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Congratulations Obama, Feinstein. You've got me throwing in with Rand Paul. Though I could trust you with our civil liberties and privacy, but now I have to get
by u2328 13y ago
Congratulations Obama, Feinstein. You've got me throwing in with Rand Paul. Though I could trust you with our civil liberties and privacy, but now I have to get behind the Ayn Rand loving libertarian on this. So be it; policy over party.
- DamnYuppie 13y agoI am glad to hear people start to admit that policy is more important then party. I believe that is a key step in us moving forward as we need to agree on shared principles that are universal and have a means to insure our elected officials follow through on them.
- cpeterso 13y agoI sometimes imagine what the US political system would look if all elected positions were "nonpartisan". What if voters had to listen to what politicians were actually saying without the blinders of "Red Team" or "Blue Team"?
- DamnYuppie 13y agoI imagine it being quite wonderful. Imagine further if a bill could only contain 1 law in it and it had a built in shelf life of only 10-15 years and had to be renewed by a super majority vote in excess of 75%.
- habitue 13y ago> ...had to be renewed by a super majority vote in excess of 75% While I'm sure some small government fans would say this is a good thing, the answer is that very little would get done. Symbolic gestures and the like would pass, but very little of real substance. It's commonly the case that most everyone agrees that something needs to be done, but often they disagree on what exactly needs to happen. You can see what happens in the senate when 60+ votes are needed to pass anything.
- dnautics 13y agoand if the government did less, we would feel empowered and obligated to do more ourselves, especially those things that don't necessarily need the barrel of a gun to get done. And if the government did less, then there would be little incentive for profiteers to try to capture government to profit at the end of a gun. I don't see what's so bad about this?
- DamnYuppie 13y agoI should have been clearer in that my underlying premise is that the government should be doing less. Yet I am surprised that it was that element of my statement that people ran with. For me having a built in shelf life of a law is not nearly as important as having clearer legislation and the cessation of co-mingling unrelated laws into one bill.
- emidln 13y agoThis is an element of a couple Sci-Fi books I can think. Laws expire every N years (N=10 in the example that comes to mind first, that of the planet Sapphire in a novel series called Worlds Apart). This keeps the governing bodies busy enough renewing basic laws against theft/rape/murder/not paying taxes that no time is left for other things.
- mindcrime 13y agoHey, ya never know, once you take the plunge, you might find that you like it here on the dark-side. :-) Libertarians are mostly pretty nice once you get to know them. Some of us are downright friendly at times.
- zecho 13y agoI have no problems with Libertarian individuals (or Republican or Democrats). I have serious issues with a national party that, when I watched their 2004 convention, a man in a Thomas Jefferson costume gave a speech about pot and guns. I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. It was CSPAN. Unless I myself run for office, I don't think I'll ever find a political party that closely aligns with my beliefs and also takes them seriously.
- DamnYuppie 13y agoI am not joking when I say you could always start you own. Outline what it is you really believe and verify how your policies, derived from your core beliefs, improve society. All parties start with one voice, regardless the exercise will bring clarity to the beliefs and values you hold most dear.
- icelancer 13y agoThe Libertarian Party is largely a joke, I agree. Speaking as a small-l libertarian, mind you.
- nathan_long 13y agoFor any party other than Democrats and Republicans to get a foothold in the US, we'd have to reform our voting system. Suppose you want to vote for the Libertarian candidate but you'd prefer the Republican candidate to the Democratic one. By voting for the Libertarian, you "take" a vote from the Republican and make the Democrat's success more likely. (Or reverse the scenario: voting for a Green Party candidate hurts the Democratic candidate and gets you a Republican.) Thus the system discourages you from expressing your true preference. This is a major flaw in the most basic idea of democracy. All citizens, and especially all parties outside the Big Two, should work toward a better voting system. One proposed system: http://rangevoting.org/ http://rangevoting.org/
- jacoblyles 13y agoProgressive California did a great job with its two PIPA-cosponsoring Senators. I don't know how the software industry gets rolled so badly in state politics.
- dllthomas 13y ago'cause we're too busy putting money and effort into making new things, while Hollywood (in the same state, notice, and thus sharing the same senators) is putting money and effort into attempting to stretch their dying business models through force of arms when need be.
- dnautics 13y agowould it be better if he were a libertarian that hated Ayn Rand? (there are quite a few)
- cpeterso 13y agoIt's only fair considering Ayn Rand hated libertarians.
- mindcrime 13y agoYeah, it's a bit amusing isn't it, that everybody these days equates "Ayn Rand" and "Libertarians" as though her philosophy and libertarianism were one and the same... Certainly many libertarians find Rand inspirational (I do, for one) but as you say, she was no fan of libertarians at all.
- angersock 13y agoThe general trend of Rand-bashing is annoying--not because there aren't many, many valid criticisms, but because those criticisms are seldom if ever used.
- baddox 13y agoOut of curiosity, what about the political records or statements of Obama and Feinstein made you trust them with civil liberties and privacy?
- ignostic 13y agoObama made plenty of statements that suggested he cares about civil liberties and privacy. Several of these quotes have been passed around: >"For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and "wiretaps without warrants." http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9845595-7.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9845595-7.html This goes to show you why you should believe what politicians vote and do, and ignore most of what they say. Obama isn't unique in this regard.
- JensenDied 13y ago7 months later: He votes to retroactively grant immunity for warrantless wiretaps (among other provisions). http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/110-2008/s168 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/110-2008/s168
- mtgx 13y agoAyn Rand hated libertarians. She didn't care much for all the "liberty" stuff. She mostly cared about low taxes and such, just like current Republicans who only care about low taxes and aiding their corporate friends, and only pay lip service to other liberties, but never follow through.
- yummyfajitas 13y agoAyn Rand hated the libertarians of her time because they were not capitalists and denied the need for a government to protect individual rights. In modern language, the libertarians of her time were anarchists. http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ar_libertarianism_qa http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ar_libertari...
- jes 13y agoYour comment is breathtaking in its misrepresentation of what Ayn Rand actually cared about.