Photo by Renee Richardson Local Libertarian Party Chairman Jason Pye, 25, of McDonough, has made politics a major part of his life and his political blog is gaining a local following.
Posted on 04/11/2006 7:51:39 AM PDT by freepatriot32
Jason Pye isn’t your typical political party chairman. He’s young, tattooed, sports a goatee, and is fiercely independent.
But then, he’s the chairman of the Henry County Libertarian party, a party not known for its conformists. And even he sometimes doesn’t tow the party line.
Pye, 25, was elected to the party’s chairmanship in January of 2005 after about a year of party interest and involvement. Though the party is small in heavily Republican-leaning Henry County — only about eight to 10 members attend regular monthly meetings — Libertarian candidates have made bids for local and state office from here.
Most recently, Bill Kochevar ran unsuccessfully as a Libertarian for a state House seat.
“I didn’t really know there was an active Libertarian Party until I started talking to Bill and getting involved in his campaign,” Pye said. “We believe in personal liberty and economic liberty and that’s the core of what I believe,” he said.
Pye himself is also considering a bid for McDonough City Council, but his current focus is growing his personal blog, a running tab on local politics, and sort of personal diary.
Pye makes no secret about his personal political endorsements on the site, even if they’re for candidates from other parties. He has even done Web site work for Republican legislator Steve Davis of McDonough, who is included in that list.
“He (Pye) would pass for a Republican,” said McDonough resident Larry Stanley, who keeps his own eyes and ears on local politics and recently became a contributor to the blog.
Pye has also contributed to the PeachPundit blog, a statewide political Web forum.
Pye’s politics have been with him since childhood. He says his family referred to him as Senator Pye from the age of 10. At 20, he began reading individualist author Ayn Rand and listening to Libertarian local radio show host Neal Boortz.
Pye’s Web site, which he said had more than 1,000 visitors last month, has also gotten the attention of Henry GOP Chairman Charles Mobley, who said he checks it daily, along with a blog of a Macon-based Democrat, to keep up with the other parties.
“He’s a very conservative young man and sometimes I wonder why he’s a Libertarian,” Mobley said. “I think Jason’s conservative views, fiscally and financially ... that lends very well to the Republican Party.”
Pye admits his views don’t align exactly with those of the Libertarian Party, particularly on the drug war — Pye thinks the party has leaned too heavily on the issue — but says that doesn’t worry state leaders.
“The whole purpose of being a Libertarian is to be an individual,” he said. “I believe I’m an individual before I’m a Libertarian.”
mdavis@henryherald.com
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On the net: www.jasonpye.com
Photo by Renee Richardson Local Libertarian Party Chairman Jason Pye, 25, of McDonough, has made politics a major part of his life and his political blog is gaining a local following.
libertarian ping
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
Prolly he's a Libertarian because most of us are getting the sense that the Republicans are only paying lip service to conservative ideas.
And sometimes not even doing that (Specter on one of the talk shows this weekend said Republicans are now "moderate or liberal on spending.")
Ya' think?
I could get behind that, except that I don't see Hillary or any other Rat doing jack about prosecuting the war on terror.
What would Kerry be doing right now in the face of Iran's nuclear threats?
From 200-2004 the local Republican candidates all sounded more like libertarians than GOP. And the funny thing about local libertarians is that they are very conservative, i.e. church-going, pro life, family types who are very pro 2a. What's more is that they truly want smaller less intrusive governement and strongly believe in a 'live and let live' philosophy.
That doesn't mean that they advocate drug abuse or porn, far from is, but they aren't spending their time worrying about what other consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes.
But what the anti-libertarians on this forum will consentrate on are the dope smoking, goat screwing freaks who don't know Liberal from Conservative and certainly don't know that with Liberty comes individual responsibility.
Agreed. If you can't argue against the overwhelming good points in a philosophy, take a position to the most absurd conclusion you can imagine and use that to attack the philosophy in general. Argumentum ad absurdum.
While they may sound libertarian, it's almost a cliche that the first thing the GOP does after being elected (when it does anything) is to advance the authoritarian right agenda--NEVER to promote the small-government libertarian platform it's stolen so much from.
Hell, we can't even get them to shut down a single government agency. Meanwhile they're fighting against the federalism they ran on, suing states which want to dispense with federal mandates on drugs, medicine, euthanasia, guns, gays, etc., in their home states.
Regardless of your personal, moral opinion on those issues--it's still clear it's all about what federalism and limited government mean. Yet the GOP, which can't do ANYTHING to stop government growth (just ask them, they need the whole Congress, the entire civil service, and the SCOTUS yet) can certainly get hot and bothered enough to grow the federal government into places where it doesn't belong.
I'm not holding my breath waiting for the Republican Party to shrink government.
I do think that if the Libertarian Party would strike out their "open borders" platform and make national news out of it, there would be a tidal wave of support develop for the only party that makes sense.
I have the odd problem of living in such a conservative area that even female Democrats brag about carrying pistols and challenge campaign opponents to shoot at a local range.
It's a place so strongly Repulican that other Republicans sometimes become Deomcrats just to run in the primary.
Sadly, the local LEOs still think that pulling bundles of weed out of the national and state forrests and busting escort services are great ways to spend taxpayer money.
About those LEO's that have such great sport in tracking down the cannabis - I think there is much room for improvement.
Where I live, there is plenty of real crime (you know where someone has been robbed, raped, harmed or killed) and LEO's still spend a huge part of their time worrying about who might be twisting up a joint or heaven forbid - growing a few cannabis plants.
I like your tag line and thought you might enjoy the quote below:
I am further of opinion that it would be better for us to have [no laws] at all than to have them in so prodigious numbers as we have.
Bingo...you're right.
Hey...that's me. I'm shocked that this made it here.
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