It seems like Lew Rockwell is your scapegoat for everything. I knew you were referring to him when you talked about the Libertarian's "opposition" to the 14th Amendment.
One man DOES NOT represent an entire ideological movement.
Very true - one man is not the movement. However, one man can be a giant within a movement - or what passes for a movement at least in the eyes of the True Believers. In the area of libertarianism, Rockwell is one of those giants. His opinion finds its way into libertarian orthodoxy and is often parroted by libs on websites. I was not here at the time, but on two other sites I was active on I was struck by the deafening silence from the usual libertarian activists when the Citizens United decisions was rendered by the Court. Lots of people were opining about it but the libs were either silent or cautiously on the fence. Then Rockwell wrote about it and others on his site did too and suddenly we had the usual suspects aping good old Lew.
This site is different than other sites I have encountered. In all honesty there seems to be a type of gang mentality that exists here among the rightist libertarians. And I do not include E. Galt in that evaluation who seems more principled. There seems this alliance between people who identify themselves as conservative or very conservative and those who adopt the libertarian label. Normally I would read the angry words of libertarians proclaiming that they are not right wing, they are not conservative, that they cannot be labeled or identified. They are special. They are unique. They are in a class by themselves.
I have heard that for years. But here it seems different and that is something for me to get used to.
Or perhaps the alliance between libertarianism and the tea party has pushed the entire libertarian following to the right? perhaps folks like the good Reverend here have replaced the more traditional libertarian who found themselves on the left side of issues also. But here there is an open scorning of the left by libs and they cannot seem to say enough bad things about the left.
In a way, that is understandable it would happen and libertarianism would shift to the right. After all, how many years now has it been that the Libertarian Party has been involved in elections and have generally struck out on three straight pitches time after time? In presidential elections, the party cannot even get one-half of one percent of the popular vote recently. The label of Libertarian seems the kiss of death at the ballot box. So the tea party movement is catching on with those on the right and they are trying to take over the Republican party and its probably a tactic worth trying for libertarians to jump on that bandwagon since their own wagon was crashed in the side ditch with no hope of ever getting on the road let alone winning the race.
Its just like the comment from Goobieman which started this entire exchange. For some reason he had to take a potshot at the new libertarian enemy - the dreaded, the hated, the despicable "leftists" for wanting to have the unbridled temerity to interpret the Constitution. And it took ten long and winding pages to get him to even partially admit that he too acknowledges interpreting the Constitution also. So why take the easy shot in the first place if you believe in the same idea. Your interpretation is clearly not the same. But you believe in interpretation just the same.
Its silly and pointless but its part of the gang mentality here and the libertarian shift to the right that is on display all over the land. I guess it something I have to get used to.
impdaddy: