Libertarians In Exile

I was once a proud member of the Libertarian Party. I, and not a few other former members, have left the party in response to the rise within the party of those whom Anthony Gregory has labeled "neolibertarians." These people are the ultimate contradiction: pro-war libertarians.

The initial response, by Jay Eckl and myself, to the original "Big Three" neolibertarian US House candidates in the 2004 California Congressional elections, was to form the Libertarian Party of California (LPC) Peace Caucus. The idea was to generate enough of an interest in defeating the "Big Three" (D. A. "Art"Tuma, Brian Holtz, and Bruce Cohen) in the 2006 LPC Congressional primary elections, that we could end the threat once and for all. Our effort generated little interest in the LPC and ultimately failed. These guys were not going away anytime soon. The gutting of the National Libertarian Party Platform at the 2006 National Convention and the nomination of conservative Bob Barr for president at the 2008 National Convention were the final straws.

Now the Libertarian Party has all the disadvantages of a minor party but none of the advantages of one. It has no power, no influence, and no principles. The descent of the LP into xenophobic warmongering has broken my heart. No longer can I vote for candidates without holding my nose.

While there is an effort to reclaim the Party of Principle by a group called the LP Radical Caucus, I believe the LP is finished by the bad Karma of the its last four years.

How does one call himself a "libertarian" yet advocate the murder of innocents abroad? A movement composed of those types of persons can never succeed at producing anything remotely resembling liberty because the very foundation of liberty, the belief in the Golden Rule, is absent from the actors. That inherent contradiction will doom any such movement, as people can see the inherent hypocrisy in saying "I believe in inalienable individual rights...except for innocent Iraqis, who must die to depose Hussein." Such a movement will never gain broad based support among people of good will, yet Bruce Cohen, in particular, deludes himself into believing that peace is a losing issue and that only advocacy of aggressive warfare can win votes for "liberty."

Unless and until the LP is restored to its former degree of principle, I will shake the dust off my boots and won't look back.

Is it hopeless? Is America through? Not on your life! There's a new game in town: a loose coalition of paleoconservatives and libertarian fusionists surrounding the political fortunes of Congressman Ron Paul and his Campaign for Liberty. This movement is neither philosophically nor morally consistent, yet it is at this time more consistently libertarian than the LP, and stands poised to take advantage of the growing economic and political malaise to an extent that could introduce millions of Americans to the ideas of liberty. I will deal with this movement in future posts, and while I welcome the spirit of liberty within it, I will not pull my punches when analyzing its inherent contradictions and the hypocrisy of most of its activists.