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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: budweeder who wrote (4229)	9/26/2000 9:50:58 AM
From: Mama Bear	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13062

"but the recurring theme on this thread is street drugs." My perception is that it's brought up by those obsessed with maintaining the status quo. "I refer again to the post-convention statements by Harry Browne stating that legalization of drugs would become the defining issue nationally in 2004" I believe you misheard that. I haven't heard him say that. It is a core issue, not the core issue. Again, it is no more or less important than any other issue that pertains to individual freedom and the absolute right of the person to choose his own destiny. IMO, it is yourself that has an inordinate amount of interest in the issue. I wouldn't be shocked if I went back and counted the number of posts referring to the issue on this thread and found that the near totality of them were a combination of posts by you and responses to those posts. I must say, I do find it ironic that a fellow with your position calls himself 'budweeder'. It really does sound like a character from a Cheech & Chong movie. BTW, you can find a link to Mr. Browne's web site in my profile. Perhaps you could go there and find for us where he said that 'street drugs' are the central issue to the Libertarians. Regards, Barb

To: budweeder who wrote (4229)	9/26/2000 11:54:03 AM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13062

Perhaps it is the core issue for some people because it is the clearest and most obvious example (well, along with the recoveed-memory-child-abuse crowd) of the intrusiveness of the government into what should be private decisions. If the government were to fight against the right to read poetry by violating the civil rights of thousands of people, declaring a War on Poetry, breaking down doors of people suspected of owing a page of a poetry book, and spending billions of dollars to jail people for reading or selling poetry, that would probably become the defining issue of the LP. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. The point of greatest government intrusion on the rights of the people gets the most attention from those who believe in individual liberties. It isn't about drugs. It's about every liberty of the people. Drugs just happens to be the one the government has chosen to come down hardest on. (Certain drugs, that is; not, of course, the drugs of choice for congressmen and women and their spouses--tobacco, alcohol, Valium, and Prozac are all legal, naturally.)

To: budweeder who wrote (4229)	9/26/2000 2:53:26 PM
From: freeus	Respond to of 13062

Every person thinks what she/he thinks and I think the core issue of Libertarian Party philosophy is taxation. Without taxes the government would have to be much much smaller. And big government's efforts to get larger and larger has led to the Drug War as police, DEA, etc find out they can steal people's property and keep the spoils. Freeus