Posted on 11/22/2010 9:10:11 AM PST by misterrob
David Nolan, who helped found the Libertarian Party in his Denver home and watched it grow into a force with national influence, died unexpectedly Sunday. The Tucson resident was 66.
Nolan, whose friends described him as a "guiding light" of the Libertarian Party, opposed expansive government and had pledged to abolish personal income taxes if elected to office.
In 2006, Nolan unsuccessfully ran against Gabrielle Giffords for a seat in Arizona's 8th Congressional District.
This year, he challenged John McCain for his Senate seat and racked up 63,000 votes - in a state with only 24,000 registered Libertarians.
"Dave was kind of a unique character," said Jack Dean, a longtime friend and political ally of Nolan's. "The Libertarian Party was literally founded in his living room in Denver."
Dean said Nolan remained a constant force in the Libertarian Party as it grew.
"He was sort of a guiding light," Dean said. "He was kind of our conscience. Dave was a presence at every national convention; everyone respected him. He kept reminding everybody what the goal was."
Dean described Nolan as a "platform kind of person, keeping the party on track."
Nolan also is the namesake for what is called the "Nolan Chart" - a graphic representation that shows where Libertarians stand in relation to liberals, conservatives and other political identities.
"He was a low-key and extremely reasonable radical," Dean said. "And he could make Libertarian positions sound reasonable and logical to anyone."
Among other things, Nolan supported immigration-law changes along the lines of a guest-worker program. Like other Libertarians, Nolan called for the legalization of drugs, saying that the illegal trade in drugs is what fuels cartels, and he opposed the war in Iraq.
This year, during a September debate with McCain and other Senate candidates, Nolan remained true to Libertarian ideals of personal freedom and less government. When candidates were asked about a border wall, he replied:
"Americans should always remember: Big walls are often used to keep people in as well as out. If America ever turns fascist, we don't want to be in a big, giant prison."
Nolan's cause of death was unclear late Sunday, and no information was immediately available on memorial services.
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth.
In 2010, socialist Gabby Giffords deafeted conservative Jesse Kelly 48.7-47.2. Libertarian Steven Stoltz took 3.9%, aided by large independent expenditures by socialist groups.
Your point? I recall something called Operation Chaos spearheaded by a certain conservative talk show host back in the 2008 election......
Of course there was a guy named Ralph Nader who ran for office in 2000 that cost Gore the election but I digress.
I’m not a Libertarian (large L), but I am a libertarian (small l). Seems to me that the Republican candidate is supposed to actually earn the votes of non-Republicans.
I’ll bet that plenty of Libertarian Party voters vote for Republican candidates when they are worth voting for.
A lot of libertarian voters are ticked off by the GOP’s embrace of Big Government and its social conservatism. If you want small government, if you want to smoke pot or what do in your own bedroom should be your business. If it hurts others, then the government ought to step in. The late Peter McWilliams wrote a book, “Its Nobody’s Business If You Do.” The late William F. Buckley took askance to parts of it but it made I thought a pretty good point that what you do is bound to offend some people and as long as you don’t stick your nose in their business, you should be free to do what you want. That is libertarianism in a nutshell.
In attacking conservatism and promoting the pro-abortion, pro-homosexual agenda libertarians, I noticed that you left out abortion.
They are self described as “low-tax, liberals”
That is also how we originally got Senator Patty Murray, and others.
As “low-tax, Liberals” Libertarians almost always serve the Democrat party.
Republicans aren’t sufficiently liberal in the classical liberal sense of the word for them so libertarians end up helping to elect socialists who are anything but liberal.
In this case, Jesse Kelly was actually identified as a "libertarian Republican". He was one of the most conservative candidates running nationally.
The libertarian claimed to be the true conservative, yet his biggest gripes about Jesse Kelly were A) he didn't emphasize a return to the gold standard and B) he didn't support gay marriage.
Truly a disgrace.
I notice that you still left out abortion.
Promoting abortion and radical left wing, homosexual politics is not “classical” in any sense, and it isn’t conservative.
RIP Mr. Nolan. And thank you.
RIP.
The small percentage of Libertarian Party members weren’t the only voters that he failed to garner.
I guess there are no independent voters in the district.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.