It is not clear how the videotaping of the oath taking would enhance government. Perhaps Badnarik just likes cameras.
The writer at Liberty is generous.
One assumes, although one cannot prove, that none of this is an exercise in irony. At any rate, these opinions were removed from the website shortly after he won the nomination, and they didn't come up when he visited state party conventions. Nor did his refusal to file tax returns, thereby risking federal indictment and felony arrest. While many of his closest supporters were aware of these issues, they were unknown to most LP members.
I am not at all sure that members of the Libertarian Party don't know the man's views. Having happened across some of them in the blogosphere, I believe the problem is not lack of knowledge. It is that persons attracted to the LP are very much like Badnarik — holders of a mix of boilerplate conservative and unorthodox views. His stated plan to blow up the United Nations does not sound weird to them. To the LP boys (they're mainly men) fantasizing about running the world and things that go boom is fun. In fact, they may have ideas that make that one appear moderate.
Drum ends his entry by telling it like it is.
Man, that's some crazy stuff. He refuses to use ZIP codes?
Read the whole story when you have a few spare minutes and need a laugh. And a note to libertarians: this is why everyone thinks you're a bunch of loons. What else would you expect them to think?
I don't know why third party candidates in the United States tend to be embarrassments to themselves and others. However, like most people, I've effected by that reality. As disappointed as I am with the major parties, it is them I take seriously.
Reasonably related
If you are not already a reader of the Calpundit's blog at Washington Monthly, Political Animal, you should be.
Note: This entry also appeared at Silver Rights.
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.