When I'm Calling Yo-ooooo-ooou!

Well, my wanderings in the political wilderness continue. Some may charge me with wishy-washiness. But I have no difficulty figuring out where I stand -- and never have. My problem is figuring out just where I fit.

After several months of trying out the Democrats again, I realize that the Libertarian Party is calling me. Calling me, I guess I can at last say, home.

I still have the same difficulties with the Libs I mentioned on this Blog. They don't have enough women in the party, and some of the guys who run things are assholes who don't know how to listen. But that doesn't change the fact that if I'm not myself a Libertarian, there's only one less woman in the party. How that could be considered a good thing, I don't know.

My concerns about the Libertarian vision still remain. But as a member of the party, I am in a far better position to help steer it in the right direction than I ever could be as a Democrat. And the Democratic party SUCKS A BIG ONE. There is no way around that.

Good night nurse, the Democratic Party sucks! I never saw such a bunch of whiners, cowards, crybabies and shameless, unprincipled opportunists in my life. For a brief, shining moment in November of '06, I had some hope that things might get better -- after all, we gave these clowns a sharp and clear mandate to lead. We practically gave them a kick in the pants to get them to lead.

They need a lot more than a kick in the pants. They need the boot of every American clear up their collective ass. And in addition to refusing to lead us out of the mess in Iraq, they have cut and run on gay rights.

Let me put the recent remarks of Garrison Keillor and Roseanne Barr in some perspective. They are mouthing the current party line. Gays are now the scapegoats for everything wrong in the party, and we're being thrown under the bus. Our "leaders" are still as hypersensitive as ever about what celebrities say, but they seem to be totally without a clue as to why these people are saying these things. Folks, it is only the new party line!

Democrats think they've got us in their hip pocket. They think we can't go anywhere else, because anywhere else it's worse. But the Republicans -- pathetic as they are -- have nowhere to go but up on social issues. Their party simply won't survive if they keep on pandering to the bigots. The Greens are off in la-la land somewhere (sorry, I checked into that party, and they are still stuck in the Sixties). That leaves the Libertarians -- as flawed as they are in some ways.

Yes, there are nuts in the Libertarian Party. Unfortunately, you can't keep nuts from joining your party, or from running for office under your party's banner. At least, according to Libertarian principle, the nuts can't force their nutty notions on the rest of us.

As for social darwinism -- a charge many lob at the Libertarians and of which I myself have worried they may be guilty -- I can't accept it. If I became convinced it was a necessary feature of libertarianism (small or capital L), I would, as a Christian, find myself fundamentally at odds with it. But as a Libertarian friend recently pointed out to me, the society they want does not HAVE to be one based on social darwinism. It is still up to the people in that society to determine how it will function -- but if it's libertarian, this will simply be done without resorting to brute force.

I can certainly accept that. I appreciate being reminded of it. I will do my utmost never to forget it again.

Libertarian principle. This is a party that HAS principle! In and of itself, that is such a breath of fresh air. Especially in this day and age.