Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Has the Libertarian Party rejected Ron Paul?

Has the Libertarian Party Rejected Ron Paul and Judge Napolitano? - Steve Byas, The New American:

February 5, 2018 - "The national Libertarian Party was back in the news late last week, with a dispute over whether the LP had refused to allow Ron Paul — probably the nation’s best-known libertarian — and Judge Andrew Napolitano to speak at the party’s 2018 convention. The convention’s coordinator, Daniel Hayes, said Paul 'has no idea what the LP represents.'

"Apparently, the Mises Caucus, a faction of the LP, had expressed interest in Paul appearing at the convention, but Paul typically has a speaking fee of $35,000. Hayes has denied that Paul would not be allowed to speak; rather, Hayes said, Paul could speak, if the honorariums for Paul and Napolitano (which would have totaled $70,000) were paid by someone other than the LP — though a question arose about whether an outside group can actually pay for a speaker at a political party event, under federal campaign laws.

"While the Libertarian Party may not have actually rejected Paul from speaking at the event, it is quite clear that the LP has moved to the left in recent years, and Paul's libertarianism is no longer the accepted brand any more among the more socially liberal leadership of the Libertarian Party.

"Incredibly, the LP leadership has even compared Ron and Rand Paul to the Bushes and the Clintons. LP Chairman Nicholas Serwark attacked the Ludwing von Mises Institute, comparing it to a Nazi organization. And while the Mises Institute has become somewhat controversial within the LP, the party does make room in its circle for a Socialist Caucus!

"Paul, for his part, expressed disappointment.... 'It used to be that they would ask me, you know, quite frequently.' He added that he believed the LP has abandoned its principles, especially with its nomination of Gary Johnson and William Weld to head the ticket in 2016. 'When you look at the leadership, so often you see that they melted away.'

"Paul lamented that the LP 'failed to live up to what should have been its role as an ideological alterntive to Washington’s one-party system. As was quite obvious in the 2016 presidential election, the Libertarians yielded to prevailing attitudes on war, welfare, the Federal Reserve, and more. In believing that winning was more important than standing for something, they ended up achieving neither'....

"The 2016 LP nominee for president, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, hardly qualifies as a limited-government candidate himself. He opposes the abolition of the Federal Reserve System, and supports the Environmental Protection Agency, despite there being no authorization in the Constitution for either one.... More important, apparently, is support for same-sex 'marriage.' Johnson infamously dismissed concerns about forcing bakers to celebrate same-sex marriages, by saying, 'I just see religious freedom, as a category, as just being a black hole'....

"Liberty is apparently no longer the principle driving the Libertarian Party."

Read more: https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/28209-has-the-libertarian-party-rejected-ron-paul-and-judge-napolitano
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