unnamednewbie13 wrote:
ts-pulsar wrote:
Like the extreme anti-government militias that hide in the woods...
I'm not attacking you or criticizing you, but, refraining from immediately supplying my position, I would like to pose a question to the rest of the readers:
Is it possible for a militia to be
pro-government?
Sure it is. What else do you call those wackjobs along the Arizona border that are shooting illegals crossing into the US? They don't want to overthrow the government, just make it do the job that they want it to do.
*special note: in no way does blisteringsilence endorse the wackjobs on the border. shooting people is wrong, unless you have a really good reason. Those nuts don't.*'
ANYway, as a Libertarian that has worked for the state party in the past, I agree with ts-pulsar. Our single biggest obstacle to a greater prominance in national politics is all the wackjobs (man, i really like that word today, don't i?) that we have in our own party. Its not that they're bad people, but the media always focuses on extremes, as they're what make the best news. And we happen to have a lot of extremes.
I would argue that many of the people I hang out with are Libertarians in all but name. They hold the same viewpoints I do, but their parents voted Repulican (or Democrat), and as a result, they do too. The key is breaking the cycle, and to do that we as a party have to get canidates on the state and national stage that can appeal to "everyday Americans."
There are so many stigmas about being a Libertarian that it makes the party hard for the public to comprehend. I have been asked, upon confession to being a Libertarian, if I am an anarchist, a gun nut, a commie, a socialist, a fascist, and (my personal favorite) if I believed in eugenics. Of course, the big two parties aren't doing anything to make those stigmas go away. After all, if the Libertarians didn't seem so strange, they'd both lose all their centrist members. The Rebublicans would be left with Ann Coulters, and the Democrats with Al Frankens.