I am not really pleased with either of the two major political parties. The Democrats are too often spineless. The GOP can be just plain evil. But, third party candidates tend to make the annointed of the major parties look good in comparison. It is the old trick of standing a really homely person next to the one of average visage, I guess. The plain Jane suddenly becomes Halle Berry. I'm thinking about third party candidates because I've been doing some defensive reading in regard to Libertarians. I mean Big L libertarians, the ones who are actually members of a party. A neo-Confederate sympathizer who considers himself a libertarian brought my attention to Michael Badnarik. I am not the only observer amazed and baffled by the party's choice. Kevin Drum, one of my old blog buddies before he went big time, discussed Badnarik (pictured) at the Washington Monthly. The Calpundit is amused.
LIBERTARIAN LOONIES....Via Hit & Run, R. W. Bradford writes in Liberty Magazine about Michael Badnarik, the dark horse winner of the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination:
Badnarik believes that the federal income tax has no legal authority and that people are justified in refusing to file a tax return until such time as the IRS provides them with an explanation of its authority to collect the tax. He hadn't filed income tax returns for several years. He moved from California to Texas because of Texas' more liberal gun laws, but he refused to obtain a Texas driver's license because the state requires drivers to provide their fingerprints and Social Security numbers. He has been ticketed several times for driving without a license; sometimes he has gotten off for various technical legal reasons, but on three occasions he has been convicted and paid a fine. He also refused to use postal ZIP codes, seeing them as "federal territories."
Badnarik also has a plan to educate Congress.
. . .I would announce a special one-week session of Congress where all 535 members would be required to sit through a special version of my Constitution class. Once I was convinced that every member of Congress understood my interpretation of their very limited powers, I would insist that they restate their oath of office while being videotaped.
It is not clear how the videotaping of the oath taking would enhance government. Perhaps Badnarik just likes cameras.
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Article comments
1 - Mike Kole
Mac Diva- I'll tell you something that will further blow your mind: Badnarik was hardly the most radical of the main candidates on the stage at the National Convention! (That would have been Aaron Russo.)
In many ways, Libertarians are little different from Republicans or Democrats when you look at the process of selecting their Presidential candidate, but only to a point.
The selection is done by convention, where the delegates are the party faithful. This tends to yield the most out-there candidate possible, because there is so much preaching to the choir, and not much in terms of looking at electability. Observe the similarities in the Democratic primaries, where Dean, Kucinich, Sharpton, Kerry, et al were leaping over each other to show how much more they hated Bush than the other, and how much more left they were.
The difference is that the Democratic circus was televised. This allows the more sober members of the party to see how it looks, and adjust along electability lines, causing the presumptive winner to go charging hard for the center. The LP is too insular, and too disinterested in electability in too many members. They like their kooky professional iconoclasm.
I have to say that many of the things that Badnarik says do strike me, a high-ranking LP officer, as wacked-out. I'm not at all surprised that some people will look at Badnarik's statements and conclude that all Libertarians are loons.
Similarly, though, I could look at Kerry and conclude that all Democrats flip-flop on their positions. I could also look at Bush and conclude that all Republicans will cut taxes without cutting spending.
There is a great learning curve to being in a third party. Being a raving loon didn't matter so much 100 years ago, prior to mega-media of all stripes. In fact, it worked well for the Socialists. Look at the legacy of changes that came about because of them: minimum wage laws, shorter work days and work weeks, child labor laws, etc.
Libertarians have not yet learned that perception matters a great deal, and that it is easier to build a bridge where there is agreement (with Republicans on much fiscal policy; with Democrats on much foreign policy and individual liberties). Two state parties are getting it: Indiana and Oregon. Look to them for the results in 106 days.
2 - Phillip Winn
Mike (#1), picking just one random point of your comment, if you decide that all Republicans want to cut taxes without cutting spending, you would probably be right. Bush isn't the first, after all.
3 - Jacob
Standing up for his rights....very loony indeed...we should just sit back and let socialism drive this country into the ground and turn us all into slaves...just like it has done to every other country it has infested.