I’ve never urged anyone to join the Libertarian Party. In fact, I’ve routinely criticized it for its infusion of Constitutionalists and statists. I walked away from it myself more than a decade ago for just that reason. But I do believe that the only candidates who actually will give more than lip service to principles like equal rights for gays are libertarian candidates. The track record of Democrats, as I said before, flat out sucks. It’s all yap and no do. If you get anything from them, it will be because society demands it, just like what happened with civil rights for Blacks. Like I said before, they took their plight to the streets and fought (and died) a whole decade for their rights, using Rosa Parks in 1955 as a benchmark for commencement. Congress merely obliged once the cause became politically expedient.
That’s what you’ll face until and unless you either shed ten years of blood or support the people who are supporting you. Bicker with me all you want to, and hijack this thread to hell if you must. But if your goal is to alienate me, it will succeed only on a personal level. You will not change my mind about what is blindingly obvious, nor will you turn me against the cause of gay rights just because you, as a gay man, treat me contemptibly. What is it you would have me say, that Democrats are champions of gay rights? Sorry, no can do. It’s like Seinfeld talking to the car rental clerk. Anybody can take a reservation; the key is to actually hold the reservation.
Now, you came into the thread to ask me if I knew that Bill Maher is a libertarian. I told you that I don’t think he is. You’ve asked me if I (still) want you to join the party. My answer is no, and I never did. Any more about all this, or can we get on with joining together to condemn a tyrant we both despise?
Maybe, but it ain’t funny. I guess that’s why it has to be explained.
Of course telling an unfunny joke is no crime. If it were, Bob Hope would have been jailed. I never heard him say anything funny the last 20 years or so he was active.
After reading the OP, I spent some time catching up on “New Rules” via youtube (I don’t have HBO). I’ve always loved Maher’s wit and style, but, as with all political satire, I tend to take it with a grain of salt. This, however, was absolutely brilliant !
I wondered about this from the time the story broke. I also wondered why Rove wasn’t immediately arrested for such an egregious act!
Thank you, Bill, for finally giving the world the truth about this whole debacle. My Og, exactly what does someone in this fucking administration have to do to actually get prosecuted ? They outed a CIA operative, fer chrissakes! If that’s not an act of outright treason, then what is?
The terrorists may hijack planes, but these scumbags are trying to hijack an entire country !
Is it any wonder that I throw up a little in my mouth every time one of these shitstains opens theirs?
Which is exactly the point. The only way gay rights is ever going to succeed in this country is when the mass of society rallies behind it. If everyone who supported gay rights went libertarian… it wouldn’t do a damned thing, except hitch the gay rights movement to a political fringe. It would just be one more in a long list of reasons for the American body politic to vote against the libertarian platform. The only way gay rights is ever going to succeed in this country is by making it a mainstream issue, and libertarianism is never going to be a mainstream political position. It’s great that gay rights is such a core issue for libertarians, but let’s be honest, here: they’re never going to be able to make any real progress on the issue. The Democrats may be two-faced about it, but when at last it’s in their favor to support gay rights, they’ll actually be in a position to do something about it.
I’m the last person on this board who’s going to argue that the Democrats are champions of gay rights. The chief difference between the two parties is that the Republicans think gays should be discriminated against at the federal level, while the Democrats think discrimination against gays should be handled by the states. But gay rights isn’t the only, or even the most important, political issue out there, and I find it mildly insulting that you continue to insist that I abandon virtually every other political position I believe in because you waved the carrot of gay rights under my nose.
Well, Lib, I apologize for assuming that you were stumping for the libertarian party when you urged me to vote for libertarian candidates. Clearly, those are two entirely seperate actions, and it was foolish of me to conflate the two.
No, you go on without me. I’m a little tired of empty political gestures that accomplish nothing.
Miller, Lib is saying the truth about Bushco, et al, so let’s support him is this, if no other, statements, m’kay? Leave the other issues in another thread.
The person who asked for an explanation was from Denmark, and possibly just unfamiliar with urban American slang. The very left-wing audience laughed. The guests laughed, including Atlanta’s mayor (an African-American woman). I laughed. Revtim and Monstro laughed. It was quite funny.
I’m confused. Who’s being pitted here? Maher, or Bush & Cheney? Seems it should be Maher for taking a cheap shot. Indignation is not an argument. If he really believes what he’s saying, why isn’t he directing his ire at Patrick Fitzgerald for not indicting a single person for revealing Plame’s identity. He has public confessions from more than one person that they gave reporters her name. He must be the most incompetent prosecutor since Ken Starr, right?
Listen, as a Christian Objectivist Libertarian, I got no right to knock anyone else’s worldview. They don’t come more odd than mine, I reckon.
