Bone In The Fan

LP Criticizes Biden for Wrong Reason

Well, for one wrong reaon at least.  I got an email from the Libertarian Party today that provided a bullet point list of reasons to be critical of Joe Biden.  This in addition to the obvious fact that he’s a career politician, which is a major strike against as far as I’m concerned.

Some of the reasons are totally valid: he voted for hate crimes legislation, voted for the economic stimulus plan (which, while I was perfectly content to deposit my check, was nevertheless a dopey idea,) voted to increase minimum wage… and plenty of more reasons.

But also in the list is that he voted AGAINST making English the official language of the United States. Um, hello?  Is the LP really suggesting we adopt an “official” language?  One only hopes that this email contained a typo or that an overzealous and misguided intern compiled the list and that Andrew Davis, who “signed” it, failed to pick up on it.  Which in itself is bad, but not as bad as the purported “party of principal” endorsing an official language.

Shit like this is what makes me turn from the two big parties in disgust, and it worries me. It worries be because this is another reason to seriously question what the hell is going on in the LP.  Barr certainly doesn’t entirely fit with what I would consider Libertarain, though I chose to take the position that perhaps his name recognition would help build some momentum for the LP and begin to chip away at the two party power structure.  But then some serious questions about his positions and his campagn’s actions began coming up. And of course there was the lawsuit his campaign filed to force a church to include him in a debate (using the horrible McCain/Feingold campaing finance reform law as a basis no less.)  So even if the two party structure is weakened, if it’s at the cost of behaving like the rest of the pandering douche bags and doing something as anti-Libertarian as trying to use a federal court to force a church open their doors to Bob Barr, then fuck it, I’m outa here.

I’ll watch carefully over the coming months to see what the LP and Barr do next, but between this disheartening series of events and my experience in the tiny race I’m entered in (Warwick, the incumbent who has been sitting on the board unchallenged for quite a while I’m told, has already contacted Palm Beach County to investigate if I’m in compliance with election laws - presumably to get me tossed off the ballot,) I’m seriously losing any belief that the entire political process is something that matters any more.  Or at least something I’m interested in spending time and energy on, which frankly sucks.  And whatever happens in the future, I’m certainly not drinking the Libertarian kool-aid on any of the stuff I mentioned in this post.

If you want to read a few more opinions on it, Classically Liberal and the Independent Political Report both have discussions going on about it.

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