* Originally By: Lpyleprn@mcs.net
 * Originally To: All
 * Originally Re: (Fwd) Dole & Gun Law
 * Original Date: 12 Jul 96  22:13
 * Original Area: PR_NET
 * Forwarded by : Blue Wave/386 v2.30
NOTE: This message was originally addressed to LPYLE
      and was forwarded to you by LEROY PYLE
                          --------------------
Date:          Thu, 11 Jul 1996 18:09:23 -0400
Reply-to:      lneil@ez0.ezlink.com
From:          "L. Neil Smith" 
To:            Multiple recipients of list 
Subject:       Dole & Gun Law
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L. NEIL SMITH                       MEMBER: CLP LP/USA LSAC NRA (Life)
736 EASTDALE DRIVE                          TELEPHONE:  (970) 484-6824
FORT COLLINS, COLORADO USA 80524            E-MAIL:   lneil@ezlink.com
Jim Bohan                                                July 10, 1996
loboazul@ICSI.net                                           Via E-Mail
Dear Jim:
    We often disagree enthusiastically, but I'm confident that you
understand my convictions and, to a degree, respect them.  I'm writing
now because I know I can count on you to pass my comments on to those
they concern.  Influential Republicans listen to you; perhaps through
you, they'll listen to me, if only for a moment. I hope so, because
this is something they need to hear.  
    For their sake, let me review some facts we've already discussed
at length ...
    As the author of 20 novels, hundreds of essays and speeches, and a
    
voluminous internet correspondence, I'm the most widely-published and
prolific Libertarian writer in the world.  I've been active in the
movement 34 years, starting a decade before the Libertarian Party was
created.  I'm also very unhappy because this year's LP presidential
nominee is unintelligent, unprincipled, poorly educated in matters
Libertarian, and, judging from his filings with the Federal Elections
Commission, thoroughly corrupt.  
    As you'll recall, I considered suggesting in my online publication
    
_The Libertarian Enterprise_, that readers vote for Bob Dole because
(being brutally pragmatic) we Libertarians have the moral high ground
on you Republicans the same way the Socialists did on the Democrats in
the 1930s.  Republican candidates must pay lip service to many values
that Libertarians hold dear; as electees, they're malleable on that
account, and can be publicly held to what they claim to believe in.  
    I regret that I can't do it, now, and this is what I hope you'll
share with your fellow Republicans:  Dole's cynical abrogation of his
promise to repeal Clinton's gun laws makes it impossible.  Something
we agree on is the importance of the Second Amendment.  But it goes
_far_ beyond that, betraying your party's continuing disregard for the
highest law of the land, the first ten amendments to the Constitution,
the Bill of Rights.  That's why I found the GOP unsatisfactory three
and a half decades ago, and joined the LP when it came along.  
    It's also why I'll urge readers to "cast a blank" this November,
to vote on whatever candidates and issues they like, but to refrain
from voting for _any_ presidential candidate at all.  It's the next
best thing to "None of the Above", a choice that will let me sleep at
night, and look at myself in the mirror the next morning.  
    Your fellow Republicans may not care what I think or mean to do,
but you can only toss so many potential voters away because they're
"politically incorrect".  It cost Bush the 1992 election, and it'll
cost Dole in 1996.  Now four months are left, anything can happen, but
it'd have to be spectacular, and I doubt that your party's up to it. 
I know that you, at least, will believe me when I say I'm sincerely
sorry about that.  
Best regards as always,
Neil
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