The American Guesser

Harry Browne, an uncompromising advocate for individual liberty and a two-time Libertarian Party candidate for president, died yesterday from Lou Gherig’s disease.

The trouble with being uncompromising is that it doesn’t win elections. By putting Browne at the top of the ticket, the LP was saying that achieving ideological nirvana was more important than winning at the ballot box and making any real change.

Consider this post by Brian Doherty on “Hit and Run:”

Browne was a controversial figure in the LP, at first because he had for years been one of the loudest anti-political voices in the movement before changing his mind and seeking the presidential nomination, and winning it, in 1996. He had been so loud and firm an anti-political voice, in fact, that the term “Browneing Out” was used in the 1970s in libertarian circles to mean retreating from any commitment to further libertarian goals through political action, or any sort of action.

Hat tip: Peoria Pundit.

[tags]harry browne,libertarian party[/tags]

I find it very hard to believe that a state with as much invested in Big Government as does Illinois will screw together the compassion to end the ban on medicinal marjuana. Too many in our fair state think the same way as this irrational neanderthal:

Judy Kreamer, president of Educating Voices, a Naperville-based national organization working to educate people on the dangers of drugs, said the legislation sends the wrong message to children about marijuana.

“If you tell a child that it’s medicine and it’s safe, what is their inclination?” Ms. Kreamer said.

Ms. Kreamer said that in fiscal year 2004, there were 32,961 marijuana-related treatment hospital admissions in Illinois.

“What is that going to go to when all of a sudden in our state, we have people claiming this is a medication?” she said.

Dope heads can claim their dime bag is for their glaucoma. But if they don’t have a doctor’s prescription, the claim won’t fly in court.

It seems bizarre to me that the state allows doctors to hand out script for Vicodin, but something far less addictive and far less toxic is illegal.

And I want to know exactly what Kreamer means by “marijuana-related admissions.”

[tags]medicinal marijuana,war on drugs,illinois[/tags]

If you listen to the Big Two — the Republicans and the Democrats — they do. When Libertarians, Greens, Independents, Refomers and even the Natural Law party are allowed to field candidates, it’s the same thing as squirrels getting into the bird feeder. They think every vote cast should — by devine right of kings — belong to one or the other.

A newspaper in Minnesotta dared to allow a Libertarian to express an opinion on this issue.

But truthfully, can alternative parties take away votes? In some cases they do compete. For example, the Green Party tends to pull from the Democrats in many elections because they consider themselves “liberal” or “progressive.” Republicans might lose votes to the Constitution Party because they describe themselves as “ultra conservative.”

The only exception is the Libertarian Party. Libertarians are neither conservative nor liberal. Libertarians believe in liberty on all the issues. They believe in personal freedoms/civil liberties and economic freedoms, whereas the Republicans want to control many social freedoms, and Democrats want to control many economic freedoms.

[tags]Libertarian,Libertarian Party,Sue Jeffers[/tags]