Calhoun County Libertarians

For Peace, Prosperity, and Privacy

____________
Date to Remember: June 2, State Convention, Libertarian Party of Michigan (in Livonia)

We welcome anyone who has an interest in the issues discussed on this page. Use the email system at the bottom of this page to contact us if you want to express your own opinion.

For more information about the Libertarian Party, please take a look at the website of the LP of Michigan. See the link below.

Click Here for Full Calendar

LINKS

	THE CATO INSTITUTE
	ROOT FOR AMERICA
	MICHIGAN VOTES
	MACKINAC CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY
	MIDDLE AMERICAN NEWS
	NATIONAL LIBERTARIAN PARTY
	LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF MICHIGAN
	CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY
	FED UP MICHIGAN (INCLUDES TEA PARTY INFO)
	MICHIGAN FAIR TAX

Calhoun County Libertarians

May 2012

Why Can't Johnson Stand Prosperity?

Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson just couldn't stay away from the recent Obama declaration in favor of Gay "Marriage." That's unfortunate.

It is generally agreed that the Prez was forced into the open by two facts. One, the gay community was withholding its substantial financial support for the Obama re-election campaign in the belief that Obama hadn't come across with the support for the gay agenda that was expected. Two, Vice-President Biden made the latest of his famous verbal stumbles and came out for gay marriage without clearing it with the White House, thus forcing Obama's hand. It's possible that Obama had been intending to spring his change of heart at just the right moment--probably close to or at the Democrat National Convention.

In any case, the President's poll numbers positively plummeted in the days following. Gay activists predictably followed up their victory by demanding that the Convention, set for later this year in Charlotte, NC, be moved to another state. That's because the voters of North Carolina outlawed gay marriage at almost the same time as Obama was endorsing it. Vulnerable Democrat candidates for the House and Senate immediately tried to distance themselves from the Obama stance. And Governor Romney instantly found new friends in the Evangelical community that had been wary of him because of his Mormon faith. It could hardly have been worse for the resident of the White House.

Now enter the Libertarian candidate for President, Gary Johnson. What Gov. Johnson should have done was shove this particular issue to the back of his platform, not disavowing his support for "marriage equality" but making the economy and the size of government front and center in his campaign. But no, he felt the need to start talking about how Obama didn't go far enough!

That's right; he's attacking the President for not making himself even less popular with Mr. and Mrs. Average American. How is that action supposed to appeal to Middle America? Johnson is not going to win the homosexual vote if it's now reconciled to Obama, but he can sure alienate plenty of other people who may now think of Johnson as the candidate who's so far on the fringe that he thinks Obama's endorsing of gay marriage was too timid! Johnson, by the way, was careless enough to already have admitted that legitimizing gay marriage would logically lead to the legitimizing of polygamy. In sum, he has made Obama the Centrist on this issue by volunteering to be the extremist!

To be more precise about Johnson's declaration, he said that Obama was wrong to leave gay marriage to the states to enact the necessary legislation rather than simply taking steps to impose his decision upon all the states.

So Johnson not only shoots himself in the foot with the independent voter whom he needs to appeal to, but he proclaims his disdain for the Constitution in the process, in effect calling for MORE Federal intervention into state and local affairs and also high-fiving Obama's penchant for circumventing the Constitution. The best that the Libertarian Party can hope for is that most people won't notice what's going on with the nominee of a minor party, but that's not exactly what it had hoped for when it nominated a former two-term governor.

The Choice of Libertarians

The Libertarian National Convention in Las Vegas has nominated for President the former governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson. He is the first former or sitting governor ever nominated by the LP.

This is undoubtedly a major milestone in Libertarian Party history. Johnson has his detractors, but his admirers are just that--admirers, not mere supporters.

He is candid and approachable; he's a gentleman and a self-made man who started his own business and grew it to 1000 employees; and he's an accomplished athlete. Among other feats, Johnson climbed Mt. Everest with a broken leg. As governor for two terms, he became the first one in New Mexico history to veto every bill that would have raised taxes. The size of state government was reduced 10% while spending on education increased.

Gov. Johnson has been accused of being too candid, but he also does forthrightly address the issues that matter, such as ending our overseas wars, restructuring the tax system, and getting rid of the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security. If only the same could be said of Obama and Romney!

You can read his official position statements at www.citizensforgaryjohnson.org

The unofficial vote in convention was Johnson 423 votes, R. Lee Wrights 152 votes, Jim Burns 9 votes, and others 11. The Michigan delegation voted 14 for Johnson, 5 for Wrights, and 1 for Burns.

Governor Johnson's choice for VicePresident was Judge Jim Gray, a former member of the Superior Court in California.

Marco Rubio's Dream

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has opted to enhance his chances of being chosen as the GOP Vice Presidential candidate by offering a bone to the Latino community--a version of Sen. Dick Durbin's DREAM Act. Durbin's bill would have granted legal status to children of illegal immigrants so long as they attend college or serve in the military.

Rubio's bill would grant them only a non-immigrant visa and put them back in line to apply for residency when they've completed whatever it is.

Aside from the fact that there's no chance of Harry Reid allowing anything that could play to the advantage of Republicans to come up for a vote in the Senate, the bill could easily wind up pleasing no one rather than everyone.

Illegals could see it as a way of keeping track of them, since they'd have to make application for non-immigrant visas and would result in them being placed in the application for permanent residency pool while living with their parents afterwards.

And opponents of concessions to illegals are already calling it just another amnesty proposal. What's more, the illogic of calling veterans of military service or college graduates "children" has already made some would-be supporters of Rubio smell a rat.

Scandal-ridden candidates face off.

A prominent political scientist known for making accurate predictions of coming Presidential elections has said that Obama will win this November because his administration is "squeaky clean." His Justice Department has armed Mexican drug gangs, the Obama re-election committee has publicly attacked private citizens for contributing to his opponent and hired private investigators to dig up dirt on them, he's aligned himself with the Occupy Wall Street vandals, and he's funnelled taxpayer money to Obama contributors in the form of subsidies for front businesses. But he's clean.

Meanwhile, Governor Romney has become the target of Dem finger-pointing because he was something of a teenage prankster in prep school, having been known to slide on things out in the dormitory halls.

How's a concerned citizen to know how to vote when both of the major candidates are steeped in scandal like this?

Obama commits USA to the permanent war

Although it's been only lightly reported in the mainstream media, President Obama has signed a compact with the Afghan government that commits our nation to the Afghan war until 2024. While the combat troops current fighting there are scheduled to leave in 2014, American "advisors," war supplies, and fresh troops will be deployed there for a decade thereafter.

As the Libertarian National Campaign Committee editorialized, "In other words, it's a combat withdrawal in name only. The United States will continue to spend billions of dollars and potentially thousands of American lives continuing the occupation through the next three presidential terms."

Boycott Wars Continue

The Democratic Party and its allies continue in their campaign to get advertisers to pull their ads from conservative radio or TV shows and, ultimately, from Fox News. In recent days, the pressure has caused a number of advertisers on the Rush Limbaugh show to capitulate. Earlier, the effort was focused on the Glenn Beck Show appearing on Fox.

The list of companies reportedly pulling out from the Limbaugh show includes the following: Arby's (which also blocked Twitter responses from Rush supporters), AccuQuote, ServiceMagic, Polycom, Comerica, Home Depot, ProFlowers, Quicken Loans, Sensa, Sears,Tax Resolution Services, AOL, LegalZoom, Carbonite, Geico, TurboTax, Citrix, Oreck, Kohler, Walgreen's and Sleep Number beds. Goodwill Industries reportedly protested because a public service announcement was aired on a radio station that merely carried the Limbaugh show.

Incidentally, newcandescent.com is a new Rush sponsor; this company makes LEGAL light bulbs in the usual wattages that otherwise were banned by the federal government. Cost is about 3.50 a bulb.

CALHOUN COUNTY LIBERTARIANS
Battle Creek, MI

5595 Visitors

TOP