Comments on: RLC Election Results – November 2009

By: Robert Broadus

Robert Broadus — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:45:38 +0000

These are some great victories! I agree with Um that we should focus on getting government out of marriage altogether. That is the position Ron Paul holds, and I have met many Libertarains/Paulites who are opposed to gay marriage just as much as the more vocal ones support it. Government interference in religious issues is an infringement of the 1st Amendment. While we would all like to see our personal views win the day, I think that because we can respect the fact that some of us have differing religious values while others may not even be religious at all, the best position to take is keeping government separate from this issue, along with ending faith-based initiatives and other situations where government has worked its way into the pulpit and infringes on the rights of preachers and religious communities to say and do what they believe.

I know there are gays who support this position. I believe that if we push this message to those in the Republican Party, they may see this as a worthwhile compromise. This is a position I’ve taken on my campaign: http://www.justiceandliberty.us/ontheissues.html

By: Um

Um — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:08:23 +0000

I think RLC should promote getting the government out of marriage altogether, this is the only libertarian position and can be argued with success to people on either side of the issue. So, I don’t see what Maine did as good or bad, for libertarianism. It’s just one side of the statist coin (although I personally don’t believe gay marriage should be allowed in my church).

In this regard, Cuccinelli is not libertarian, but I have yet to find what I consider a perfect candidate outside of Ron Paul. But, he’s definately better than an even more statist liberal who would use statism to impose his or her social engineering agenda regarding gay marriage on the people while promoting socialist programs and growing government.

By: David Lampo

David Lampo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:40:29 +0000

“In Virginia, voters elected State Senator Ken Cuccinelli to the post of Attorney General. Cuccinelli is a social and fiscal conservative, and some RLC members have been offended by his social conservatism. Still, he seems to be one of the few politicians in the state that understands the concept of limited government.”

Aaron, I have to respectfully disagree with that statement. Mr. Cuccinelli is a LINO–libertarian in name only. He is a dogmatic religious extremist who believes it’s ok for him to base his decisions as attorney general on his personal prejudices and religious beliefs. He opposes any relationship recognition for gay couples, opposes repeal of the state sodomy law, opposes allowing PRIVATE companies to offer domestic partner benefits, opposes allowing local governments to offer domestic partner benefits to their employees, opposes gay-straight clubs in public high schools, supports government assistance for abstinence promotion, and so on. He may be a fiscal conservative, but that is a long way from being a libertarian Republican. And for thousands of Virginians, hs name will become synonomous with libertarian ideas and principles. He will ultimately give libertarianism a bad name.

By: Eric Rowe

Eric Rowe — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:02:39 +0000

Don’t forget Ebert Beeman, who won his county council race in Erie, PA. He was the duly nominated Republican candidate. But the party was so disgusted with his small government philosophy that they begged people not to vote for him and waged a write-in campaign against him.
http://www.wicu12.com/news/index.vnss?newsid=8505&type=News

I don’t know if he is in the RLC, but he should be. Here are some of the positions he held that the party leaders considered beyond the pale:
- The Erie County Public Library: Sell it. (“You have more information in a computer at home than you do in that entire library.”)
- Tullio Arena: Sell it. (“Get it on the tax rolls.”)
- The Erie County Prison: Empty it of nonviolent offenders like deadbeat parents and pot smokers. (“All the employees running the facility do nothing productive.”)
- Airport runway extension: Ditch it. (“No planes land there anyway.”)
- Beeman also advocates a 10 percent pay cut for all nonbargaining county employees, because, he said, they produce nothing.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091024/NEWS02/310249966/-1/ETN