I must follow him, follow him wherever he may go. He is my destiny.
Lindsey Graham wet his finger, held it high, found which way the wind was blowing, and manfully follows its lead. Another soldier in the Trump Brigade. Another politician of iron rectitude, so long as his donors approve. A realist, Graham follows the money, wherever it goes. His hero, John McCain, had already fallen in line with the man who mocked his sacrifices in the Hanoi Hilton. It just comes down to money.
I had a post ready to go on the Libertarian Moment, and decided to submit it to American Thinker instead. If there ever was a time for the Libertarians to make a difference, this is the year.
The Alaskan Libertarian leaders I’ve been in touch with seem pretty savvy. U. S. Senate candidate Cean Stevens and Chairman Michael Chambers seem pretty level headed. If their colleagues gathering in Orlando this weekend are of like minds, they could do some serious damage this year to the elephant/donkey duopoly. But you never know with these Libertarians. They could all collectively go on a wild goose chase. It will be fun to watch. Hey, it beats golf.
The thing is, the Libertarian Presidential candidate needs to go where the potential votes are. They’re mainly in the Far West, starting with Alaska. I served with Rep. Andre Marrou, who later was the 1992 Libertarian candidate for President. He had been preceded by two other Libertarian House members from Fairbanks. In 1982 one of them, Dick Randolph, ran a strong campaign for Governor. Alaska is just fertile ground for Libertarians, as much as any place in the country. In 2016 the issue of the Transfer of Public Lands could win Alaska’s three electoral votes. If the Libertarian had won those three EV’s in 2000, the election would have been thrown to the House of Representatives. Anything can happen, because nobody knows anything.
Andre was an engineer from Homer, a graduate of MIT. Originally from Texas, he told me the guys on the MIT football team (yes, they actually had one) weren’t used to playing football, Texas style. I liked giving Andre a hard time, and said the only way he got in to MIT was on a football scholarship. I was in the House Minority at the time, and we decided to let Andre be a participant in our Minority Caucus meetings. The only thing about him that rankled me was the hundreds of bills he introduced, none of which would even get a hearing. But old Andre wanted to abolish pretty much the entire state government of Alaska, and he put the bills in to do it.
Libertarians, of course, are all for the decriminalization of marijuana, and that might help them this year in places like Alaska, Colorado and Washington, where initiatives doing just that have recently passed. California is a bridge too far for Libertarians, but marijuana is supposed to be on the ballot here in November, and it will help Libertarians in places like Oregon.
According to the polls, everybody hates and fears the federal government, but no one will vote to do anything about it. Why not go on a blind date with a Libertarian, just once? At least it would be different.
Voting Libertarian in 2016 doesn’t mean becoming one. You don’t have to buy in to their whole program, or have much love for their candidate. It’s a tactical, not a strategic, move. Whatever defects can be found in any individual Libertarian candidate are dwarfed by the flaws in Clinton and Trump. It’s time to disenthrall ourselves, as far as I’m concerned.
As Everett Dirksen used to say, I’m a man of principle, and one of my principles is flexibility. One of my fondest memories is seeing old Ev give the nominating speech for Barry Goldwater at the Cow Palace 52 years ago. He called it “The Peddler’s Grandson”, and he told the story of Barry’s immigrant German Jewish grandfather, who got his start in America by peddling goods to the Natives of Arizona in the 19th century. Now his grandson was the Republican nominee for President. What a country.
Worth fighting for.
reaganproject.com 