Further Down the Spiral
Well it appears that the LP has invited Bob Barr to hold a position on the national committee.
The apparent smoky-back-room tactics behind the move would be bad enough, but the fact remains that Barr is a bigot (author of the indefensible “Defense of Marriage Act”), a Drug Warrior (in 2002, the LP itself labeled him “The Worst Drug Warrior in Congress” and successfully targeted him for defeat *), and even voted for the Patriot Act!
To be sure, he’s softened some of his positions and joined the LP in the time since, and all of this should be applauded. But giving him a leadership role? Not defensible. Has he embraced the LP platform? Oh, right, I forgot, they no longer have one. How conveeeenient.
Although I’m carping and grumbling because I hate to see “libertarianism” further devalued, I’m really neither upset nor surprised. Having already given up any hope of the LP maintaining any semblance of principle, and understanding that we are consigned to a two party system without major election reform, the only remaining scenario is one in which the LP replaces a dying major party with a somewhat less evil version of itself. The LP could become the mechanism by which paleoconservatives like Barr shed the baggage of their neocon/theocon brethren, by simply letting them keep the tattered remains of the party they destroyed.
If this happens at the same time that actual libertarians are gaining foothold with the Democrats?
Bad for the ‘libertarian’ label, but good for libertarianism.
* The official press release having *cough* disappeared *cough* from lp.org
You can find a copy of the official press release at the Way Back machine
http://web.archive.org/web/20020923121301/http://www.lp.org/lpnews/0210/barr.html
Later,
Unfortunately, the LP (or another xP that comes along) is not going anywhere. Big money of the Ds and Rs won’t allow it. But the core ideas of libertarianism are alive and well. As long as that is true, it has more legs than it ever would inside the boundaries of a party. I’ve always had a vague idea that a formal party is somehow antithetical to libertarianism anyway.
The thing is it was never *supposed* to go anywhere electorally, Without major election systems reform (IRV, proportional representation, etc), a third party in this country can only serve as a vehicle for protests & education.
The problem of course is that wannabe ‘playas’ get involved and get grandiose ideas about political victory, and start chipping away at the ideological foundation, compromising one thing after another in the pursuit of votes — votes that they *still* don’t get.
So then we’re left with this thing that’s no good for protests & education OR realpolitik.
But still possible is the ‘replacement party’ scenario I described. If that scenario happened, it would be *because of* Big R money coming over — a coalition of paleocons & corporatists, the ‘old right’ and big money (the real meat of the GOP) basically taking over the party, at which point there would be very little about the party that remained ‘libertarian’, it would just be a means by which the GOP purges the neo/theocons & rebrands itself. But with those elements purged it would be a ‘less evil’ GOP than the one we have now, so still progress.
Sigh … I’m getting less enthused about this as things go along. First reaction was, “Bob Barr on the LNC … hmmm, maybe he’ll teach them something about how a board of directors should operate!” Then I thought, “Gee, the LP has certainly lost a lot since the days so long ago, when there was an LNC faced with bankruptcy that figured a way out of the woods …” (Oh wait, that long ago happened … in 2003?) Now I am starting not to really care much anymore … have move important things to do, like try to push the healthcare reform rock up that frickin’ hill …
[...] Even though I’ve formally disassociated myself with the LP (seeing as they are apparently cool with bigots and drug warriors now), I still support ‘em when they’re on the right side of something. This is such a case: URGENT UPDATE: This bill is now scheduled for hearings in the State Senate on March 20th and in the State House on March 21st. Now is the time for them to hear from you. See more details below. [...]