Ron Paul vs. Nick Sarwark: The Real Truth

Published by the Libertarian Party of Nevada

Exactly 5 years ago I stepped on an airplane at Des Moines International Airport, having spent the last two weeks working my tail off for the Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign.  The Iowa Caucuses were a glorious time.  Ron Paul was the GOP front-runner before Fox News manufactured Rick Santorum's narrow victory.  That was realistically the closest the liberty movement has been to taking the White House and rolling back the federal government through the executive route.  

We didn't make it, but I only regret that I couldn't do more.  I never thought I'd see the day when people in the movement openly criticize Ron Paul as un-libertarian (it would have absolutely been heard of 5 years ago).  Nonetheless, here's the truth about the recent snippy exchange between Ron Paul and LNC Chair Nick Sarwark: (Read more)

2 out of 3 are Liberty Candidates!

This article makes the assumption that Rand Paul will remain the frontrunner in the presidential race and be the Republican Party’s nominee on the November 2016 ballot.  No other Republican candidate will be good enough for a stalwart libertarian like me.

2016 will be a much better election year for the liberty movement than 2012.  Back then, Ron Paul had to claw and scrape his way to getting two minutes of speaking time out of two-hour-long debates.  Moderators and major networks never took him seriously, except for the times they’d briefly mention him to drive home how ‘crazy’ he was, or to remind themselves that he was ‘unelectable’.  Worst of all, the libertarian ideas Ron advocated were deeply misunderstood. 2012 wasn’t our year.

This time, our libertarian ideas actually have a shot at being heard and accepted.  Rand Paul is being taken much more seriously than Ron was.  This is due in no small part to Ron blitzing America like a kamikaze in 2012, with ideas like “end the Fed,” “end foreign aid,” and “legalize drugs”.  Because Ron took the full blast of heat in 2012, America in 2016 can find it more palatable when Rand pushes ideas like “let’s fully audit the Fed,” “we can start cutting aid to this list of countries,” and “let’s end the War on Drugs, which is really a war on the black community.”

To make a long story short, Rand Paul’s candidacy excites me.  Sure, he isn’t a pure libertarian like his father, but making that constant comparison is getting silly.  ‘Conservatarian’ Rand Paul will take mainstream America MUCH closer to libertarianism than Hillary Clinton, that’s for damn sure!

I’m also excited that Gary Johnson will be running for president again on the Libertarian Party ticket.  Though I’ve long-since agreed to actually cast my general election vote for Rand, I can see the importance of Gary’s candidacy.  Many in the liberty movement are concerned that Gary running against Rand will ‘divide’ the libertarian vote in America.

I disagree.

If there exists any 'division' within the liberty movement, it runs along these lines:

1. Most libertarians will ultimately swallow their pride and support Rand. They realize that, despite his ‘impurities’ he’s worlds above the other rabble playing the Ronald Reagan name card.
2. Libertarian Party members will vote for Gary Johnson because the Party needs to run candidates in order to function as a Party and not as a weekly tea social.  For some of these folks, Rand might not be ‘good enough’.  They have every right then to run a candidate that better represents them.
3.  Libertarians and libertarian sympathizers who don’t much care for either Rand or Gary will stay home and find creative life hacks that defy government regulations.  Their focus is on advancing liberty through action, not politics.

Judge Napolitano recently said, "I want Rand to win."

Frankly, the liberty movement needs all three groups of people.  We NEED Rand, we NEED Gary, and we even NEED a liberty-advancing alternative for those who are sick of politics.  In the long-run, people are already aligned for what they’ll do or who they’ll support in 2016.  Because libertarians are notorious for sticking to their principles, there'll simply be no arguing with these three groups.

I’m still incredibly excited just to know that I could be seeing Rand Paul and Gary Johnson both on the general election ballot.  Though the Libertarian Party is a smaller party, it’s still the third largest party in the United States.  This means that, of the three biggest American political parties on the November ballot, two out of three candidates will be liberty candidates.

I say again, two out of three general election candidates will be representing libertarian ideas and policy objectives.

Only the Democrat candidate, probably Darth Hillary, will be the candidate representing corruption, government surveillance, and corporate fascism.  The other two candidates will starkly contrast; their platforms will differ from tyranny and instead offer a mostly-libertarian option (Rand) and a super-libertarian option (Gary).

Absolutely nothing about the 2012 election looked like this, and I count all of our lucky stars that years of hard work and activism are finally starting to pay off.  I can only imagine one day in the future when libertarian ideas will have so deeply infiltrated politics, that all three parties’ candidates will be different shades of libertarian.

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ENTER the Rand Paul writing contest!

Images courtesy of aLibertarianFuture.com

Should Libertarian Party members support Rand Paul?

Should members of the Libertarian Party support Rand Paul this election season?  It’s a question making its rounds among Libertarians and libertarian Republicans.  The answer to that question depends on a person’s conscience.

If you want an answer from me, folks, I’d say yes.  It’s my opinion that Libertarians should stand with our brothers and sisters in the Republican Liberty Caucus, for the simple reason that Rand Paul’s message will advance the libertarian cause.  For me, this is above Party loyalty—I left the Republican Party because “Party loyalty” doesn’t fly with me.

Not everybody in the LP will agrees with me on this, and I’m at peace with that.  I understand the Party will run its own presidential candidate or risk irreparable weakness of the organization.  Party members and other alienated voters will vote for that candidate, and they have every right to do so.

My personal strategy walks the line between the LP and RLC. I’ve been a dues-paying LP member since March of 2014, but I’m still registered to vote as a Republican.  I’ll hold onto my GOP registration (and hold my nose in the meantime) so I can vote for Rand in the primary election.  The minute my vote is cast, I’m changing my voter registration to Libertarian.

Regardless of Rand making it to the general election (God willing he does), I’m changing my registration the minute my primary vote is cast or the minute he ceases to be a presidential candidate—whichever comes first.

Yes, I understand that Rand Paul is not libertarian.  He never claimed to be—we just wanted him to be.  But his old-school brand of Goldwater conservatism contains enough libertarianism that his presidential candidacy would be an asset to the liberty movement.

Who else filibustered for 13 hours over the government assassinating American citizens?  Who keeps introducing Audit the Fed into the Senate?  How many ranking Republicans have been saying that national defense probably shouldn’t involve going to war just for the hell of it?

Even his most recent stunt calling for increased defense spending, paired with budget cuts of equal weight, was a successful effort to troll neoconservatives into looking like the liberal spenders they really are.

By the end of his campaigning, more Americans will be “conservatarian,” guaranteed.  Making people less neoconservative and more conservatarian is not a failure to make them libertarian.

I, Zach Foster, never would have become libertarian or a student of Murray Rothbard if it wasn’t for the breathing room I had being a conservatarian in my transition away from being a young neocon.

Not everyone who votes for Rand Paul will be libertarian.  I understand that.  Rand will have to look more and more Republican as Super Tuesday draws near.  I understand that, too.  He has to play the game, and is playing it a lot better than his father did.

Some neocons turned paleoconservative will require more time to become conservatarian, and still more time to become full-out libertarian, but every step forward is one step closer to a freer society.

I believe that more people will be libertarian after Rand Paul’s candidacy.  Many Party members will join me in campaigning for Rand, and I think that’s wonderful.

Other LP members have no room for Republicans in their vision of the ideal liberty movement.  There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as they work on building up the Libertarian Party instead of tearing down libertarian Republicans.

For me, the Rand Paul campaign is about living free by helping others to see that they have an equal right to live free and can’t terminate my right to do the same.

#StandWithRand

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Images are the property of the Reason Foundation and Time Life, Inc.

Books, Heartbreak, and Alcohol Drama (The Boredom—Week 1, Part 1)

Thank you for reading more about my quest to do meaningful, productive things while I kill time before returning to my amazing job that I love.

Day 3.  Sunday had a productive start.  Not only did I open both eyes, but I even managed to crawl out of bed and slide into some clothes that were probably clean.  I decided to press my winning streak by writing some more—the more I write, the more I can publish and share with the world.

I sat down for a good minute and I wrote a libertarian review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.  The review primarily focuses on guerrilla warfare in Mockingjay and ties that imagery into Murray Rothbard’s writings on guerrilla warfare in the American Revolutionary War (Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty, Vol. IV, ch. 3).  This one has been one of my more highly trafficked articles of late, so I’m pleased at the exposure it’s getting.

I burst out of my creative trance, hightailed it through the shower and picked up both of my teenage nephews at noon.  I like to spend as much time with those boys as possible, especially since their old man took off years ago.  It’s good bonding time, plus I get to talk to them about things that matter.

My nephews and I enjoy seeing movies together.  I took them both to see the awful Red Dawn remake, and the younger one accompanied me to Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein on the big screen.  This time, I took the boys to see Fury before it’s out of theaters.  They really wanted to see it, I certainly didn’t mind seeing it again, and I figured this is a good way to round of the last two WW2 movies I’d showed them: Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

I don’t know what it is about this generation of kids, but they’re way too fond of Holocaust jokes and Call of Duty has made them all think they know what war is.  Basically these intense, gut-wrenching, realistic movies have given them an idea of what violence and suffering really look like.  They’re great teaching aides and Fury was a great finishing touch, with its depiction of Allied misconduct in the war while it still praises the overall heroism and courage of the Greatest Generation.

The boys enjoyed the movie and got something out of it.

Sunday night I got together with some good friends for a backyard bonfire.  Not gonna lie, I take great pride in the fact that I can build a fire in this age of technology.  I figure if some natural disaster happens and the power grid goes out, a lot of people are going to suffer needlessly.  Other than that, knowing how to build a fire is super nice for relaxing outside in cold weather.

Day 4, Monday, was largely uneventful.  I wrote a bit before working on manuscripts for near-future publications.

In 2015 I plan on launching an independent publishing house.  This won’t be like Political Spectrum Publishing.  I’m very proud of PSP and the amazing book it produced—VOICES OF REVOLUTION: Americans Speak Out for Ron Paul.  However, after the Voices book was released and it became increasingly clear Ron Paul wouldn’t be the Republican nominee, the whole train lost steam.  Also, real-life commitments got in the way (such as other campaigns I worked, my job, a toxic relationship, and of course, finishing college).

PSP was a great learning experience, but that was the worst time in my life to have tried—or half-assed—to start a business.

Realistically, a startup business is more like a newborn baby than a Giga Pet—if you don’t know what those are, thanks for making me feel old!

Therefore, my new publishing house is going to be something I can show my own father, look him in the eye, and be proud.  Hey, if I’m not proud to present something to the man I respect most, what business do I have presenting it to the world and even asking for their money?

I’m tentatively calling it The American Liberty Library (ALL). The name is catchy yet meaningful—the focus will be both fiction and nonfiction books that simultaneously entertain or engage and promote libertarian ideas.  Other than forming my business model and plan, I’ve actually been preparing product, hence my working on manuscripts.

Of course the American Liberty Library will be my preferred method of publishing my own books—almost done with #3!—but that won’t be all.  It’ll include some essential classics like Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and the writings of Bastiat, but I’ve also been doing hours of searching for dormant manuscripts.  There are many remarkable books on liberty and in sync with libertarian ideas, but they’ve been lost to time and are in the public domain.  I think it’s time some of these forgotten classics made a comeback!

Tuesday, Day 5 of the Boredom, was an interesting day to say the least!

Ever since we saw each other Friday night, the special gal from Rancho was been acting very strange toward me.  Tuesday morning I found out what I needed to know.  I wish she had just been honest with me instead of getting my hopes up, but it’s better to know anyhow.  Now I don’t have to wonder.

I went to the gym and had a great workout to get my mind off of things.  Then I swung by In ‘N’ Out for a protein-style Double-Double and animal-style fries, washing it all down with a cold Dr. Pepper.  It was a feast fit for kings!

I finished digitally restoring the manuscript for Harold Frederic’s 1893 novel, The Copperhead.  Some of you may be familiar with the novel’s movie adaptation, Copperhead, by Gettysburg director Ronald F. Maxwell.  It’s a well-written novel and has a totally different ending than its film adaptation, so this is good!

That evening, I picked up some friends for what was to be an amazing night out.  For months, whenever I’m in town, I’ve headed up to the Saddleback Inn at Lake Arrowhead, California for karaoke and fun times.  The people there are always really cool and there’s never drama, only people trying to enjoy themselves.

Unfortunately, it was dead that night.  I’ve never seen this normally-cracking place so entirely dismally dead.  Therefore, one of my friends decided it wasn’t going to be a good night.  He got ridiculously drunk—we hadn’t even been there an hour before he was smashed—and he ended up getting belligerent and talking a ton of trash to the bartenders.

Needless to say, the owner of the establishment personally asked us to get him the hell out of there.  Basically, I’d driven everyone there for a solid one-hour each way drive, for us to be home by 11.  That night was a loss.  I was really disappointed that one of my closest friends could make such an ass of himself in public and embarrass me in front of people I respect at one of my favorite hangout spots.  They were all cool about it, they knew he was drunk, etc., but the company you keep is the name you carry, and they’re going to remember that I brought that guy.

Day 6, Wednesday, I woke up a little later than planned.  I emailed a client regarding a side job, and then did what was unpleasant, but necessary.  I called the girl from Rancho to give the breakup talk.  She didn’t answer; I didn’t expect her to.  So I left a long voice mail balancing a list of grievances with respect and the promise that I would neither cause her any drama nor stand in the way of her happiness.

So here I am.  Now, I’m off to go do something useful.  Check back in a few days for another update on The Boredom.

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Mockingjay Part 1 art is the property of Lionsgate films and other respective owners and stakeholders, used here according to Fair Use laws for the promotion of the movie. Copperhead movie poster is the property of Swordspoint Productions, Brainstorm Media, and other respective owners and stakeholders, used here according to Fair Use laws.

Libertarian Star Wars images

For a while now I've been a big stickler on libertarian culture. Bridging the gap between libertarian ideas and mainstream culture is a key way to grow the liberty movement.

Doing so was my objective in making these hi-resolution libertarian e-posters featuring stunning Star Wars artwork and quotes from famous libertarians, including Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Ron Paul.

Just so you know, I did not create these beautiful images. I also do not own or possess the rights to them.  I simply found them on various Google image searches and put text on them.

Despite the libertarian opposition to intellectual property, we still don't want to get sued, so... You may use these libertarian Star Wars e-posters strictly for non-commercial purposes (i.e. no currency exchanged).

Now that that's out of the way, let's share some ideas!

Share these images far and wide!  Re-post!  Re-blog!

May the Force [and God-given liberty] be with you.

Click the images to enlarge

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Star Wars is the property of Lucasfilm Ltd., The Walt Disney Corporation, and Twentieth Century Fox. The potentially copyrighted images were used for free speech and strictly for non-commercial purposes.

Five Libertarian Ideas #19 - Ron Swanson, Troops for Ron Paul

Technology and the free market

Last night I was reading a kickass novel on my tablet via the Kindle app. Now I'm out and about reading the same book on my phone, and the Kindle app on my phone brought me to where I left off on the tablet. Incredible!

Better yet, I got the tablet for FREE as a special promo for buying ANY Android phone. Now I'm having a blast with two new devices that allow me to run a side business, do homework, and be entertained on-the-go. This is a beautiful example of the wealth and abundance created by the free market.

Today is a wonderful day to be libertarian. -5/14

Ron Swanson libertarian or Kim Jong Un communist?

SFL asked if I was a Ron Swanson libertarian or a Kim Jong-un communist. Frankly, I was sorely tempted to go with the commies. They may have their collective head up their collective ass, but they know what pageantry is! We libertarians are on point about a whole lot of things, but the Reds have style! (Thus endeth the jest.) -5/15

Troops for Ron Paul

I was walking around on post today, wearing my Youth for Paul T-shirt, when a soldier passing me says "Hell yeah, bro, Ron Paul!" Made…. my... day!  Though many in the liberty movement arrogantly scorn these "servants of the state," those who have to cash with blood the checks written by civilian leaders are among the MOST receptive to a humble libertarian foreign policy. -5/19

Civil war in Ukraine

Civil war is already upon Ukraine. With the army having failed, Ukrainian patriots have assembled pro-Kiev militias and clashed with separatists in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic. Ukraine is a prime example of the new kind of non-state warfare. Wars between governments are a thing of the past. Wars between private groups are the new wave. Mexico is another prime example of this. -5/21

Enter the Ukrainian National Guard

According to Simon Ostrovsky (formerly detained and beaten by Russian separatists), the entire First Battalion of the Ukrainian National Guard are volunteers who were peaceful protestors at Euro Maidan in Kiev. They stood up to a corrupt regime because it oppressed and repressed peaceful dissent. Now they're in combat in Eastern Ukraine because they oppose the Kremlin invading via Spetsnaz and installing breakaway puppet states like the so-called Donetsk People's Republic. They're an all-volunteer force.

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Smart phone photo by the UK Ministry of Defense, via Open Government License 1.0; Ukraine image by Mstyslav Chernov, via CC BY-SA 3.0 license.