Gypsy & Willy - The Original Libertarian Bloggers
How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?
Gypsy & Willy
No. 289
Vote for Nader
November 6, 2000
- We actually admire many of his stances. He is against corporate welfare. He opposes our current methods of campaign financing, accepting no PAC money whatsoever in his race for the presidency. He wants to end American imperialism abroad...bring ALL the troops home and stop acting like the world's police force. He opposes the War on Drugs. He opposes the death penalty, that turns us ALL into murderers. He wants to bring an end to the one-party system we now have, where both of the nominal parties are completely sold out to corporate and other special interests, sometimes the very SAME special interests. He is a crusader against environmental destruction and other corporate...AND government...misdeeds. He is a strong believer and promoter of democracy. And, there is no doubt in our minds that on social issues, he is staunchly libertarian.
- He is the ONLY candidate who we can identify as completely honest and forthright. We do NOT agree with many of his stances, but have absolutely no doubt that ever word out of his mouth is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, at least as he sees it. Like Ventura, he has that one overridingly important virtue.
- The Green Party is the only third party that has a chance of a snowball in hell of LEADING the reform movement in this country. Now that the Reform Party has been taken over by the religious crazies, it is not difficult to imagine the Greens joining with other third parties...the Minnesota Independence Party of Jesse Ventura would be a good place to start...to create a REAL reform movement. Hell, even Patrick Buchanan agrees with much of what Nader stands for. Nader says that his main goal is to establish the Green Party as a "major" party, by crossing the 5% threshold. He has a very good chance of doing so, and we're going to put in our two cents to help him here in Minnesota.
- Finally, the desperation campaign of the Demidupes...at its very worst here in Minnesota where every left wing politician is pleading and whining for people NOT to vote for Nader, since Bush might then win the state and its ten electoral votes....REALLY PISSES US OFF! How dare those socialist wanabes put down the only candidate that has appeared in recent history who stands for genuine populist democracy. How dare they diss the only man on the electoral stage who has, for many decades, stuck to his guns without wavering in the slightest. Again and again, in the face of enormous hostility from established interests, Ralph has stood up for "right"...in the good old fashioned sense of "right and wrong."
We remain convinced that Nader is too entranced with the idea that government can solve the problems which he has identified. Still, those problems are real, and as David Brin has pointed out in the latest issue of Liberty, it has been the left, not the right, which has led this country to the unprecedented situation of prosperity, educational excellence and strength that we enjoy today. The right has consistently functioned more like a House of Lords, constantly favoring the interests of the aristocracy over those of the common man. They have opposed every major reform, from civil rights for women and minorities, to universal education. As libertarians, we may disagree that the use of state power to achieve these ends, but the ends themselves are definitely to the benefit of the greatest good for the greatest number. Who among you would return to the days before compulsory education, when less than 15% of the population could read, when fewer than 2% were able to attend college? Because of the left...and people like Ralph...our water IS cleaner, our babies healthier, our products are safer.
Could this all have been done more quickly and efficiently by free enterprise? We believe so, and so do most other libertarians. There is no doubt in our minds that competition is the mother load of the good life. But, again as Mr. Brin points out, autocracy...the situation preceding our current government system...is surely no better than bureaucracy!
Best of all would be liberation. Freedom from the Nanny State, freedom from corporate marauders, freedom from government backed religious bigotry. But, that is a task that remains to be done, not a situation of some magical past society to which we can return. Our forerunners set the stage when they founded this country based upon some pretty powerful notions of freedom and democracy. But, we must remember that then...and now...a large section of the population has always favored the status quo over ANY change whatsoever, lese majeste over the rights of the people. In our mind, far too many people who call themselves libertarians...including, we regret to say, the Libertarian Party itself...have numbered among that know-nothing crowd.
Which brings us to Harry Browne, the LP candidate. We voted for Harry in 1996 as our "protest" vote, just as we cast a ballot for Perot in 1992 and Gus Hall...the communist candidate...back in the 60's. But the year 2000 is NOT 1996, or 1992 or 1968. Ralph Nader is a REAL candidate, with a REAL platform and a record of standing by his convictions for most of his...and our...lives. Harry, on the other hand, is just another "promise 'em anything and give 'em what they get!" flannel mouthed baloney spewer who is arguably in the race mainly to sell his books. Does anyone REALLY believe that Harry WOULD or COULD end the income tax as he so often "promises?" His campaign claims are so grandiose as to make Gore and Bush look like they're selling Girl Scout cookies!
So, we're going to vote for Nader. Then, starting next week, we're going to publish a series of essays on how some of Ralph's ideas could be implemented without government programs. Instead of merely screeching that government is too large, too intrusive, too corrupt, we are going to join what we expect to be a growing reform movement to replace government by and for the aristocracy with government by and for the people. Instead of wasting a single moment more criticizing the moribund LP, we're going to join with millions of other libertarian minded Americans to form a libertarian/free enterprise faction within the Green Party. We're going to urge ALL third parties to join in this effort, by abandoning their divisive and losing strategies and coalescing into a single entity. We bet that Jesse Ventura will get on board THAT train. How about you?
Then next time we have a major election, there will be REAL alternatives on the ballot instead of just Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber. GO NADER!
One final note. We proudly credit our son Roger with shaking us out of our electoral cynicism and apathy. He reminded us that the young of this nation...the future...still have the passion necessary to change the world.
Talk to you later...
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