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So, we are returning to our libertarian roots. Our eldest son, John, reminded us that there is a libertarian in the race already. He is running as a Republican, but then nobody is perfect. His name is Ron Paul, he is a congressman from Texas and although he won that office as a libertarian, he caucuses and registers as a Republican. In 1988, he actually ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket, garnering almost a half million votes. This year, there is already a lot of excitement among members of the LP over his candidacy and he is the odds on favorite to get the nomination of that party as well. Several previous presidential candidates for the LP have endorsed that possibility.

So what? Who, besides true believers, even know of the existence of the LP? Most people have never heard of them and those that do think of them as fringe kooks. One friend, a died-in-the-wool liberal, when we mentioned that we were going to back Paul and outlined our strategy involving the LP, said plaintively, "They are just a bunch of Republicans who want to smoke dope!"

Here's "So what?" One of the things that the LP has consistently been able to accomplish is the non-trivial placement of their candidates on every ballot in the country, come November. The states have enacted various degrees of difficulty for doing this, but the LP membership always does the dirty work of collecting signatures on the street and gets their candidates recognized. Also, who ever heard of the Independence Party...in our out of Minnesota...before Jesse Ventura won the governorship under the banner of that party? Jesse got merely 37% of the vote, but enough to skunk the other two candidates. 37% is a LOT easier than 51% and given the rules of our electoral system, any state in which a candidate wins a PLURALITY of the votes, gives all its electoral votes to that candidate. Our original backing of Oprah was based on just that fact. We felt that she was the most likely candidate at the national level to pull off a "Ventura." Now there is another, even more viable candidate who could make it happen.

Even if he does get past the Gatekeepers of the Republican Establishment and gets the nomination of that party, I can't hurt him to have been endorsed by the LP as well. All votes for him will count the same way...one person, one vote...in the general election. Those of you who think only the Democrats...in the likely guise of Hillary or Barack or both...are the only ones who can return sanity to our republic, think again. With the sole exception of Kucinich among Democrats and Paul among Republicans, all candidates backed the hopeless quagmire in Iraq and Hillary still won't back down. Oh wait, Obama CLAIMS that he was once against it as well, but was he even out of high school at the time? How about a Paul/Kucinich ticket, running under a straight antiwar/anti-imperialist banner? Light your fires? It sure does ours.

Besides, Paul is staunchly against Big Government and for strict constitutionality, as all Republicans once were, but only libertarians are today. He wants the government to stay out of our bedrooms and our boardrooms. He is a physician and strictly anti-abortion, but respects the will of the people as well as the constitution and values individuality and choice in all matters. He is an old fashioned states-rights person, who respects the tenth amendment...look it up, sports fans...and opposes state sanctioned murder at all levels. He believes that ultimately, the states and the people have to decide these things. In short, he is very liberal socially, very conservative fiscally. Not a bad combination, in our book. And, he wants to get rid of that despicable War on Americans, the War on Drugs. Note: Bill Clinton, the immediate predecessor in the Clinton dynasty, locked more people up for non-violent drug offenses than ALL PREVIOUS PRESIDENTS COMBINED! Hillary lovers, take notice.

Talk to you later...

To contact Willy or Gypsy and comment on what they have written...or anything else...write to willy@dreamagic.com or gypsy@dreamagic.com.

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