Brian’s Column: Proposal of a Common Sense Coalition Third Party

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Brian Wright

What stands in the way?
By Brian R. Wright

As a longtime tilter at windmills, with little success at toppling any, I feel I’m a natural authority on the subject of what doesn’t work politically. The second paragraph of my recent ‘white paper’ suggesting such a coalition 3d party presented to assembled Libertarian Party of Michigan (LPM) leadership on December 8, 2018, reads:

In the recent 2018 mid-term elections, the LPM candidate for governor, Bill Gelineau—in the writer’s opinion the best-ever candidate for major office in terms of competence, understanding the workings of state government, personability, and practical application of principles of freedom to extant problems (and running a robust though part-time campaign)—received a paltry 1.33% of the popular vote.

The paper continues with the basic logic…

Core Proposal and Argument

Create a third party named Independents[1]—for Michigan, other states, and nationally—by uniting the four major existing 3d parties in the country {LP, Green, Constitution (US Taxpayers, UST), and Natural Law (NL)} around a minimalist platform of securing American First Principles’[2] individual freedom en masse… against corrupt public officials and their state-privileged cartel bosses.[3]

Qua national entity, the Independents’ Party stands for the secular-libertarian aphorism: “peace, civil liberties, and a noninterventionist foreign policy,” generically Þ “socially liberal, fiscally conservative.” In other words, common-sense, small-government individualistic humanism Þ zero-privilege, full-cost capitalism. Note that studies have shown 20-25% of Americans self-identify with this spectrum location. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Where Can I Do the Most Good (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Brian Wright

Some ruminations on how panarchy can be made to work in the real world

In part 1 of this column I began from a local Republican convention where a couple of the customs—the invocation and gratuitous friendliness nod toward Israel—got me to thinking that there surely must be a better way for human beings to deal with their political needs (than to spend copious time working to elect public officials by majority vote, who then, together, exercise a comp- ulsory monopoly over providing an ever expanding range of services, whether you want these services or not). Unlike the normal marketplace, an individual cannot simply choose something else or opt out entirely. Again, the analogy to ordering breakfast is apt:

First of all, let’s assume that what I truly want for breakfast is on the menu. Go down to my local Kerby’s or Leo’s coney islands or regular coffee shop: virtually anything I want will be on the menu somewhere… and if it isn’t the owner will work with me, say, if I want salmon with my eggs. It may just cost a little more. Okay, then let’s contrast that with a system where if I want something, a majority of the patrons have to want that same thing before I can have it. Aliens in a space ship looking down at this kind of breakfast system would say to one another, “Boy, these humans are majorly retarded.”

Thus democratic politics in a coercive, compulsory government system means that in the neighborhood of zero persons get the government services they would freely choose, nor do they obtain the public officials (elected by ‘everyone’) they would prefer to provide these services. It’s all a bizarre, horrendously complicated and time-consuming process that no one in his right mind would spend a minute on, were it not for the fact that the actions of these officials can seriously eff up beyond recognition the lives of you and your loved ones. Continue reading →

Guest Column: US Foreign Policy, Palestine-Israel, and BDS

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Brian Wright

Platform statement by Jill Stein, Green Party candidate 2016

Editor’s Note: I’m pretty sure the vaunted Libertarian Party platform takes no such stand for common-sense decency in foreign and military policy—certainly not to the extent of implicating Israel for “war crimes and massive human rights violations,” and supporting the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement. [BDS seeks to end Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people.]

The Greens are holding their national convention in Houston next weekend (August 4-7), and the way I read the tea leaves, they will be on the ballot in 24-30 states. By contrast, I expect the Libertarian Party, currently at 36 states, will achieve ballot status in very close to 50 states. Basically, even though the LP has ‘shot itself in the foot’ in many ways insofar as taking the ethical high road of the nonaggression principle, I’m still leaning toward the LP’s Johnson-Weld ticket… though weakly, esp. every time I hear William Weld open his mouth.

Anyway, Here Goes, I Only Wish an LP Had Written Something Similar

The Jill Stein campaign calls for ending support for governments committing war crimes and massive human rights violations, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.

It supports the BDS movement as a peaceful, nonviolent set of actions organized by civil society across the world aimed to end Israeli apartheid, occupation, war crimes, and systematic human rights abuses. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Musings on the Week That Was

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Brian Wright

On Orlando, mind control, effective political action

Of course, everyone is saturated with the standard ZNN[1] coverage of the Orlando, Florida, incident. I say incident, because at this stage it’s difficult to say truly what happened at the Pulse nightclub where a lot of official-looking vehicles—though few, if any, ambulances—and public officials position themselves interminably, sucking up overtime pay. And newscasts stating “world-record massacre,” “Islam radical responsible,” “50 dead and 53 wounded,” “gun violence,” and so on. But nobody answers observations that any person with the IQ of a soup can might pose:

Too many bullets alleged to have been fired in the time allotted
Reports of multiple gunmen which we have seen in other false flags attacks
Absence of ambulances taking away dead and injured
Absence of any evidence of bloody carnage
Purported injured persons being carried toward the nightclub, in one scene the man being put down while those carrying him simply walk away
Victims simply standing around to be shot, rather than fleeing the club
A smiling policeman taking a position in the back row of a somber official briefing
No video footage from security cameras
No apparent interference from security personnel with the alleged gunman
The alleged gunman’s ties to and contacts with individuals and organizations involved in previous acts of state sponsored terror
G. Edward Griffin reports that a new would-be shooter, James Wesley Howell, emerges blowing the whistle on a larger government gay-club-shooting black op

Like Sandy Hook and Boston, anyone who thinks for himself knows that he’s being lied to by all the public officials on the scene, behind the scene, and by the media who are willing accomplices in the act of subterfuge for political purposes. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: A Retraction Regarding Johnson-Weld

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Brian Wright

We simply do not have the time… for being preoccupied and distracted

It’s been how many years? And how old am I? But as most of us who want to believe the best (and who know how hard the struggle has been to achieve true liberty in our time), I was sucked in by imaginings that the J-W ticket heralded a sea change toward uncharacteristic competence and effectiveness in the Libertarian Party at the national level. Please take a moment to review my earlier column: “The LP 2016 National Convention.”

Interestingly, the only part of that previous column that I have to retract is under the level 3 heading ‘This Time the Veep Candidacy was the Potential Foot Shot’. That is where I suggest that even though we have to keep an eye on Mr. Weld, the points in his favor are solid: 1) he’s VP, not P, 2) he brings lots of ATMM (access to money and media) to the table, 3) he speaks succinctly and incisively, with wit and humor, 4) his US attorney record of going after corrupt establishment Republicans (and Democrats) is solid, and 5) he wants the job.
Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: The 2016 LP National Convention

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Brian Wright

Libertarians nominate presidential ticket Gary Johnson/William Weld,
now actually standing a chance of winning the 2016 election… IF…

… they continue to avoid shooting themselves in the foot (as was ever their wont) and rise to the challenge of The Truman Prophecy… by committing themselves to the Snowden-Manning political program. [In a phrase, the Libertarians “have to bring real truth and real justice to real people.”]

Note: From Shane Trejo’s column here, I realize that Weld, with some disturbing specifics to his background, could be a colossal mistake. But I don’t think so. As I try to point out in this column, what matters isn’t who our candidates are but the political program they will effect. And WE, the truth-justice-liberty warriors, will be—or certainly can be—the driver of what they do. They represent us; we have to insist they embrace the Snowden-Manning program, or else! ALL parties and ALL candidates.

It was a cliffhanger from what my Rose—watching CSPAN—was telling me with regular updates this afternoon. Gary Johnson won the presidential nod this morning on a second ballot, handily. But his preferred vice-presidential candidate, William Weld—another former two-term Republican governor in a largely Democratic state (Massachusetts 1991-1997)—had to duke it out with a handful of presumably fine individuals yet having the political notability of the dogcatcher in Enid, Oklahoma. Continue reading →

Brian’s Column: Whither the Libertarian Party/LPM?

Posted on January 17, 2016 by Brian Wright

Some thoughts from The Truman Prophecy

Performance-driving enthusiast, automotive engineer, and 30-something go-getter Ypsi Sam, a few years ago when he lived in Flint, had spent an unconscionable amount of time (and several hundred dollars of his own money) trying to bring some semblance of, well, normal middle-class, dual-gender, all-age, outreach-oriented appeal to the Genesee County LP affiliate. Only to be met with harsh rejection by the forces of what seemed a bizarre sect of Goth-Voluntaryist-Anarchist-Nihilist national boys’ clubs.

The Genesee Boys’ Club, despite its members’ eternal harangues for Purity of Anarchist Essence—no compromise with any institution or instrument of ‘Existing Coercive Government’ at any level or for any reason—sought to take over the state LP, which of course is a political party whose objective is to run candidates for office in ‘Existing Coercive Government.’ And none of these boy wonders saw the contradiction. Continue reading →