Parties weigh in on Iraq war. Libertarians, Greens, others take dim view of U.S. action

WorldNetDaily ^ | April 9, 2003 | Jon Dougherty

[gcruse]

Cleanup on aisle #38.

[nopardons]

"Hateful " ? That's the kind of rhetoric, that is posted here and to LP, day in and day out. When Libertarians grow up, begin to post civily, and clean up their act, then and only then, will they be taken vaguely seriously. As to " joining my tent ", it's up to them. If they continue to prefer Dem/Liberal positions and politicians, then they'll continue to be marginalized. Libertarians see the partially filled glass as empty, rather than even 1/2 empty, and NEVER as 1/2 full. It's all or NOTHING with them and they'll never get ALL.

[nopardons]

That's because you're blinded to reality. Libertarians talk about self responsible people and freedom, when they aren't responsible people. Since they aren't, why do they assume that everyone else would be, if only, ONLY everything would be legal to owne, use, do ?

GOPers don't want to grab anyone's guns. They DO uphold " lifestyle " laws, which, by-the-by, most have been in use for millenia . Just which unacceptable behaviors, do you engage in, that you're so worried is against the law ? Maybe, just maybe, you should think about that and NOT cavailing so much about not being able to live in a " LORD OF THE FLIES " atmosphere. :-)

[gcruse]

Libertarians talk about self responsible people and freedom, when they aren't responsible people.

Well, there's the little straw man you build the rest of your silliness on.
I take responsibility for my actions and advocate the same for everyone.
You are too full to hate to discuss anything rationaly.  Go ahead and
take the last word.  I am done.

[greg2724]

Well, the war, at least the Iraqi part, is all but over. So war or no-war is pretty much moot now. I am seeing a trend which I find interesting. The growing discussion between Libertarians and Greens over areas of similar interest, especially the decentralization of power. I must admit that I am soooo disillusioned with the Demos and Republos. They all talk the decentralist game--in differing ways and at their convenience, but they are really about supporting each groups' special interests. I can see a potentially new political philosophy emerging which uses the libertarian overstructure of minimalist government at the federal and state levels, but enhances local governments and groups (the Green influence) to make their own choices. This is something that neither of the elites in the 2 big parties want. This means enabling legislation which effectively forces power down to the local level as a start. I would also want it possible for local groups and governments to be able to form coalitions and associations to address the bigger issues affecting their areas. This sounds closer to the Jeffersonian model, albeit in a more urban society, than what the Reublicrats propose.

[FairOpinion]

At some point, fairly recently ( before GW) I felt the way you do, and was seriously considering the Liberatarian party, and started to look into it.

I saw some things, which were appealing: limited gov., fiscal responsibility, but unfortunately part of their platform (and I actually wrote to the head of the party asking some questions, and got a reply) is a regidity of the opposition to any war, no matter what, that the US shouldn't get involved. I also noticed some overly socially liberal stands.

I know some Libertarians who subscibe to the "good" part, but reject the rest, and some who are Libertarians precisely because they agree with the "bad"(IMO) part.

But their overall platform includes both.

So I crossed them off my list of a party to seriously consider. However, I still agree with the limited government, fiscal and personal responsiblity, local gov. etc.

I think, after all is said and done, the Republicans are closest to that, they just need a little reforming and giving them a chance with a larger majority, because I think they were sliding away from this platform, just trying to survive in a heavily Democrat congress and constituency, but all that is changing.

[greg2724]

I wish I could be optimistic. I see the Republicans increasingly controlled by the Religious Right. I heard one local Republican politco talk about the need to put Jesus and the Bible back into the schools and stop the march toward international atheism, what ever the hell that is. There are libertarian oriented Republicans like Ron Paul, but the RR considers him a fruitcake. I think we ned to look beyond the Rep and Dems to something new. Not sure what that will be like at the end of the day, but the old left/right paradigm looks increasingly old and tired, and I might add, increasingly irrelevant.