Amusingly, Democrats in several states have apparently been running fake attack ads against Libertarian candidates that describe them in terms designed to appeal to Tea-Party-style Republicans so as to split the Republican vote. Here are a couple of samples (click on them to enlarge):
I call this such ads “fake” attack ads because although the Democrats do disagree with the positions they ascribe to the Libertarian candidate, the goal of the ad is to increase rather than to decrease support for that candidate. (Notice that the ad never identifies its target as Libertarian, thus preventing anyone from wondering “why are the Democrats wasting money attacking a third-party candidate with low poll numbers?” They’re also counting on people not wondering “why would the Democrats use ‘outsider’ as a pejorative term when most voters identify positively with it?” or “why are they surrounding the person they’re attacking with flags and American Revolution imagery?”)
In other news, I see that I am, at the moment, the first name mentioned in the Wikipedia article on libertarianism!
Has Walter Block decided to pass on the title of “Mr. Libertarian” to you?
The only Mr. Libertarian I know is Wendell R. Libertarian of Sandusky, Ohio. Oddly enough, he votes a straight Green ticket.
This has to be one of the most bizarre strategies I’ve seen yet.
Well, it is coming from a party that habitually blames Green voters for their own pathetic election losses.
Any improvement in the Wikipedia article on libertarianism is welcome. Any positive reference to you is an improvement.
The list of people in Wikipedia’s Libertarianism sidebar is also, er, *interesting* in its choices of who to include:
“Walter Block · Murray Bookchin · Kevin Carson · Gary Chartier · Frank Chodorov · Noam Chomsky · Ed Crane · Joseph Déjacque · Brian Doherty · Milton Friedman · Henry George · Nick Gillespie · Friedrich Hayek · Henry Hazlitt · Hans-Hermann Hoppe · Steven Horwitz · Stephan Kinsella · Rose Wilder Lane · Roderick T. Long · Carl Menger · Ludwig von Mises · Stefan Molyneux · Albert Jay Nock · Robert Nozick · Isabel Paterson · Ron Paul · Ayn Rand · Leonard Read · Sheldon Richman · Llewellyn Rockwell · Murray Rothbard · Joseph Schumpeter · Hans Sennholz · Henry David Thoreau · Leo Tolstoy”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Libertarianism_sidebar
Chomsky a libertarian? And of course Ayn Rand is turning in her grave right about now.
Actually I agree with pretty much everybody on that list. Whether “left” or “right”, most of those people were concerned with/contributed to the cause of liberty and freedom in the way they saw best.
British libertarian blog Samizdata has reprted that Sarah Palin has recieved the highest endorsement she could get: She has been criticised as “unqualified” by George W Bush. Now, I utterly dislike Sarah Palin, and frankly think the Tea party thing was much better when it was manly about the Liberty campaign and Ron paul (and he was a second best to Mary Ruwart), bust if George W Bush opposes you and thinks you are unqualified, thats a pretty good recommendation in my book!
Link to Samizdata: http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/2010/11/yet_another_tru.html