Political Party Labels

Brian Holtz wrote one of the better statements I've seen on political party differences:

I try to use only "nanny-state parties" when referring to the Ds and Rs.

I don't use "alternative party" as much as I should, perhaps because there are too many people who consider the two incumbent parties as alternatives to each other.

I also try to avoid using "Republicrats" and "Demopublicans", or "Coke and Pepsi" etc. The D's are discernibly leftist, the R's are discernibly rightist, and to pretend they're indistinguishable marks us as politically illiterate. More importantly, treating them as indistinguishable throws away our differentiation against the voter's other available choices (Green and CP). We are the only party that has evolved beyond the obsolete left-vs.-right dichotomy, and are the only party that wants to legislate neither personal morality nor economic equality. When we suggest that the primary difference between the LP and the Ds/Rs is that they're in power and we're not, we suggest that 1) we would probably be corrupted by power too and 2) any non-incumbent party is as good as any other.

I will always believe that our marketing should be built around the Nolan Chart. Does anyone know whether the Greens or CP ever try use the Nolan Chart and claim that they occupy the moral high ground on it? I'd be very surprised if they did.

No Brian, I doubt the Greens or others would like the results they'd get with the Nolan Chart. However, I doubt they'd ask the questions and label the results in the same manner as Nolan or other libertarians.

Will Obama "Root for America"?

I heard Libertarian Party presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root interviewed on the Glenn Beck radio show this morning. I caught only a small segment where Wayne described studying the same major as Barack Obama at Columbia University in the class of 1983.

During class one day in 1981, someone ran into the auditorium and shouted, "President Reagan has been shot. They assassinated him. He's dead." Immediately, the "entire class" of 300 or so students stood up and celebrated. They were high-fiving and shouting with joy. At that point, they incorrectly believed the patriotic anti-communist American president was dead, and they were very happy about that. Wayne was horrified.

Wayne then noted that many of his Columbia University classmates now dominate the news media and other influential establishments in our society. I infer that Wayne Allyn Root believes these elite Americans are essentially anti-American socialists.