* Forwarded (from: CIVLIB) by L P
Letter to Bob Dornan and other Republican Socialists
from the July 1st edition of "The Libertarian Enterprise"
Written by L. Neil Smith
A while ago, I wrote a column suggesting to Libertarians
that we adopt a strategy which, while not altering our record at the
polls  appreciably, would force the kind of change that was our reason
for running candidates to begin with.  I said we should focus our party's
meager resources on races where a Republican had won the last election
by 5% of the vote or less, and abandon every other effort, including our
costly and absurd Presidential candidacy. Winning has always been beyond
our grasp, but we're often able to take 5% of the vote, meaning we can
control such races, ensuring defeat of the Republican incumbent.
           A few days later, to my satisfaction, I saw a report that you
were whining about Libertarian candidates doing exactly that. You
complained that seven Republicans in '96 had lost elections to "flaming
liberals" due to Libertarian "spoilers".     Music to my ears.
           "Why?", I pretend to hear you asking. Don't Republicans and
Libertarians basically desire the same thing, politically? Aren't we
fellow travellers, maybe even allies, standing bravely, shoulder to
shoulder, against the liberal hordes? Not exactly, Bob. Libertarians and
Republicans are alike in that we both acknowledge -- unlike liberals --
that "There ain't no such thing  as a free lunch". Unlike Libertarians,
however, Republicans aren't above stealing one, as long as you can claim
it's in aid of "national security" or "public decency".
          Time and again, especially over the last decade, while
claiming to uphold individual rights set forth by the Founders in the
first ten  Amendments to the Constitution, you've found excuses to help
the liberals -- whom you revile as enemies of liberty on the campaign
trail -- rip the  Constitution to bloody shreds. Instead of enforcing
Bill of Rights as the highest law of the land it was intended to be,
you've helped the liberals  turn it into a sick, painful joke
          Take the patently unconstitutional junk legislation crammed
down American throats by Mr. and Mrs. Sarah Brady, which would have died
on the floor of congress without Republican first aid. Take the illegal
ban on semiautomatic weapons and high capacity magazines conceived by
William Bennett, and saved at the last minute by Bob Dole -- betraying
millions who voted for Republicans specifically to stop it, and
negating  the very reason the Second Amendment was written.
          Take Utah's answer to Pol Pot, Orrin Hatch, committing
cultural genocide by making it illegal to teach our kids to shoot. Take
your party's repulsive yearning to scrap the First Amendment with
travesties like the "Communications Decency Act" that Republicans vow to
bring  back even though the Supreme Court -- for once -- did the right
thing. Take all the "stealth" or "Pearl Harbor" legislation your party
recently  sneaked through, including a national identity card
          Take your party's crazed insistence on continuing the
infantile, corrupt, and unspeakably destructive War on Drugs, which has
done infinitely more harm to America and American institutions and
values than drugs themselves ever did.  On the other hand, Bob, take your
party's pathetic failure to reduce the oppressive tax burden which is
the only cause of the erosion  of the American family you whine about
incessantly, and probably contributes to alcoholism and child abuse as
well. Take your failure to eliminate the merest fraction of the
regulations or the 11 million laws under the weight of which Americans
stagger.
            Take your contemptible failure to prosecute the animals
responsible for Ruby Ridge, Waco, and elsewhere, and send them to
prison  or the gas chamber where they belong, allowing them instead to
be awarded medals for "valor", and -- again, the Orrin Hatch seal of
Cambodian  approval -- doubling their agency appropriations.
           More generally, take your party's failure to do the nation's
real business -- enforcing the Bill of Rights -- indulging instead in
its sick obsession with denying women control of their own bodies,
supporting a senile old judge who posts religious material in a court of
law, whimpering over females in a military that's only used these days
to deliver international welfare checks anyway, forcing the terminally
ill to die in agony so as not to offend your sadistic prejudices, or
persecuting those whose sexual preference differs from yours.
             Now you tell me: do Republicans and Libertarians desire the
same thing? Are we fellow travellers standing shoulder to shoulder? Or,
in terms of what America's all about, is there no discernible difference
between Socialist Party A, the Donkey Boys, and Socialist Party B, the
Elephant Men? Aren't you just the little gang of vicious collectivist
thugs we can do something about before we're strong enough to take on
the big gang of vicious collectivist thugs?
           Republicans I know are upset with me because of my plan. In
every case I have one thing to say: prove me wrong. Show me some brains,
some decency, some guts:
        - Prosecute the murderers of Ruby Ridge and Waco and abolish
their evil bureaucracies.
        - Repeal every regulation that encroaches on mandates of the
Ninth and Tenth Amendments.
        - Reexamine the very concept of taxation. What does it tell a
nation's children when its government is financed by theft, extortion,
and mindless brutality?
        - End the War against the American people you call the War on
Drugs. Get rid of everything -- like RICO -- that would make the
founding Fathers spit on those of you who passed it into law, those who
enforce it, and those who uphold it.
        - Repeal every item of the "stealth" legislation your party
passed in the last two sessions of congress, and then start in on
everything you stupidly, pusillanimously, and corruptly let the liberals
get away with for the last 75 years.
        - Defend the First Amendment on the Internet. Extend it now to
radio and television.
        - Expel Hatch, Dole, and their ilk from the GOP. I can provide
you with a list.
        - Repeal every federal, state, and local weapons law, not one of
which is constitutional.
        - Impeach Clinton.
         In short, Bob, enforce the Bill of Rights. It's your duty, get
it? You swore solemnly to do it. Why not start now? Don't hand me any
crap about how you can't all at once, or these things take time, or "The
perfect is the enemy of the good." I'm a child of the 60s, veteran of
the anti-war years, I remember the civil rights movement, and I've heard
it all before. In my experience, there'd never be any good if it wasn't
for those of us who insist on the perfect.
         Bob, it isn't up to us Libertarians whether we take enough
votes from you to wreck your majority and even destroy your party. Just
be better than we are on the issues that truly count, and nobody will
want -- or need -- to vote for us.   They'll vote for you, instead.
        Hey, Bob, it's entirely up to you.
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L. Neil Smith is the award-winning author of The Probability Broach,
Pallas, Henry Martyn, and Bretta Martyn forthcoming in August of 1997.
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