Root humiliates libertarianism again.

Loudmouth conservative, Wayne Allan Root, in another bout of verbal diarrhea, has launched an attack on Barack Obama. Mr. Root once again demonstrated why he ought not be the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate. At the same time, he again showed why Bob Barr, who wanted Root as his VP candidate, is bad for libertarianism. It should be noted that Mr. Root has not attacked Mr. Obama’s policy proposals. Instead, he has launched the typical Right-wing smear campaign -- something that libertarians have avoided, preferring to concentrate on the issues.

Of course Mr. Root is often bad on the issues himself. He is an intellectual lightweight with little understanding of libertarianism, a rabid self-promoter always looking for a way to tell everyone how fantastic he is. As for me, if I ever shook his hand (not likely) I’d count my fingers before leaving.

Let’s start out with the absurd comments Root made in an interview with Reason. Please note that motor-mouth may later deny comments previously made since his mouth is frequently in fourth gear while his brain is still in neutral. He said: “A vote for Obama is four years of Karl Marx...” Really? He also outrightly claimed: “He’s a communist! I don’t care what anybody says. the guy’s a communist... And his mother was a card-carrying communist.” Thank you Mr. McCarthy!

Next Root went into overdrive with his unthinking attack. He claimed that he was smarter than Obama and wants to bet a million dollars on it. And he thinks the only reason Obama went to Harvard Law School was because of his race. I note that conservative and libertarian law professors at Volokh Conspiracy have actually said that Obama was a good professor when he taught law.

Motor-mouth then argues that the “most dangerous thing you should know about Barack Obama is that I don’t know a single person at Columbia that knows him...” So, according to the odious Mr. Root, Obama didn’t know a single person at the university he attended. Why? Well, again Root has zero evidence but he has lots of accusations, all meant to pander to the racist Right. He says that perhaps the reason no one every heard of him was because “he was involved in some sort of black radical politics.” Does that seem contradictory to you? I mean, if Obama were involved in “black radical politics” at Columbia I would think it raised his chances that people would have heard of him. This is what I mean about his mouth running off while his brain is still in neutral. Surely a “black radical” at Columbia would be more likely to be remembered.

Root's argument is that the "most dangerous thing" about Obama is that none of Root's friends knew him at Columbia? What sort of logic is this?

Notice Root offers no evidence for his claims just wacky theories. But that doesn’t stop this sorry excuse of a candidate from making more unfounded accusations. He then offers another reason that no one heard of Obama: “Maybe he was too busy smoking pot in his dorm room to ever show up for class. I don’t know what he was doing!” The last sentence, I am sure, is accurate. Root doesn’t know what Obama was doing, which is why it is unethical for him to invent stories as if he does know. Mr. Root is not presenting libertarian ideas at all, he doesn't know them. He is trying to smear Obama with unsubstantiated claims meant to appeal to racists.

Root also tosses in this sort of racial politics claim:

I mean, when I went to Columbia, the black kids were all at like tables going "Black Power!" We used to walk by and go, "What the hell are they talking about." And they didn't associate with us and we didn't associate with them. So if you track down a couple of black students, they'll probably know him. But nobody white's ever heard of this guy. It's quite amazing. Nobody remembers him. They don't remember him sitting in class.

Ah, yes, your nobody till somebody white loves you. Perhaps the Libertarian Party is going after the Stormfront vote. Am I to understand that all the black kids at Columbia were “at like tables going ‘Black Power!’”. Root says “all of my buddies are white”. So, since Root would only hang around whites and he never saw Obama that means Obama must have been a black radical -- but as he said “the black kids were all” shouting “black power” so apparently every black on Columbia was a radical according to Mr. Root. Does this man wear his sheets under his suit daily or only on special occasions?

Certainly when I went to university I found it rather difficult to not know black students. One had to go out of their way to avoid them for that to happen. Was Mr. Root trying to avoid blacks? Maybe they didn't attend his meetings of the White Citizen's Council Youth Faction. Now, I don't know if that was the case but no one I know actually ever knew Root then. So maybe he was attending White Power meetings with David Duke?

Matt Welch, from Reason, is baffled by Root's description of Black Power movements at Columbia and asks: “Black power in ‘83?” Diarrhea mouth then spouts off more conservative nonsense: “Ha, ha. That’s Columbia. Columbia’s radical, always was. There was gay power over here, and pot power over here, and black power over there, and Hispanic power over here, and feminism.” Note he means all this as an insult. He really is pandering to the most hateful side of the conservative movement. He goes after blacks, gays, pot smokers, Hispanics and women in one paragraph.

Then Root whines that he was told, presumably as a white guy, not to apply for Harvard Law School because he can’t get in. He says this was true for the law school at Princeton as well -- except, as Reason notes, Princeton doesn’t have a law school. From this irrelevant piece of trivia Root then concludes that “he [Obama] got in based on the color of his skin.” The Vegas shyster then says: “Does anyone doubt that possibly Barack could have gotten into Harvard with a C average because he's black, where as I, white, couldn't get into the same school with a B-plus, A-minus average?" Please note that Root doesn't know if Obama had a "C average" at all, he just assumes this has to be the case because no one in his exclusively white circle knew Obama. And he appears to be implying that black students can't get good grades because they are black.

Some more race baiting follows: “I say the whole problem with America is we are racist against people because of the color of their skin. We're helping people because they're black. We're helping people because they're minority. We're helping people because they're poor. In reality only those who have the most skill and talent should get into Harvard, not because of the color of their skin.”

Root has zero evidence for any of his claims and he knows it. But the only way he can conceive that a black guy can get in to Harvard, while he, a white guy, couldn’t, is through affirmative action. Obama must have lower grades than Root but the only reason he offers for this is that Obama is black and he’s white. He whines: “I don’t know the answer but I’m pretty sure I know the answer. He had a lower average than me and he got into Harvard and I didn’t.”

Then he launches into how America did him wrong: “Has America really been unfair to minorities? No it hasn’t. It was unfair to me. A white butcher’s kid, whose father had no money, but nobody gave me a break. And do I have a chip on my shoulder? You’re damn right I do. And I represent millions and millions of poor people in this country who weren’t luck enough to be poor and black, they were unlucky enough to be poor and white, and they can’t get into Harvard.”

Wow! One is lucky to be poor and black. And America, yes, the whole country, was unfair to Root because he didn’t get into Harvard. However, from the way I read his racial rant he never actually applied for Harvard. Of course, if Harvard did admit Root I'd think far less of the university as a result. What sort of morons would admit Root into anything? Oh, right, the Libertarian Party!

Root continued with his attempt to win over the Klan vote: “Anyway my point is, for those of us in America who want to fight for talent being the determinator of who’s successful or not, I’m your representative. Obama’s the wrong representative. And for those who disagree, I say: I’m for affirmative action -- I think the NBA should be 80 percent white....” Did the NBA reject Root as well?

Is Mr. Root running for vice president or Grand Cyclops?

I’m glad I left the Libertarian Party. This was just humiliating. Unfortunately the LP has become a haven for every unhappy conservative around and Root is one of the worst of the lot.

I was glad to see that Reason readers are as disgusted with Root’s appeal to bigotry as I am. Below are some of the comments they left. Apparently the typical libertarian reader at Reason has the same conclusion about Root that I have: the man is an asshole. At least that seems to be the most frequent label they use to describe him, and it is accurate.

“Wow, Wayne Allen Root is an asshole.”

“This is the Libertarian’s VP candidate? Are you fucking serious?”

“Can they lock him up in a poker room in Vegas for the campaign?”

“Is this supposed to be funny or is Mr. Root just being an asshole?”

“That was an ugly interview. What a flaming blowhard. Asshole even.”

“God, another hyperactive loudmouth with a case of AngryWhiteGuyitis.”

“Whatever you think about affirmative action, that man was being an asshole.”

“If you keep this bullshit up, you’ll cause more harm than good to real libertarians. You guys lost me vote when you tried to sue the church, and these kinds of shenanigans will only cause you to lose more.”

“Root is the sort of candidate that gives the LP the reputation it so richly deserves.”

“OMG! You really needed this interview to come to the conclusion that WAR is an asshole? Really?”

“Root is a red-baiting, race-baiting asshole.”

“That interview was an embarrassment.”

“Was he drunk??? Way to help out the Libertarian party, ass.”