Interviewer: Politics: I'm a registered Libertarian. You and I both know that the party's membership has not been growing by leaps and bounds....
Means: So they get frustrated. But, it's the party of principle --
Interviewer: -- Oh, I'm not saying we should abandon our principles. What I'm getting at is: Do you think that the Libertarian Party has been stressing some principles over others? Say, market capitalism has been stressed over civil liberties? The reason I became a Libertarian Party member is because I believe in upholding civil liberties: The rights of the people to free speech, to keep and bear arms against the government ramming your door in at four in the morning on some trumped- up charge....you know, Fourth Amendment violations.
Means: You know, it's one of the reasons I left the Libertarian Party, because it's headed by a bunch of people involved in arithmetic. About the dullest subject, I'm not talking about mathematics; I'm talking about arithmetic...........that's basic, elementary. And, you're right, you can call it "the market," but they're dull. They don't change their message. If they believe so much in the free market, how come they don't know anything about marketing? It's always puzzled me. I go to Libertarian convention after Libertarian convention, and it's the same rhetoric I heard when I joined in '87, which is thirteen years ago. It's amazing that....you know, "how to become a Libertarian" and the dull market issues. But, there's the constant hammering at government, but they just mouth the words about individual liberty. And that's why I'm a Libertarian, because I believe in individual liberty in economics, in human rights and every other way, to breathe free air. I know that in Libertarianism, we would have a better environment, because if you had unlimited liability included, you would be able to sue those that are fouling up your air, your water or your land. But, you can't do that now because of government protection, which is there because of corporate special interests.
Interviewer: Like with the MTBE added to gasoline: I've known about that for seven years, from when I lived in New York, and there were stories in the newspapers, on TV and radio -- and, you know, New York's not a small media market, it's the market -- and you'd hear about some old lady in Jersey passing out from the fumes of this MTBE, people's water was getting contaminated, but because the EPA mandated that it was necessary for the clean air, nothing could be done for almost a decade until the shit hit the fan with that "60 Minutes" piece a few months ago. So, a couple of days ago, President Clinton finally says "well, maybe it's time we take it out of the gasoline."
Means: That's corporate money that gets in there that protects their own pollution. That's what I'm saying: Centralized power helps no-one. And the peculiar thing about this is that it's a lesson of history.
Interviewer: Most people don't learn lessons of history. You said it yourself, and I agree: "The American people have the attention spans of gnats." Right? We can't even learn from last week. John McCain was the media darling last week, now he's "what's his name?" How can we learn from history, when history is not even taught in our schools, when kids can graduate without knowing how to read?
Means: I knew a lot of those Libertarians who supported my run for the presidency, and they were not the "suit and button-down" type. They were freewheeling individualists, unlike some of the present leadership in the Libertarian Party. However, people leave the Libertarian Party because they just want to go do their thing and live their lives as best as they can be free.
Interviewer: But the party needs them.
Means:
The party needs them, and they need each other. I'm not saying that's
the way to go; What I'm saying is that the Party won't let go.
The old leadership from the 70s, who came from conservative Republicans,
by-and-large -- 80 per cent; 20 per cent came from liberal Democrats
-- that old-line leadership refuses to let go. Control again,
you know? And the new people don't have the stomach to work.
To build anything, you've got to work from the ground up. You can't
work from the top-down, like the Libertarian Party. I've always said
that the Libertarian Party is going about it bass-ackwards. They're
playing house; they're pretending that they're like the big boys.
They have a convention in a fancy hotel and they're always squeezing dollars,
but they're going to pretend that they're rich. I went to a workshop
in Boston at the Massachusetts Libertarian State Party convention and they
had a lecture on gold. The guy who was giving the lecture on the
value of gold and why it should be invested-in, and why hard metal should
be behind money, was standing there and he looked just a little bit better-dressed
than a homeless guy; his shoes needed polishing, his pants needed
to be pressed -- he'd been wearing his suit pants a couple day, they had
the bulging knees -- and almost frayed collar. You know, he dressed
nice and clean, but there's the used look. And I thought:
"Wait a minute: I'm going to put credence in this guy? I'm
going to believe him about investing in gold and he looks like that?"!
[Laughs] At least polish your damn shoes! You know, if
you're well-organized they'll go after you. That's why the Libertarian
Party is not a danger; they're not well organized. They're
not a danger, because you get the Ron Pauls. As soon as some Libertarians
see a chance to jump in with the big boys, they do it. For prestige.
Interviewer: Exactly: Ron Paul is a Republican now.
Means: He was a Republican to start with. He never was anything else but a Republican. Even when I ran against him. He's a damn Republican! He played politics as a Republican. You know, I never said anything bad about Ron Paul publicly, you know........but, he comes back and the only way he can become prestigious in his own community is to become Republican. He sells his alleged Libertarian principles down the drain. You can't be a part-time Libertarian, when it feels good, you know? You're either for freedom all the way or you're not. So, getting back to what Libertarians are all about: They're not well organized, so they pose no threat. Otherwise, we'd be facing humongous court costs because our leadership would be hounded. You know, I'm speaking at the National Convention this year. Well, I'm not for tearing anything down, though. I'm for building it.
Interviewer: I think the Libertarian Party needs to shift focus. You're right: We're not good marketers. I've been to a few meetings at the local level, and it seems to me that I've never met a bunch of single-issue voters like some of the more active Libertarians. I think we need to steer it back around to basic principles. All you need to do is read the newspapers: Reading every day about the massive attacks on our liberty -- it's not written that way, but it doesn't take much to read between the lines -- and some of these people sound like Steve Forbes: "How do we fix the tax code?" "How do we privatize Social Security"? I ask: What about the central issue of individual freedom?
Means: There is tremendous dissatisfaction in America concerning the political status-quo. The inability of the Libertarian Party to seize upon that dissatisfaction.......you get the Reform Party, which stands for nothing, except one word --
Interviewer: -- Reform, which only means to make anew, to "re-form," to change. But, it could be a change for the worse. When I saw Perot, I was thinking "he's going to make the trains run on time like Mussolini over here," you know?
Means: Yeah, he buys a party! He went out and bought the disaffected. But, look at the people who went to the Reform Party, that was nineteen per-cent of the electorate. And, the Libertarians don't get a piece of it. That's when I quit the party, because I was so disgusted. All those disaffected people should have gone to the Libertarian Party if we knew how to organize. You've got to stop what doesn't work, and nothing's working for the Libertarian Party. They get a lot of new members, but a lot of old members are going out the back door. They never get to a million people, except in 1980 when Ed Clark got a million votes, because he financed it.
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