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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Late Night Open Thread: Among the Wild Libertarians

Late Night Open Thread: Among the Wild Libertarians

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Yes, it’s almost too easy a target. But then again, they’re Libertarians, so they should be used to it by now. The NYTimes:

… In a year when the two major parties are consumed by tensions, defections and chaos, the Libertarian Party, which sees itself as their alternative, displayed some of the same traits as it wrestled with nominating two former Republican governors for its presidential ticket at its annual convention over the weekend. But there was also a palpable sense of excitement at the event, held at a hotel here less than 10 miles from Disney World.

For an antiwar party that promotes legalizing marijuana and tearing up the tax code, 2016 has brought hope that acceptance in the political mainstream is imminent amid broad discontent with the probable nominees from the major parties.

The Libertarian Party is the country’s third largest by voter registration, excluding people who consider themselves independent, but it is often overlooked as a political sideshow with a hodgepodge of positions that many consider to be either overly liberal on social issues or too conservative fiscally…

Dave Weigel, at the Washington Post, is far more sympathetic:

ORLANDO — Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson won the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination on Sunday, fending off five rivals from different factions on two closely fought ballots and securing more than 55.8 percent of the total vote.

But Johnson’s near-miss on the first ballot kicked off an afternoon of protests and delegate glad-handing, with the vice presidential race to be decided later. Johnson had run a careful campaign with an eye on the general election, picking former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld — like him, a Republican who switched parties — as his running mate. In Saturday night’s debate, Johnson, alone among the top-five contenders, said that he would have signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and that he thought people should be licensed to drive cars. He was loudly booed for both positions…

Johnson’s rivals, especially Libertarian activist Austin Petersen and software engineer John McAfee, saw an opportunity to drag out the process. They briefly huddled on the convention floor and worked delegates, as Johnson had unfruitful conversations with critics and then walked outside for an interview with MSNBC…

(Earlier WaPo reports here and here.)


libertarian con m scott mahaskey politico chargers stolen
Politico has a slideshow — frontloaded for the cosplayers & geeks, of course.

Reader Interactions

44Comments

  4. 4.

    Juju

    Wow. And people have had the nerve to criticize my thighs, and I keep mine covered. On the other hand I guess it really does take balls to do something like that.

  5. 5.

    MikeBoyScout

    Call me a fascist statist Communist, but there ought to be a law against ugly fat naked white guys in public

  6. 6.

    hellslittlestangel

    It’s great that suspected murderer John McAfee has found a political party in which he feels accepted.

  8. 8.

    Origuy

    They went to Orlando and they didn’t hold it in Fantasyland?

  9. 9.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Wait a minute — glibertarians nominated 2 old white guys — what a shocker.

  10. 10.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Origuy: Disney may appear to be a Mickey Mouse organization, but they’re much more serious that libertarians.

    (That’s why they’re a GEC.)

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    Gay married? Like married by the government? I thought your proper hardcore Libertarians wanted to eliminate gay marriage and straight marriage too.

  13. 13.

    Damien

    I feel like we’re either going to look back at this period in American politics as the high-water mark of the general insanity caucus, or the first step on a short road to Mad Max.

    Either way, I hope it’s the high-water mark for bethonged and bearded men on C-Span.

  16. 16.

    Loviatar

    I like this term, I think I’ll use it from now on.

    Second American Revolution: April 12, 1861 – May 9, 1865

  20. 20.

    Ken

    Another way the Libertarians aren’t like the Republicans: The people who show up at their rallies, vote in their elections, and become their nominees don’t really represent the party.

  21. 21.

    sdhays

    @hellslittlestangel: Not really. Using Trump’s “logic”, they were mean to him by not acknowledging his manifest awesomeness and giving him the nomination. Poor guy. I hope he’s not so upset that he needs to go murder his neighbors. Again.

  22. 22.

    sdhays

    @MikeBoyScout: Would this be considered “in public” or a private event? If being a Libertarian means having male strippers at your private convention, then that’s their right, although I do wonder what the folks at CSPAN’s reaction was when the guy started taking off his pants. Did someone going running down the hall shouting “FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!!! GET READY TO PIXELATE!!!!!”

  23. 23.

    Hal

    If we lived in the Star Trek universe where every home had it’s own independent power system and food replicater along with a personal shuttle to get around, then I could see libertarianism working.

  24. 24.

    StringOnASick

    I thought the Republicans were the party of raging Id this year; then I’m reminded that libertoonians exist.

  26. 26.

    max

    Oliver Willis:

    the republican party is a pretty ridiculous institution.
    libertarian party: “challenge accepted”

    The GOP is still winning.

    max
    [‘The Libertarians had a naked fat guy – the Republicans had Clint Eastwood talking to a chair.’]

  30. 30.

    Jack the Second

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Yep, running against Hillary Clinton (68), Donald Trump (69), and Jill Stein (66).

    When I was looking up nominee ages to confirm that Hillary Clinton was the oldest Democratic nominee ever, it seemed that 55 was about the standard age for Presidential nominees. There have been some older (Bob Dole was 73 in ’96), but I don’t think we’ve ever had such a *uniformly* older crowd like this.

  32. 32.

    BubbaDave

    @sdhays:

    FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!!! GET READY TO PIXELATE!!!!!

    In 2020 they’ll broadcast the convention on a seven-second delay.

  33. 33.

    EconWatcher

    I’m not sure this is all levity. This is actually pretty interesting.

    I don’t believe the LP has ever had a ticket with anything like the credibility that Johnson and Weld bring. While their conventioneers may be clowns, their apparent nominees are not. If they actually did manage to line up Koch money, they could make an interesting year even more watchable.

    They won’t win, of course, but they could shake that electoral college map up a bit, while drawing Republican votes. Plus, they would add to the pressure for the Republican Party to jettison its neocon wing.

    It’s all good.

  36. 36.

    Robin G.

    Hey, Ron Paul, isn’t this supposed to be where you brag you paid the Iron Price *instead* of the gold? You’re doing the Kingsmoot wrong.

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    Anyone else notice the Iron Cross tattoo on his right shoulder? Common motif in white supremacist imagery.

  39. 39.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman: photo not showing up, but I’ve seen that motif before. I wish I could say I was shocked, SHOCKED to learn that there were white supremacists in this movement, but I can’t.

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