Republican "LIberty" Caucus a fraud.

There have always been those who present the idea that the Republican Party can be converted to being pro-freedom. I've always had my doubts that would ever happen. What I've seen is quite the opposite. When libertarians hang out with Republicans it is not the Republicans who change their views but the libertarians who become Republican-lites along the way. Witness the shameful actions of the Libertarian Party when the con man Bob Barr lead the party down the garden path. Witness the missive from the National LP chair that avoided mentioning foreign policy or one single issue of social freedom.

A libertarian, who isn't guided by principle, easily can become a conservative. While conservatives speak of principles and morals they have no principles and their morality is the morality of the gun especially when they get their god theories involved. They are ready to push Big Government. No, they are ready for Massive Government. When it comes to pushing their religious beliefs there are no powers they are unwilling to grant the state and no rights they are willing to respect.

Some years ago I was a candidate for office and gave a speech regarding the specific issues relating to the office for which I was running. Apparently the Republican leadership of the city (one of the main cities in the country) came rushing up afterward to praise the content and ask me to have dinner with them. I agreed to listen to what they had to say. They wanted to convince me to run as a Republican and assured me that they really did have libertarian principles at heart.

During the meal I simply sat there and listened to them discuss politics in our city. What became clear immediately was that they were mainly focused on deal-making, where to compromise X in order to pass Y, who to suck up to, who to shun, etc. It was politics at its worst. I got a free meal and a confirmation that the political beast is far too unprincipled a creature for me. Of course, back then, I still thought the Libertarian Party would remain true to principles but the current LP leadership has cured me of that delusion as well.

Some of the least principled people I knew left the LP to form something called the Republican Libertarian Organizing Committee -- a joke if there ever was one. After that flopped another group of former libertarians formed the Republican Liberty Caucus. The stated purpose was to promote a libertarian agenda within the GOP. Personally I think it would be far more worthwhile to promote libertarianism to Democrats -- they aren't as likely to have religious blind spots on economics the way Republicans are religiously-blinded to social freedom.

So exactly how well has the Republican Liberty Caucus done at promoting freedom within GOP ranks? If eight years of George Bush doesn't answer that question then surely a look at one of the RLC's own blogs should.

The piece at the RLC blog is pure Religious-Right bullshit. It is religiously-inspired statism at its worst -- yet this is the self-proclaimed libertarian wing of the Republican Party. In this piece the writer attacks an Obama appointment because the man, David Ogden, "filed court briefs:"

• Pushing for gays in the military.
• Defending obscenity and pornography cases on behalf of clients like Playboy, Penthouse, and the largest distributor of hardcore pornographic movies.
In various cases, he has also filed briefs opposing:
• Parental notification before a minor’s abortion
• Spousal notification before an abortion
• The military’s policy against public homosexuals serving in uniform
• The Children’s Internet Protection Act and the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act.
This man is a cultural radical. Contrary to liberal dogma, pornography is not a free speech issue. Pornography is degrading to women, and child porno is a crime. Ogden should not be confirmed.

This is precisely what you'd expect from the Moral Majority not from an alleged "Liberty Caucus.." This is catering to the same bigotry that inspires the Jesus nuts who infest American politics like cockroaches in a dirty kitchen. I should also note the man simply doesn't understand how political power is accumulated.

He seems to think that the Children's Internet Protection Act and the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act are about child porn which he notes "is a crime." But child porn has been a crime for a very long time. The purpose of such laws are not to criminalize that which is already a crime. Such laws always are a means of expanding state powers in areas totally unrelated to the issue of child porn. The Patriot Act wasn't about patriotism nor was it about national security -- it was a frontal assault on the limitations of government power. It was meant to expand the state. The "stimulus" bill is not about "stimulus". The name on a law rarely corresponds with what the law actually does. And often it does the complete opposite.

Surely any libertarian with an IQ over 60 would realize this. That this Republican Liberty Caucus doesn't recognize such elementary things indicates that they are either very stupid or simply dishonest about being pro-liberty. I do concede that it is likely that both charges are proven.

Actually I would allege that this particular blogger is not just stupid and not just dishonest about being pro-liberty. He is fundamentally dishones full stop. He attacks another blogger but refuses to link to the actual site so we can't verify what was said. In it this other blogger apparently was as disgusted by the anti-liberty views of this fake libertarian. The RLC blog responds by saying that Ogden is a "kiddie porno advocate" -- I bet that is a full-fledge lie. The RLC shit-spreader says that "confuses liberalism with libertarianism" since "no court in the U.S. holds that exploiting children in sex videos is 'free speech'."

The problem is that briefs against legislation is not necessarily a defense of the problem. To oppose the stimulus bill doesn't mean one wants an economic recession. The problem and the state solution are not co-equals. One can oppose child porn and still oppose badly drafter pieces of legislation. Child porn is illegal and was illegal before those bills were pushed through. They were pushed through for entirely different purposes. To oppose those laws is not to support child porn. To be against the war on drugs is not to be pro-drug abuse. To oppose Patriot Act doesn't mean one is pro-terrorist. This sort of things is so obvious that this Republican vermin has to know he is just lying in exactly the same distorted, twisted manner as Ann Coulter or Michael Moore.

You will note that not once did he quote from one of the briefs by the man he is attacking. Not once did he show the man supporting child porn. He presented no evidence whatsoever for his smearing the man. In fact he only attributes these claims to "a number of reports" none of which he even links to so we can follow them up for evidence. He doesn't show that it is child porn that the man is defending instead of opposing some over-reaching state initiative. To level such a serious charge against this man, even if he is a Democrat, without offering one shred of evidence indicates that not only is our Republican blogger stupid, demented, and dishonet but that he is allow immoral scum who would smear another person for purely political reasons. In other words he is the typical sort of bottom-feeder that has infested American politics and make the system corrupt from top to bottom.

This Republican is demented if he thinks what he represents is libertarianism. He is just a rabid, unthinking conservative who, thankfully, is in the Republican Party. Personally I hope he stays there. People like him shouldn't mix with normal people. As I've said about conservatives -- you can lead them to the issues but you can't make them think.