Monday, December 11

Is BLUE Gal a Libertarian in disguise?

underpants on his head
Memo to this guy:
You can hate America.
You can wear your underpants on your head.
You cannot do both.


I got a great email this weekend:

Dear Blue Gal:

I read you almost daily... and I have a question.

Would you consider yourself a libertarian?

I consider myself, more and more, one. Even though I've "hung out" in the Democratic party since I obtained my voter ID card - oh geez, 18 years ago.

I heard an article on NPR about why people who consider themselves libertarian are moving more and more to the political Left, as far as who they are electing, because of the current government's nosing into personal business where they don't belong.

Just wanted to know where you stand and why, and I didn't see any particular post that I could comment on to ask.


My response:

Thanks much. Mister Blue Gal is a member of the Libertarian Party, and I voted for the Libertarian candidate for Governor of Alabama, Loretta Nall. So did lots of progressives in this state. Our Democratic candidate, Lucy Baxley, was a total GOP-lite embarrassment.

But even at the state level, Loretta Nall could not get on the ballot. The big parties have so much locked up...

I think voting the issues, particularly in state and local races, is the key.

I consider myself a Democrat and probably will for the rest of my life. It's definitely in my blood.

Thanks for reading and for the question.

Best,

BG


I think we progressives need to be really concerned about ballot access for third parties. Who knows, there may come a time in the future when we even go so far as to dislike the Democratic candidate for President. (Ya think?) You can read more about Loretta Nall's struggle over this issue at her blog, particularly her November archives. Some jerks at County Elections even went so far as to suggest that write-in candidates should PAY to have their ballots counted. Don't get me started. As Loretta pointed out last month:

We should demand that our election process at least be as fair and equitable as the one in Iraq, where there were 75 political parties and 111 candidates on the ballot in the last election.
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6 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:22 PM

    Ah, the Libertarians. Personally, I can't support them, and I'm not a Democrat -- I'm just an indie. I like the Libs' hands-off policy regarding individual rights, but the same philosophy is out of line with my belief that certain elements of society need to be fixed. What does the party have to say about single-payer health care, the minimum wage, or affirmative action?

    When a very conservative guy (an heir to the Estee Lauder fortune) was running as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in NY, a friend (the sprout himself) insisted the guy was a Libertarian in Republican clothing, and said that if he won the election, there would be signs at the border of the state saying something like, "Welcome to New York.
    Speed Limit: Whatever.
    If you run someone over, it's their problem, not ours."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2:29 PM

    Ah, the Libertarians. Personally, I can't support them, and I'm not a Democrat -- I'm just an indie. I like the Libs' hands-off policy regarding individual rights, but the same philosophy is out of line with my belief that certain elements of society need to be fixed. What does the party have to say about single-payer health care, the minimum wage, or affirmative action?

    When a very conservative guy (an heir to the Estee Lauder fortune) was running as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in NY, a friend (the sprout himself) insisted the guy was a Libertarian in Republican clothing, and said that if he won the election, there would be signs at the border of the state saying something like, "Welcome to New York.
    Speed Limit: Whatever.
    If you run someone over, it's their problem, not ours."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:07 PM

    The founding fathers threw the baby out with the bathwater on that one.

    Can you believe they actually thought all Americans could get along without breaking into factions and ascribing to different parties?

    *represses gut laugh*

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:36 AM

    Maybe you're part Democrat, part Libertarian, part Feminist, maybe part...why do we have to jam ourselves into a square little box? (Answer: to avoid a write-in fee...)

    How can you have a democracy and limit the options to two establishment parties? I think there would be a lot more libertarians, peace and freedom, greens, socialists, Christian Democrats, etc. as well as wingnut factions expressing a range of views IF the system didn't block them and limit access to media. But OMG, then you have SCARY talk about this and that, frightening IDEAS to throw our sanguine society into CHAOS and ANARCHY (oh yeah, anarchist party as well...). WHAT A JOKE! As Gore Vidal has said, it’s the institutional Republicrat Party, with its extreme right wing and its conservative wing, that rule the roost.
    LET THE 100 FLOWERS BLOOM!!!

    Or just keep your bloomers on, because sure as hell, the Big Boys ain't lettin' go of them thar “reigns”...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous4:11 PM

    Here's a radical idea:

    Cast off political labels. Vote your values, vote your conscience.

    I'm a dad, a husband, a Quaker, a teacher, and a progressive in that order. Oh, and an American. That's all

    ReplyDelete
  6. Agi8:54 PM

    Have you encountered the liberal-tarian debate? There's been a lot of talk about this lately.

    I myself don't like labels. But if I had to classify myself I'd be an agnostic defeatist anarcho-libertarian.

    ReplyDelete

I really look forward to hearing what you have to say. I do moderate comments, but non-spam comments will take less than 24 hours to appear... Thanks!

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