Evicting Libertarian Party Principles

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 07 Jul 2006 11:04:24 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

L.K. Samuels at LewRockwell.com - looks like the "LP Reform Caucus" began, at the Portland Libertarian Party Convention, the same process of destroying the Libertarian Party that Evangelical Christians did to the Republicans. They haven't killed it yet, but their goal is to eviscerate the LP platform of all of its libertarian principles. [lew]

So what are some of the principles that they believe must go? First and foremost is the non-aggression principle, which is considered the main threat to an election-oriented populism. If Libertarians would simply throw away this ideal, explaining LP policies on taxation, the drug war, foreign policy and military intervention would no longer be a campaign embarrassment. The LP would be free to advocate all sorts of government programs and interventions since taxation would no longer be considered a violation of human rights. Voters would no longer fear that someone out there actually believes an individual's property does not belong to the state.

The reformers even want to dumb down the drug issue. One member of the Reform Caucus suggested that if they could not get rid of the drug war plank, which survived the Portland purge, it could be watered down to "drug laws can hurt minorities and low income citizens." This would eliminate any suggestion that individuals have a right to drug use -- such an honest consistency would obviously frighten voters.

These reformers are attempting to make the LP more palatable to the vote-getting political mainstream. And yet, the founder of the Libertarian Party, David Nolan, has repeatedly said that he and the early founders were more interested in the educational opportunities available through a campaign for office. To them, actually winning an election was secondary.

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