The Republican Party has adopted the Free State Project.
I guess they are ‘growing up’. Actually I think they are frustrated by the lack of success of all libertarian movements and have decided that the old adage “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” is a good rule if you’re looking for growth.
But I tend to see the party as a ‘growth’ itself. The rhetoric is still there, but the rose has faded even as it has grown numerous new petals.
At the event last month in Nashua, (although I did not attend on Saturday or Sunday but took a tour around the exhibit area as I waited for Judge Napolitano’s speech) I did not see the Libertarian Party at all. They may have been there, but either nobody was at their table and the table was not noticeably marked, or they weren’t even present. Maybe they know something…
To be fair, I know that some groups within the (for lack of a better term) set (of groups) known as the FSP, for example, the Liberty Alliance, and some that are not even clearly identifiable as groups or organizations, are doing the hard work of implementing reform and teaching (even doing the dreaded ‘training’ of ‘activists’) liberty concepts and attitudes to whoever will listen, read and think. Certainly this condemnation of the FSP is unfair to them – but I don’t know how to damn the collaborators without it spilling over onto the associated persons and groups.
In my opinion much of what the FSP is engaged in now might as well be known as the new ‘F’ wing of the old republican party. This has nothing to do with the ‘Tea Party’ being taken over by the Fox News boobs – but it is a close relative. That’s a family that will never embrace or support liberty.
There is no substitute for independence.
Sorry to tell you the bad news but that party is a bust.
You don’t have to respect my opinion, but ignoring the facts is fatal.