🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992May26.205143.1425@csn.org> lgibes@teal.csn.org (Lawrence R. Gibes) writes:
>     You  owe  it  yourself  to  check  this  out.  Before I found about
>  libertarian philosophy  I would  dread voting  (and would  often avoid
>  it).   Now that  I know  about a  political choice  with real workable
>  answers to the problems facing  our country, I look forward  to voting
>  Libertarian.

I have a collection of stuff online about the Libertarian Party.  Here's a
brief analysis of libertarianism.  In my next post I'll include the party
program and in the post after that, the party platform.

------- cut here for an analysis of the Libertarian philosphy ------------

Article 16777 of alt.activism:
Xref: ucsu talk.politics.misc:37650 alt.activism:16777
Path: ucsu!boulder!csn!ncar!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!spdcc!merk!alliant!werme
From: werme@alliant.com (Ric Werme)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.activism
Subject: Kind words for Marrou from Manchester, NH's Union Leader.  Honest!
Keywords: Libertarian, Marrou, Union Leader, Kenny, article
Message-ID: <1992Feb22.023042.8591@alliant.com>
Date: 22 Feb 92 02:30:42 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Alliant Computer Systems Corp.
Lines: 98

The following is from the Editorial Page of the NH Union Leader, dated 1992 Feb
20.  The Union Leader is a staunch supporter of Pat Buchanan and has warned its
readers that a Libertarian government would result in prostitutes and drug
dealers taking over our streets.  And that's what goes on the front page.  They
are less conciliatory on the editorial page.  This is a real shame, because
there is much about the Libertarian party that closely agrees with the Union
Leader's views.  Therefore, it was with great surprise and delight that I heard
about the following article.


	"And a Libertarian Shall Lead Them", by Jack Kenny

WELL, WHADDAYA KNOW?  The "major" candidates of the major parties have been
travelling up and down and crisscrossing the state, running themselves ragged
and driving most of us to distraction over the past few months.  We have been
bombarded with their words and images until we can hardly think of anthing
else.  Little children not yet old enough to walk or talk are running about
chanting their slogans.  Parakeets in cages left too close to radios and TV
sets are saying over and over again, "No new taxes, no new taxes,...
AAARRRGGHH!"

So when the big-time politicians are done giving us their lies, spending their
fortunes and squandering what's left of their "sacred honor" (it's not nice to
laugh at this point), the first returns come in and guess who's leading the
parade of candidates coming out of Dixville Notch?  Little ol' Andre Marrou,
that's who!  The Libertarians are about to project the winner.  It's the little
skinny guy with the beard leading a second American Revolution.

Never mind that Marrou was running unopposed on the Libertarian ballot.  In
Dixville Notch, he outpolled the President of the United States on solid Yankee
Republican turf.  In fact, Marrou, with his 11 votes, nearly equalled the
combined vote of George Bush (9) and Pat Buchanan (3).  The Libertarian
candidate ran way ahead of the combined vote for the Democrats, which reads
like a baseball score - Clinton beat Tsongas, 3 to 2.  Consumer advocate Ralph
Nader, who is running as a write-in non-candidate (the "none of the above"
choice) unaffiliated with any party, ties Clinton with three write-ins from
Dixville Notch Democrats.

I can feel the groundswell building, but I'm trying not to get carried away.
It is still election day as I write this and there are only a few hundred
polling places to be heard from before the winners are declared in the New
Hampshire Primary.  And, with all due respect to the good folk of Dixville
Notch, it is probably not wise to project a trend based on the behaviour of
people whose idea of carrying on at midnight is to gather at town hall and
vote.  They're not what you would call "typical."

Nor is it likely that Andre Marrou will wake up in the White House on Jan.  21,
1993, but he may get more than Andy Warhol's prescribed 15 minutes of fame.
The reason is he is a man with a clear and persuasive message and this primary
election promises to be bigger than Valentine's Day when it comes to sending
messages, even if they aren't typically full of love and devotion.  Buchanan
has been asking us to send a message to the White House, preferably one that
says, "Get Out!"  George Bush, the principal occupant of that splendid mansion,
is asking us to send a message to Congress when he isn't asking us to forget
about sending messages and just pick a President.  Marrou has offered his
candidacy as a way of sending a message to the whole damn bunch.

He faces a problem in name recognition.  It is not so much his name, but that
of his party that causes confusion in the minds of many voters.  No doubt there
are still some in New Hampshire who think a Libertarian is a cross between a
librarian and a vegetarian, a bookworm who won't eat meat.  Others may think of
them as conservative Republicans who missed the gravy train in the Reagan
years.  Nothing of the kind.  Marrou repudiates Republicans with as much or
greater vigor than he employs in denouncing Democrats.  They are, he insists,
"the right-wing Socialists and the left-wing Socialists," respectively.

While Deomcrats and Republicans argue over what kind of tax cuts to offer in an
election year, Marrou argues for abolishing the income tax and the IRS along
with it.  He is not joking.  He points out that the personal income tax
provides only 37 percent of all federal revenue.  How far back in our history
do you have to go to find a time when our government was able to function on 37
percent less revenue than it takes in today?  All the way back to 1987, he
says.

"Do you remember anyone in 1987 saying "Oh my goodness, the federal government
is too small?" he likes to ask his audiences.  "Did anyone in 1987 suggest that
we should increase the size of the federal budget by 37 percent?  Yet that's
exactly what Reagan and Bush have done."

Marrou would take the government out of most of the regulatory and
entrepenurial activities that occupy much of the bureaucracy in Washington.  Do
not waste his time asking him how he would balance the interests of
conservationists and logging companies in a federally owned forest.  In a
Libertarian administration, he insists, "There wouldn't be any federal land."

If Marrou and his Libertarians are to the right of most conservatives on free
enterprise and private property rights, they are to the left of most liberals
on the so-called "social issues."  It seems unlikely that all 11 of the
Dixville Notch residents who voted for Marrou favor his and his party's stand
on legalizing prostitution, "relegalizing" drugs or defending a woman's right
to abortion.  But in this election, it has been said, the issue is "the
economy, the economy and the economy."  It may be that the voters of that quiet
village were respectfully sending a message about economic freedom.
-- 

| A pride of lions              | Eric J Werme                   |
| A gaggle of geese             | uucp: mit-eddie!alliant!werme  |
| An odd lot of programmers     | Phone: 508-486-1214            |

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-marc anderson