Having this event spontaneously erupt at my favorite watering hole is like a dream. One of those What-If-I-Ran-The-World dreams. I halfway expected to go to the Camp Bowie Starbucks this morning and have the barrista give me Anti-Al Gore literature.
The crowd was about 75% Republican, 10% Libertarian, 5% Undercover Democrats who wanted to infiltrate the opposition, and 10% bewildered regulars who were wondering what had happened to their favorite bar and why it was so hard to find parking.
My biggest regret is not getting there before the event started. (Work, work, work....) There was a long line of people along Camp Bowie holding up signs and waving flags. Most of the speechmaking and politicking was already over. I set up shop in back, and started handing out Nolan charts and doing my best to explain what the Libertarians are all about. The wind was blowing too hard to set up any kind of a backdrop, but it was time well spent.
It was my first time to represent the Libertarians at any public event, and it was enlightening. (For me. I don't know what it was for my victims.)
The Nolan chart/quiz is a set of 10 questions that does a reasonably ok job of defining your political beliefs. One of the questions is whether or not you favor drug legalization for adults.
People were stymied by this question, and agonized over it more than any other. The reason why? They know that if marijuana is legalized, the government will be able to tax it. They don't want to give anything else to the government ! ! !
These are MY people, and I love them.
If someone's survey defined them as "Conservative", I tried to steer the conversation to the part of the stimulus package that is 40% Republican pork. Then I typically veered off into the conservative opposition to drug law reform and gay marriage as a red herring.
I ran into several Democrats (including one co-worker). I usually told them to put all their drinks on my bar tab, since that's what their lords and masters in Washington were doing to us already. A couple of hundred dollars more shouldn't matter. Only two of them got the joke. 
A few people didn't even bother taking the test. Based on previous experience, they just took a sticker and placed it on the very top of the Libertarian portion of the chart.
It looked like 300 people attended. No one threw anything at me. None of the (few) Democrats I spoke with had any rational way of justifying the recent spending abortions. None of the (many) Republicans could justify their continued support of the party of Snowe, Collins and Spector, or the Bush/Reagan/Bush budget busting.
The libertarians all had a fanatical gleam in their eyes. Our day is coming. I loved every minute of it. I want to do this again.
Pics came from here.
25 comments:
Next they will all convene at the railhead...Nothing like gathering at a bar, with children, no less, and saying stupid shit. Why would you want a bunch of (90% Republican) idiots to join the Libertarian party? I have read this blog for nearly a year. I thought the Libertarians were a bunch of higher thinking elitists.
Good luck in getting all of the dumb asses to join the Libertarian party.
http://thewhitedsepulchres.blogspot.com/
Fem,
Like most democrats, you couldn't add up my percentages....
I rounded up...Truthfully, it was after a bottle of wine. Good red wine. And after looking at the pictures, it was 90%. I particularly liked the couple sitting on the pigs...One was named Peloisi....I did not realize Republicans rednecks....And how about the Butt boy poster....That was intelligent too.
Listening to Republicans complain about the stimulus package is like having a bunch of hung-over Frat boys bitch about the cost of maid service to their hotel room after Spring Break bender.
I would expect the Libertarians to be protesting (on general principle), but they show their latent Republican tendencies by associating with these hypocrites.
Sounds to me like Allen was taking Republicans to task, not "associating" with them. As far as getting the dumb asses to join, we have no interest in the redneck neocon bible-thumping dumb asses. We want the libertarian-leaning Republicans who are under the delusion that they can reform that hopelessly corrupt, war-mongering, neocon party. BTW, libertarians have as much disdain for idiot Republicans as we do for Socialist Democrats.
Fembuttx,
Anyone who has looked at Barney Frank's involvement in the Freddie Mac meltdown combined with the Steve Gobie mess can't help but laugh at that poster.
(Frank hired a male prostitute, let him move into his apartment, and then the guy starts running a prostitution ring out of Frank's apartment. Libertarians don't have a problem with that, but lots of Democrats do. I only have a problem with him whoring for Bank Of America.)
Regarding the Porkulus Package Pigs....there was usually a crowd around them, so I couldn't abandon my propaganda long enough to get photographed on one of them. Otherwise this blog would have a new photo on the masthead.
And let's not confuse the messengers with the message. Your elected officials stayed up all night behind closed doors on a Thursday, and on Friday voted to spend more than has ever been spent before. On anything. NOBODY HAS READ IT.
And they don't have the money to pay for any of this. They're going to print it.
It does absolutely no good to compare The Mommy Pelosi Party's irresponsible spending to The Frat Daddy Bush Party's irresponsible spending. One day, everyone is going to realize that they've worked together as a team to get us in this mess.
Doctor,
One little issue....the people gathered on Camp Bowie and 183 were generally opposed to paying any more taxes for any more government adventures in Iraq, the economy, or bailouts.
Other groups advocate greater government involvement in just about everything, and by implication, advocate higher taxes.
If we're going to be talking hypocrisy, which group's actions are in line with their tax returns? The rednecks, or Obama's cabinet?
BTW, Doc, we just missed the opportunity to harass each other in person at Pop's the other night. I stopped by after dialysis to get a disk from Suzette, but you had already flown the coup. Hopefully we'll catch each other the next time you infiltr...uh..grace us with your presence at an LP function. :^)
They only hung out with the ones 'inside' the bar. Any real bible thumper, would only by outside the bar.
As far as I know, that is the only true way to tell a Libertarian leaning Republican, non-marxist, semi-socialist, pro drug legalizing Republican from the others.
The only other way is to throw holy water on them and see if they go up in smoke.
Thank you for 5 paragraphs of explanation.
Womanly Glutes,
Your quite welcome to the 5 paragraphs. But if they didn't do the job, (sigh....) I guess you can go back to helping Obama Bail Out Billionaires. (sniff)
If you want to blame the White House for the current debt situation, consider this: from 1980 to 1990 (Reagan / Bush senior) public debt went from 930.2 billion to 3.2 trillion dollars. From 2000 to 2008 under GW Bush it soared from 5.6 to 10.6 trillion dollars.
Or do you blame Congress? The Republicans have controlled both houses from 1995 to 2007 -- with one 2 year exception in 2001 when they lost the senate), and they had the White House from 2001 to 2009.
And still the Republicans have the audacity to scream about "stealing our children's future." Oh, and push tax cuts.
As for the Libertarians -- I don't remember any massive outcry while all this was going on. Did I somehow miss that?
Yeah, the Stimulus Package may be a bit messy, but it's nothing compared to the mess it's meant to address.
And what the hell does Barney Frank have to do with this?
Doctor,
Agreed, totally agreed, about the spending under Presidents named Reagan and Bush. I believe I've sounded off before about Democrat/Republican being the least expensive White House/Congress combo by yearly discretionary spending, followed closely by Republican/Democrat, then Democrat/Democrat, with Republican/Republican being the most costly. (The punchline being that Texans - LBJ & Bush Jr. - being the most expensive at all.)
However, one day someone is going to chart the most expensive MONTHS, and the last two are going to look like Twin Peaks on the graph. If the democrat goal is to catch up with the opposition, it ain't gonna take long.
Regarding the Libertarian outcry, that's almost like Horton trying to hear the Whos. The Libertarian Outcry has been there, but too small to be heard. All I can say is that I've had the National Debt-O-Meter up and running for about a year?
And I'm recruiting for the cause as hard as I can, wherever I can.
Until everyone wakes up, I'M YER LIBERTARIAN OUTCRY ! ! !
YEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAA ! ! ! !
Dang it, I forgot to mention Bailout Barney....
One of the many many many many reasons for the housing "crisis" that we're in is Barney Frank.
He, as a government official, has helped create a problem that "only government can solve".
Nice work if you can get it.
Browncoat -- Sorry I had to leave Pop's before your arrival -- I had a hungry 17 year old at home waiting for a frozen pizza. I was hoping you'd be in attendance but wasn't sure if your medical situation would permit.
TLG confessed he made a good living off Sarbannes-Oxley from the misery of people like me. Stephen Smith was surprised I didn't sport a tail and pitchfork (I think he did cross himself just to be on the safe side). Suzette attempted to charm me into repudiating my statements on funding public art but I held strong. And the Whited Sepulchre puffed his stogie.
It was so much fun I may have to invade your ranks again some time.
WS - glad I reminded you of Barney Franks. I'd hate to be accused of not being helpful.
Re: the spending.
Hell, I don't like it. My freaking house is paid for. But I recognize the fact that we have some dependencies to get this mess fixed. And as far as "pork" goes, one man's pork is another's job stimulus.
We are never going to get a perfect budget, because we will never agree what constitutes a perfect budget. So we do the best we can. Could we do better? Maybe -- but the fires are raging. How much time do we spend looking for the perfect length of hose?
At least with this budget, we aren't doing things like conveniently leaving the cost of the Iraq war out of the numbers.
Interesting placards. I liked this:
"We will be forced to contribute to collective poverty."
This however,
"Secede Now"
It's not helpful, IMHO, for the Libertarian cause. Whether it be overt revolution or the hum drum of the current American political process, image is as important as substance and I suspect the secessionist bit (and I write this from a state w/the largest percentage of secessionists in the union) is not agreeable to the mainstream. It's spectacular (in the literal sense) and lends a certain stereotype to the minds of the masses. That stereotype is much more T McVeigh than it is T Jefferson.
Lastly, step away from idealism (as John Adams once penned to the aforementioned Jefferson) and into a more realistic platform on matters of foreign policy. Dr. Ron Paul, arguably your political "flagship," if you will (Barr's late "conversion" has me a bit skeptical) maintains a rather isolationist outlook. I suspect he, like Jefferson, is ignoring global realities in favor of his own idealized vision of what should be rather than mixing his ideals into the current situation and pushing his own version of what could be.
My two pennies and whatever my critique it's good to see a burgeoning third party.
Jay,
I'm with you on the secessionist bidness.
Another example: there was one biker there with a Confederate Flag vest. One person among 250-300, but he was the one I noticed, and the one that I wish hadn't showed up.
It only takes one TV cameraman zeroing in on the Confederate Flag to turn the perception from a tax protest to a racial event.
Jay@Soob speaks wisely.
Despite all my sniping, I like the idea of a third party. But not a third party that spouts secessionist, isolationist, racist bullshit. It only re-enforces the perception that the Libertarians are just another incarnation of the Sorehead Party.
As Obama is learning, your so-called friends can do you more harm than your enemies.
Doctor,
Speaking of isolationist bullshit, have you read any of the protectionist policies in the stimulus package?
WS - protectionism and isolationism are two facets of the ugly side of populism, both of the right and left.
Princess Pelosi and her sidekick will be at the Fort Worth Tax Day Tea Party!!!!! Also Princess Pelosi has a website that will be up today, with Tax Day Tea Party T-shirts. Pictures of T Shirt will be up later today. The website is:
www.tickedoffamericans.com
I will try to bring Tshirts to the Fort Worth Tea Party if you let me know what size and how many. All shirts will be 100% cotton, brands may vary. Email me first so I have an idea of how many shirts I will need to make. Do not order online just yet. I will let you know when to order online, when I get an idea of how many T-shirts will be needed. The online orders will be shipped Priority mail. Email me at payponies@fastmail.fm
Please secede. Please. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Brave Anonymous,
We tried to secede once in the 1860s. Lots of money was spent, lots of lives were lost.
It turned out to be just one more failed government project.
Secede? Where's the fun in that?
You're much too entertaining to leave.
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