It's worth reading the whole article on this one, and not just the carefully selected excerpts Bruce Cohen posted to some California LP lists. Most notably, it mentions the "final straw" that led Root, a "Republican stalwart" until just last year, to leave the GOP.
It wasn't the "PATRIOT" Act which greatly upset many freedom-loving Americans. Nor was it the dictatorship-encouraging Military Commissions Act. Nor the fact that spending under the Bush administration and a Republican-led Congress increased faster than it did under Bill Clinton and a Democrat-led Congress. Nor Bush's attorney general and leading Republicans defending the use of torture. Nor any of the other excesses of the "War on Terror" or the continuing rights violations of the "War on Drugs." It was neither the mess made of the war in Iraq, nor the failure to do anything about the looming Social Security or Medicare debacles, nor the Republican enactment of a massive new prescription drug entitlement.
No, the final straw for Root, who made his money giving advice on football betting, was "when Republican leaders in Congress successfully pushed for the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which aims to crack down on online gambling." In other words, he left the Republican Party only when its leaders started threatening his own bread and butter, despite his claims to have been a libertarian all his life.
We welcome him to the LP -- better late than never. But is this the kind of champion of liberty we need to lead the party in 2008? I don't think so.
Love & Liberty,
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