Free State Observer

In my salad days, when I was young and green, I had a swingin’ bachelorette pad in San Francisco.  One of the kick-ass benefits of my volunteer job at KUSF was the ability to put myself on the guest list of any club in town, and I used to go out at night frequently to enjoy “the rock n’ roll”.  One of my favorite local bands was called Zircus.  They had a lead singer whom, in retrospect, rather resembled Penn Gillette, and had this neat trick of hurling his bass drum into the audience during the course of the show.  Ya gotta love an artist who is willing to risk braining his audience in the pursuit of his art (a bass drum flying at your head is no laughing matter).  Anyway… I remember walking down the street to see them one night at the name-now-eludes-me club at the corner of Fulton and Masonic.  I seem to recall this was an important gig for them; an A&R person was in the audience or some such nonsense.  During the course of the show, in between songs, an awkward break in the music occurred.  Arguing broke out amonst the bandmembers (they had a horn section, so there were quite a few of them on-stage).  One of them finally shrieked “Just play something!”  As a college radiohead, I felt embarassed on their behalf;  it was the live performance equivalent of dead air.

The reason this memory comes to mind is because, lately, I have been thinking that libertarians should, pardon my French, shut the f*** up and play more music.  I’ve watched, and participated in my own small way, in the Holy Platform War of the Libertarian Party.  I’ve winced in pain while watching my friends and allies spar with one another on various email discussion lists in debates about how best to entice 20,000 libertarians to move to New Hampshire, the raison d’etre of the Free State Project.  Sometimes it seems like each and every one of us is the walking wounded, or worse, a full-on zombie, and rather than just dealing with one another directly about how best to achieve our common goal (i.e. personal freedom), we’re all so focused on defending ourselves from unintended “attacks” that we waste unconscionable amounts of time and energy.  Please don’t think I’m sitting on my high horse here; I’m probably a worse offender than most.  I’ve got a skin that’s more delicate than a baby’s ass.  Pair that with a tongue that, when inspired, can melt most household plastics, and you’ve got a recipe for drama.  Drama’s great if you happen to be one of those chicks with just one name (you know… “Cher”… “Madonna”…), but if you’re a would-be revolutionary, fledging political activist, or whatever the hell it is I’m trying to be, I’m afraid it’s just a colossal waste of time.  Serving on the Board of Directors of the FSP has been my own penance; I now have a much better understanding of the pain my past criticism and scathing remarks may have caused those who have gone before me. It’s bad enough fighting an uphill battle, without your own allies chucking rocks at you. 

Here’s to well-placed rock-chucking (i.e. at the bad guys!).  Here’s to remembering which of us are on the same side here.  ”I reckon you should shut the fuck up and play some music.”  So said the ever-so-to-the-point young Irishman with the mic in his hand at the Consolidated show.  They not only took it to heart; they named a song on their next album after his proclamation.  

 

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A week back, I wrote that I was disassociating myself from the Libertarian Party due to recent platform changes that completely eliminated any reference to foreign policy.  Since then, it has become clear that there is a lot of misinformation floating around the blogosphere and wonderful world of Yahoo.  I have seen three or four different versions of the revised platform. The official version was finally posted on the LP site today, and it turns out that I was wrong about foreign policy being removed.  Not only that, but I quite like what it has to say:

American foreign policy should seek an America at peace with the world and the defense — against attack from abroad — of the lives, liberty, and property of the American people on American soil. Provision of such defense must respect the individual rights of people everywhere. The principle of non-intervention should guide relationships between governments. The United States government should return to the historic libertarian tradition of avoiding entangling alliances, abstaining totally from foreign quarrels and imperialist adventures, and recognizing the right to unrestricted trade, travel, and immigration.

It has also been argued by various individuals over the past week that, if you don’t like the platform changes that were made at the convention, don’t just throw up your hands in defeat and hand over your party to the faction with which you disagree; show up next time and fight for your beliefs.  My response to that argument is…. um.  Well. Yeah. I guess you’re right. Sure glad I didn’t ignite my party membership card with an Independence Day sparkler like I’d been thinking about doing. 

Despite my Independence Day announcement, I did attend the July meeting of the LPNH.  The recent national convention was a topic of excited discussion (well, I got excited, anyway; I hope the diners on the other side of the restaurant enjoyed hearing me loudly espouse my views on the subject).  A state delegate to the convention shared his first-hand experience, and personal assessment, of the Portland proceedings.  I was gruntled to hear him say that he was repeatedly accosted by other conventioneers about the Free State Project, just because it said “New Hampshire” on his name tag.  Libertarians from around the country were eager for news from the front lines of small government activism in America.

Change is brewing in the LPNH.  A spiffy new website was launched a month ago.  On July 21, the state Supreme Court is going to hear a case that, if successful, will equalize ballot access rules for political parties in the state.  Historical aside: many observers, myself included, were less than impressed to see the LP’s 2004 Presidential candidate Michael Badnarik fail to gain ballot access in New Hampshire.  I’ve heard various explanations and conspiracy theories about this.  My personal opinion, after attending several LPNH meetings and interacting with its most active members on numerous occasions, is that it was the result of simple human error compounded by the grossly unfair ballot access laws.  Hopefully this will change soon; stay tuned. The state convention, with officer elections, is coming up in October.  And gubernatorial candidate Rich Kahn is making an all-out effort to gain the necessary 4% election results to restore the LP’s party status in New Hampshire.  With all of this, and the steady flow of libertarian activists with fire in their bellies moving into the state due to the FSP, I predict a Libertarian renaissance on the horizon for the Granite State.

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I joined the Libertarian Party in early 2002.  Although I had known of the party for years, had had libertarian leanings all my life, had been voting since I was 18 and never joined either the Democrats or the Republicans, it took me a while to formally join the LP.  The primary reason was simple fear.  I had always been a willfully nondescript, blend-into-the-crowd citizen who paid my taxes, stopped at red lights, waited my turn in line, and although I was increasingly cognizant of the foul stench emanating from the cities of Sacramento and Washington D.C., I figured that if I just kept my head down and my name off “the list”, I could avoid more than the normal amount of abuse from the political powers-that-be.

What was different about early 2002?  Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, it’s easy to look that up:

1/29/2002 In President George W. Bush’s state of the union speech, he identifies Iraq, along with Iran and North Korea, as an “axis of evil.” He vows that the U.S. “will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.”

6/2/2002 President Bush publicly introduces the new defense doctrine of preemption in a speech at West Point. In some instances, the president asserts, the U.S. must strike first against another state to prevent a potential threat from growing into an actual one: “Our security will require all Americans…[to] be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives. source: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/iraqtimeline2.html

There comes a time in each man’s (and woman’s) life when he must stand up and be counted.  I believe that it is wrong / evil/ verboten/ naughty/ bad BAD!/ not kosher/ most non-triumphant to attack, invade and/or occupy other sovereign nations.  I chose to state this by putting my name on “the list” and being counted as a Libertarian.  Up until two days ago, this is what the official Libertarian Party platform had to say on the matter of foreign intervention:

Foreign Intervention
The Issue: Intervention in the affairs of other countries has provoked resentment and hatred of the United States among many groups and nations throughout the world. In addition, legal barriers to private and personal aid (both military and economic) have fostered internal discord.

The Principle: The United States should not inject itself into the internal matters of other nations, unless they have declared war upon or attacked the United States, or the U.S. is already in a constitutionally declared war with them.

Solutions: End the current U.S. government policy of foreign intervention, including military and economic aid, guarantees, and diplomatic meddling. Individuals should be free to provide any aid they wish that does not directly threaten the United States.

Transitional Action: Voluntary cooperation with any economic boycott should not be treated as a crime. End all limitation of private foreign aid, both military and economic. Repeal the Neutrality Act of 1794, and all other U.S. neutrality laws, which restrict the efforts of Americans to aid overseas organizations fighting to overthrow or change governments. End the incorporation of foreign nations into the U.S. defense perimeter. Cease the creation and maintenance of U.S. bases and sites for the pre-positioning of military material in other countries. End the practice of stationing American military troops overseas. We make no exceptions to the above. source: http://www.lp.org/issues/printer_platform_all.shtml#foreinte

At this year’s LP national convention, held in Portland OR on June 30 and July 1, a reform caucus successfully gutted the party platform of the majority of its content.  This is what the LP platform now has to say on the subject of foreign intervention:     .

As I understand it, the reform caucus had several proposed new platform planks that failed to get adopted, thus leaving the platform in its current pathetic gap-ridden state.  In the spirit of giving the benefit of the doubt, I looked up what they had hoped to get passed. Here is their new plank on foreign intervention: http://reformthelp.org/platform/intervention/p1.php  Note this gem: “Benefits: The government of the United States would still be free to act to counter would-be conquerors or mass murderers, or those who attack Americans.”  “Would-be”.  Preemption.

These are the times that try men’s souls, as Thomas Paine opined several hundred years ago.  I have loved being a member of the Libertarian Party.  I’ve met many fine people through the organization, and have been proud to stand beside them.  However, I will no longer be affiliated with it, as I no longer have any particular reason to do so.  I have met far more libertarians through the Free State Project than I ever did through the LP.  Organizations such as the Advocates for Self Government work to educate people on the precepts of libertarianism, the most fundamental of which is ZAP, the zero aggression principle (i.e. no preemption).  I’ll put my energy, money and hopes into these organizations.

Happy Independent Day!

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