‘drafted’ by ‘Ron Paul Libertarians’ to run as they were not happy with the choice of candidates.”

That’s not personal opinion, it’s fact.

Both Ruwart and Barr’s PAC were Ron Paul campaign contributors.

Both Ruwart and Barr specifically waited until the results of Paul’s GOP campaign (and his congressional primary) were known before getting into the LP race themselves.

And both Ruwart and Barr have been the subject of “draft” efforts, although not necessarily just from Paul supporters.

Ruwart has been subjected to “draft” calls for at least as long as I’ve been in the party, which is since 1996; I was involved in one of those draft calls in 2006, which, if I remember correctly, was started by Peter Orvetti. People started urging Barr to run for President as soon as he publicly joined the the LP and took a seat on the LNC. So, there’s overlap between Paul supporters and Ruwart/Barr supporters, but that overlap is nowhere near total.

I suspect that some of the “draft Mary” fuel came from people who initially had high hopes for Smith.

I agree that Root’s damage is to the LP itself. Also Smith seems to have overhastily jumped over to the LP and not thought through all the issues in detail, unlike Mary. Christine obviously saw Mary as an immediate “danger” being a fellow female competitor and try to score over Mary by attacking her, not realising she (Christine) is shooting herself in the foot. She is enthusiastic, but also too “aggressive”, and not thoughtful and lack the maturity of Mary.

If he turns it down, hold another convention, but let him know he is needed.