[cross-posted at Liberty & Power]
I note with interest that my old friend Mary Ruwart is entering the race for the LP nomination. Leaving aside the tangled question of whether electoral politics is an appropriate venue for libertarian activism (for the record, my view is that it shouldn’t be central but is not forbidden either), I have to point out that Mary is clearly a more acceptable candidate to those of a left-libertarian persuasion than is Ron Paul.
On such issues as abortion, immigration, punishment, plutocracy, constitutionalism, gay marriage, and patents and copyrights, her positions, while not always perfect, are at least broadly left-libertarian, while on the issues of foreign policy and the war on terror she’s actually more radically antiwar than Paul. Plus she’s even an anarchist, though she doesn’t trumpet it or use the term. Go Mary!
In not-especially-related news, I’m pleased to see that Ken MacLeod’s Fall Revolution tetralogy, the ultimate left-libertarian science-fiction epic, is being re-released in a two-volume edition.
Oh, one more: on the issue of the environment, Ruwart is once again, if not perfect (from my point of view), still better than the libertarian mainstream; see here and here.
Wouldn’t it be a logical contradiction for an anarchist to be president?
Leaving aside Anon73’s logically consistent observation (doesn’t s/he know there is no such thing as “contradiction” on the beautiful planet of Libertarian Theory — only “degrees”?), it would indeed appear that Ms. Ruwart would be the most logically consistent of available choices for the voting libertarian.
So: Best of luck to all of her libertarian supporters. They’re going to need it.
Anon73,
Wouldn’t it be a logical contradiction for an anarchist to be president?
I don’t think so; see my argument here.
As opposed to neologizing an old term ….
Valid point — somehow the coffee doesn’t seem to kicked in yet this morning.
In an article she wrote some years ago on LewRockwell.com, she mentions that it was The Market for Liberty that swayed her toward anarchism. It is the only time I ever found her using the term. Although I had bought her book last year, I have yet to find the time to read it.
I wonder if she’ll issue a new edition for her campaign. If so, it would be nice to have a version that looks a bit more professional.
Because of time constraints, she is planning to update her Short Answers to the Tough Questions book with some of the great material from her Ask Dr Ruwart column at the Advocates for Self Government site. I’ve offered to help. If there are any questions you think should be added, or disliked some of the ones she provided in her last edition, I would definitely be interested in knowing.
If the campaign makes a splash, she might update Healing Our World after the campaign is over. I’ll be busy on my own intro at that time, Anarchy Without Bombs, which will much briefer and focused on explaining the elements to market anarchism and try to make the case to those sympathetic to left-anarchism.
I hope you don’t mind: Ruwarchy! was such a great title that I stole it for my unofficial web site to support her ideas.
I wonder whether McCain will adopt the campaign motto “Bombs Without Anarchy.”