This column begins with the tale of two readers. The first asked me to write a letter to our political officeholders that could be copied and sent to those at all levels of government. I told him that I would do that for today, but my second reader and friend asked me if I were feeling alright because my recent columns seemed to be rather despairing. So, I’ve decided to address the issue of my apparent disillusionment before I compose the universal letter of condemnation. I am fighting an oppressive sense of despair about the state of our nation.
As many of you may know, I was an activist with the Republican Party for more than 40 years. I was a central committee person, executive committee member, YR officer and organizer, TAR adviser, campaign manager, campaign consultant, contributor to candidates, state and national parties, Senate and House campaign committees, attendee at National Conventions, state conventions, attended a two-week training session for future party leaders, served as a candidate for office and as a State Representative. In other words, my GOP bona fides are ironclad. It is with sadness that I note that what we are currently witnessing in Washington and in the states around the country is symbolic of why I left the party in 2004. Our nation, I believe, is on the brink. Our liberty becomes increasingly imperiled. Our property rights are being trashed or ignored. Our fiscal integrity has been compromised beyond recovery in my lifetime…or perhaps forever. So, what is the GOP doing? Offering plans for a 25-year glide path…assuming Congress will follow anything for more than two years running. They have not attempted to defund the largest grab of our U.S. economy in history. They are measured and professional…and too damn political…as they march around in self importance doing nothing of real significance. Listen up, Republicans. Climb out of your foxholes and TAKE THE HILL. General George Patton would never have said “we’ll work out the best deal we can with Hitler before we give him more ammo.” But…that’s what they’re doing with Obama and the debt limit. TAKE THE HILL.
Some of my best friends are Democrats. I pray for them daily. To have your wagon hitched to such a deceitful, despicable star must be the perfect recipe for cognitive dissonance. Republicans claim to recognize the problems and nibble at them, but Democrats create the problems and deny that they exist. If they aren’t deceitful, they are certainly certifiably delusional.
A couple of years ago I joined the Libertarian Party because the principles of “minimum government and maximum freedom” appealed to me. During my lifetime I had witnessed the massive growth of government at ALL levels. Big government is not only extremely costly, but as it grows it crowds our individual liberty and restricts our God-given rights. I joined the Libertarians because I was certain that they had not been tainted or corrupted by holding power for long periods of time. Libertarians believe their principles. They do not have a statement of principles that merely provides window dressing for the quadrennial convention. The Libertarian Party was a refreshing landing place for my disgust with the old two parties. Many of the people I encountered during my year-long statewide campaign last year stated that they, too, shared those principles. “I may be a Republican, but I’m mostly Libertarian,” they would say to me. Even the most famous and revered Libertarian in the land clings to the GOP banner despite the fact that they demean and belittle him incessantly. My decision was based on the fact that I would rather die on the sword of principle than live in a world of co-option and compromise.
While I’m in the ranting mode, I will not allow my Libertarian friends to escape criticism. The fact that we hold no offices of note, by definition, makes us political rookies…sometimes naïve and stupid. To succeed we must get beyond the “good showing,” ten per cent mentality. To many of you Tea Party types who CLAIM to be upset with the status quo…when are you going to put your efforts, your time and your money where your mouths are? For the first rounds you have become a despised and loathed tool of the GOP. They’ll use you and abuse you. They already have. You have told me that “Libertarians can’t win,” and you are dead-solid correct as long as YOU support the party that hates you and distrusts you. People like me who want a constitutional government that honors our personal liberty will continue to lose as long as you and your friends and neighbors support the two old parties, but when you do that…..we ALL lose. America loses.
So, where do you stand? Are your reactions the same as the GOP? Engaging in handwringing and lip service while our country either fades away or collapses in a heap? Try this little quiz. The key is LIBERTY. www.theadvocates.org/quiz
Well said, Charlie. My family has been Republican with a big "R" since...well since they were Whigs. It felt like a betrayal when I changed my registration-and indeed were it not for the creative scholarship of John Woo I might not have done it. That was the last of many last straws.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I should send Professor Woo a gift basket with a thank-you card. Vacuum-sealed, of course. It is so much easier to see the "Freedom"tm message of Republicans as the manipulative excrement that it is when looking from the outside in.
These days I'm no longer certain which of the two establishment parties is the greater evil. But I can say that I echo a friend of mine who asked, when we were discussing minority parties, "Why is there a third Socialist Party?"
Darn good question. Seems like at least two too many.
There are so many good people around who deserve so much better. Thanks for your efforts. Love ya on the radio.