Iowa’s primary results were amazing, interesting, and surprising to the national media. But they were thrilling to me- the frontrunner for the Libertarian Presidential nomination. As a matter of fact, I’d call them a “dream come true.” Will they carry over to New Hampshire (where I’ll be campaigning this weekend) and other early primary states? That I don’t know- and neither does the media or political pundits. But I sure hope so.
With Huckabee and Obama as the candidates of the 2 major political parties- anyone who desires a smaller (and more limited) federal government, lower spending, lower taxes, a balanced budget and more rights for the individual can no longer rationalize voting for the “lesser of 2 evils.” That excuse is out the window.
Obama is perhaps the worst big-government, soak the rich, tax and spend Democrat ever to run for President in modern times (yes that includes George McGovern and Ted Kennedy). He’ll give you nothing but big…bigger…or super-sized government. He’ll tax America into bankruptcy. But Republican Mike Huckabee provides no alternative. On the fiscal side, he too is a big-government, tax and spender. As Governor of Arkansas, Huckabee received a grade of “D” from the Cato Institute (a small government, fiscally conservative Libertarian research group)- lower than most liberal Democrat Governors. But worst of all, on the social side, Huckabee makes Obama look like a small government Libertarian. Huckabee is a big government, Nanny State religious zealot (a former Minister) who wants “Big Brother” to enforce his views on the rest of us. What a choice.
Then there’s the third party possibilities. I predict not only that Mike Bloomberg will enter the Presidential sweepstakes, but quite possibly John McCain as well (teamed with Joe Lieberman as his VP). Both McCain and Bloomberg call themselves “fiscal conservatives,” but in reality neither supports cutting government in any meaningful way. They are both actually liberal big government Republicans in the mode of former New York politicians Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller. Neither Bloomberg nor McCain wants any radical changes in the size of government or spending or taxes. Both crave power- and to get it, they’ll expand government, and cut deals (otherwise known as “bribes”) with the electorate.
Bloomberg is a typical mega-wealthy big government businessman (a 21st century Nelson Rockefeller) who just wants to brag that he got the trains to run on time. Bloomberg stands for efficiency, status quo, and by all means protect big corporations (like his own). McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts twice, and was the architect of McCain-Feingold, which violated free speech (and the constitution). McCain is not exactly a smaller government Libertarian himself.
Now those are some really pathetic choices for anyone that wants less government. My prediction is that millions of Libertarians (with a big “L”) and Libertarian-leaning voters (with a small “l”), and Libertarian Republicans will no longer in good conscience choose to hold their noses and vote for the “lesser of two evils.” They will look for a small government alternative. And that will send them to one obvious place- The Libertarian Party. If Huckabee and Obama become the eventual nominees, I predict a seismic earthquake in American politics- what I would call a Libertarian Awakening. The pathetic big-government choices of the 2 major parties are accelerating the need for a 21st century Boston Tea Party- whether that be a Root Revolution or a Paul Revolution.
