Dan Maes for Gov. NOT
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackadder
If Jaimes Brown makes it through the Libertarian Primary, here is what he thinks:
"They'll continue to incarcerate or even murder your family members for SAFER recreation while mandating your children receive potentially fatal vaccinations. Yet these are the same people taking unilateral control over health care. I am the enemy of evil, greater and lesser. I am not beholden to the corporatist machine of monopolized profits and socialized losses that your two party system created and is beholden to. If you want to turn the ship around and return to a constitutionally limited government that upholds the principles of liberty, civil rights, and justice, vote Jaimes Brown for Governor of Colorado on November 2, 2010."
Vague and sinister, particularly re: vaccinations. I'm repulsed by the LP now, after a long period of disaffection. (I was an intern at the Cato Institute, but don't tell my liberal friends!) Did you notice that they removed their unequivocal statement against the drug war from their party platform in 2006, leaving only one sentence:
2000:
The so-called "War on Drugs" is in reality a war on the American people, our Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. We deplore the suffering that drug misuse has brought about; however, drug prohibition is more dangerous than drugs themselves. The War on Drugs is a grave threat to individual liberty, to domestic order and to peace in the world; furthermore, it has provided a rationale by which the power of the state has been expanded to restrict greatly our right to privacy and to be secure in our homes.
We specifically condemn the use of "profiles" as sufficient to satisfy the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment, the use of "civil asset forfeiture" to reduce the standard of proof historically borne by government in prosecutions, and the use of military forces for civilian law enforcement as an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act which forbids this practice.
We call for the repeal of all laws establishing criminal or civil penalties for the use of drugs and of "anti-crime" measures restricting individual rights to be secure in our persons, homes, and property; limiting our rights to keep and bear arms; or vote.
In the 2010 platform..... barely a mention. (The bolded bit above survived.) I used to love their militance, their refusal to compromise. Now, if you open up the dictionary to compromised it has their picture. Check out their flip flop on immigration, induced this year by the Tea Party wing. I'm cherry picking the quotes, but these are the relevant bits:
2000:
...
We therefore call for the elimination of all restrictions on immigration, the abolition of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, and a declaration of full amnesty for all people who have entered the country illegally.
2010:
Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a credible threat to security, health or property.
Is that vaguely sinister or sinistrally vague? I hate to say it, but the LP and I have parted ways. They caved to the right on these and other issues, and I became more liberal as I grew. Oh well....
Sorry for being off topic.