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It's always seemed to me that Washington has a disproportionate number of residents who self-identify as libertarians. Perhaps it's just the nature of our politically-focused city, or the location of the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, et al and the subsequent deployment of so many Koch fellows here, but I've never met more libertarians in one city than I have in D.C. As such, I've always been surprised by the lack of an active D.C. Libertarian Party on the local politics front over the last several years. Even the small-in-number D.C. Republicans have an organized local party and a small staff, not to mention that the national Libertarian Party is headquartered right here in the Watergate. Turns out, D.C. resident Peter Orvetti is trying to change all that. Orvetti is spearheading a rebirth of a local chapter of the Libertarian Party. He's started a blog and a Facebook group dedicated to the endeavor, and has already convened the reborn party's first meeting.
As for Orvetti's goals for the chapter, he's pragmatic: "We will not elect a Libertarian mayor in 2010 -- but that other D.C. minor party, the Republicans, won't either," he wrote in an email to DCist. "We want to present the Libertarian alternative to District residents on the issues that impact them, like how the War on Drugs leads to violence and broken families, and why the nation's capital should join the drive for full equality for the LGBT community."
The next meeting of the D.C. Libertarian Party will be Monday, Sept. 28 at the 5th and K location of Busboys and Poets.
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Libertarian: Someone who loves the sound of his or her own voice even more than they hate taxes.
Libertarian: A Republican who still wants to get high.
Libertarian: Someone who supports the worst excesses of the Rupublican party, while maintaining a fig-leaf of blamelessness.
Yeah, I love hearing my voice scream State's Rights, Small Fed, Low Taxes, and Liberty!
Yeah, I love hearing my voice scream State's Rights, Small Fed, Low Taxes, and Liberty!
In other words, you scream out a well-known code word for allowing majoritarian interference with liberty so long as it happens at the state rather than the national level, an ambiguous term that suggests you want to go back on the gold standard, a standard Republican Party slogan complete with standard Republican Party lack of any serious suggestions on what spending to cut as a result, and "liberty", which in the abstract is as politically meaningful as "I like puppies". Needless to say, nothing about gay rights, or the drug war, or the neverending extensions of copyright periods.
See, this is exactly why I don't like the Libertarian Party in practice, as opposed to in theory. In theory, they fill a void in the American political system. In practice, they're Republicans who want to be invited to wild parties.
i could find some reasons to agree with a libertarian platform here and there, and it's nice to have another voice in the hopper, but i don't think they have much of a chance of making a real dent in DC politics.
at least they might be more electable than the statehood greens....
Statehood greens, don't get me started. "Whoo hoo!! I sent an email. Look Mom, I'm an 'activist'".
Libertarian: a Republican who wants to be invited to a Democrat's party. And I say this as the biggest advocate on DCist of Lincoln Ober, the Shadow Senator candidate who was the only Libertarian on the DC ballot in 2008.
"We want to present the Libertarian alternative to District residents on the issues that impact them, like how the War on Drugs leads to violence and broken families, and why the nation's capital should join the drive for full equality for the LGBT community."
So Orvetti is going to champion the Libertarian alternative by highlighting the parts where they are the same as the Democrats?
There may be a lot of Libertarians in the general vicinity, but they generally live in the suburbs and drive to work. Cato, for instance, offers free parking. You now, because liberty means not having to feel the costs of your choices.
CEI, on the other hand, isn't Libertarian. It's not even a think tank. It's just a blatant corporate shill pretending to be both.
"We want to present the Libertarian alternative to District residents on the issues that impact them, like how the War on Drugs leads to violence and broken families, and why the nation's capital should join the drive for full equality for the LGBT community."
This is the usual line to get you in the door to Libertarians, the lack of government as moral police. Which is great, but in DC you've already got the political establishment on board for LGBT, and Marion Barry himself is proof of the War on Drugs not working, so why bother?
Why don't they get down to what we all know Libertarians are REALLY about, which is bunch of guys who don't want to pay their taxes. That's something that would get more traction in DC, with the no taxation without representation thing. But then, they'd be forced to tell DC residents that they govt. spending that everyone enjoys in this town, the govt. jobs that most people are employed in, the contracts that a ton of people are employed on, the nonprofits that work off government grants that employ a good part of this city, etc. would go away with the Libertarian policies in practice. No wonder no one goes to their "Atlas Shrugged" readings and Ron Paul Bombs over Baghdad parties...