Crossroads? Johnson/Weld vs. Invisibility?

Meanwhile on the intellectual side, Ken Burns spoke at the Stanford commencement and extolled the virtues of convicted war-criminal, George Bush, as an example of better persons than Donald Trump.

Meanwhile on the popular side, Robert Reich's Moveon.com 4th of July video extols the virtues of "patriotism" as everybody paying their fair share in taxes. That seems to be Reich's definition of freedom, which he conflates with "democracy."

So we all can stretch, invent, interpret and imagine what freedom is, and therefore how we measure its growth or disappearance.

For example, equality for women brought about by laws that force employers to promote X percent of women is not my idea of freedom. Ditto for the sharing economy that has to fight both government and voters tooth and nail for survival is hardly proof of freedom. And so on down the list.

Of course political parties are part of movements! Just like a nurse's aid is part of the medical profession, but I would rather he not perform my surgery. Each institution within a movement needs to stick to its function. A political party's function is to get candidates before voters that will not only reflect the general thrust of the party's platform but also get elected -- or at least try -- so the party remains relevant in the political arena.

Therefore, a good number of big L Libertarians are getting behind Jonson so as to focus on the real function of a party. And leaving the rhetoric to grassroots organizations like Meetups.

The LPSF can choose whether to join the Johnson campaign and be part of a political party or to stay out and only be part of a movement. Its members will make their own choice.

Marcy

Meanwhile on the intellectual side, Ken Burns spoke at the Stanford commencement and extolled the virtues of convicted war-criminal, George Bush, as an example of better persons than Donald Trump.

A political party has more representatives than just its presidential and vice-presidential nominees. There are 435 US House seats up this year, and 34 US Senate seats, and about 6,000 state legislative seats up. If we had fair ballot access laws there would be Libertarians running for thousands of these posts. And their stand on the issues represents the party just as much as our presidential and v-p nominees.
So LP members who are unhappy with Johnson-Weld should do what they can to promote the party's message as they see it, while running for those important policy-making partisan positions. Unfortunately, as we all know, California's election law blocks Libertarians from running for those offices in the election itself, in almost all cases. That is why my #1 politics goal remains changing the California top-two law to something that expands voter choice in the election itself.
Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147

Yes. Well said. Run for office, support other candidates, work for ballot access. Lots to do besides working against the Libertarian presidential candidates.

Marcy

A political party has more representatives than just its presidential and vice-presidential nominees. There are 435 US House seats up this year, and 34 US Senate seats, and about 6,000 state legislative seats up. If we had fair ballot access laws there would be Libertarians running for thousands of these posts. And their stand on the issues represents the party just as much as our presidential and v-p nominees.

So LP members who are unhappy with Johnson-Weld should do what they can to promote the party's message as they see it, while running for those important policy-making partisan positions. Unfortunately, as we all know, California's election law blocks Libertarians from running for those offices in the election itself, in almost all cases. That is why my #1 politics goal remains changing the California top-two law to something that expands voter choice in the election itself.

Richard Winger 415-922-9779 PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147

I just sent Johnson / Weld some money and my best wishes….smile.

Thanks for the conversation.

Mike

You the best. :heart:

Marcy

Was George W. Bush convicted somewhere of being a war criminal? I don't recall hearing about that. Encouraging. I don't recall that FDR, Truman, or LBJ were similarly convicted (to name several presidents from around half a century ago who were no doubt indictable).

  Back then, they certainly did try to go after Daniel Ellsberg for the Pentagon Papers; the White House tried to lean on the Washington Post to quash Woodward & Bernstein; it took people breaking into an FBI office and liberating files to reveal COINTELPRO.

  If there is more effort to cover up war crimes today, I think that's partly because there is more public sensitivity to what constitutes a war crime. For instance, I don't think dropping atomic bombs on cities or spraying the defoliant Agent Orange on vast swaths of jungle would go over as well with world opinion in 2016. I consider that progress.

Love & Liberty,
                                ((( starchild )))

Marcy,

  I support Johnson/Weld and have been promoting them. This is entirely compatible with seeing the Libertarian Party first and foremost as part of a movement, not merely a party, and recognizing that Johnson/Weld are neither as libertarian nor apparently as focused on promoting the party and movement as would be desirable. I recently got an email from former LP vice-chair Chuck Moulton complaining that they are not using the word "libertarian" on their ads and signs, and I think his complaint is a good one. Nevertheless, they are the best presidential ticket this year that I'm aware of, and as long as they do not get too un-libertarian their success should help the party and the movement. Therefore I support them.

  "Forc(ing) employers to promote X percent of women" isn't my idea of freedom either – it's also not equality for women. It's special privileges for women as a class. The "sharing economy" is certainly encountering resistance, but it's also made tremendous headway. I wouldn't quite say it's "fighting for survival"; rather, I think the statists fighting it are on the defensive. Both Uber and AirBnB are multi-billion dollar companies.

  If someone working as a nurse's aide happens to be more competent to perform surgery than a doctor, or happens to be present when a doctor is not and has an opportunity to intervene for the better, I absolutely support that person performing surgery, and do not want the law, or workplace rules or norms, preventing this just because s/he lacks some paper credential or someone says s/he should stick to the "real function" of being a nurse's aide. Groups in the libertarian movement should seek to advance freedom by whatever ethical means are available to them which look to be the most effective way of accomplishing that goal, and not get hung up on formal roles or conventional wisdom. IMHO, of course.

Love & Liberty,
                                ((( starchild )))

This is certainly true. And there are also lots of other things we can do to spread the libertarian message and advance the cause of freedom besides supporting candidates. Having our booth at Pride for instance, or being engaged in other movements such as Plan Bay Area, or the YIMBY conference I attended in Colorado where I spoke about property rights. To name just a few.

Love & Liberty,
                               ((( starchild )))

Thank you for the clarification, Starchild. I appreciate it. I also agree (and always have agreed) that people in the libertarian movement should seek "to advance freedom by whatever ethical means are available to them which look to be the most effective way of accomplishing that goal, and not get hung up on formal roles or conventional wisdom. " Nothing I ever said disagrees with that. Not even in my nurse's aid example, since my guess is most of us would rather not find ourselves depending on the initiative of a nurse's aid to remove our appendix.

I also agree that all of us Libertarians (Big L) should encourage candidates running in Libertarian tickets not to stray too far from the LP platform -- without micromanaging their campaigns, though. I would rather email their campaigns with suggestions if I felt they did stray than work against their campaign in public.

Regarding the cause of freedom having advanced, sorry, no way! I deal with ever increasing mountains of tyrannical regulations every day in my day job!

Marcy

The fact that G W Bush may have been convicted of war crimes in some court doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Courts in Nazi Germany routinely convicted people of all sorts of crimes against the state as did courts in Soviet Russia. Perhaps the court in Malaysia convicted G W Bush of war crimes because the supposed victims were Muslims.

Have courts in Malaysia convicted any Muslims convicted any Muslims for crimes against humanity for their actions?

Les