Who is Wayne Allyn Root and why he is bothering the Libertarian Party?

This is why people often don't take Libertarianism seriously.

From Third Party Watch comes this statement from Libertarian Party Presidential hopeful Wayne Allyn Root upon his return from Great Britain:

I learned many lessons on my trip to UK this past week. The most important one is that the solution to any problem is simple- less government, lower taxes, more personal responsibility, more rights for the individual, more choice, more free market competition (to solve the education and health care mess), and far more freedom. That’s the Libertarian message. That’s not the message you’ll hear from any Democrat or Republican Presidential candidate.

I'm not really sure how Wayne learned this in the UK--I'm not even sure what a guy supposedly pursuing the US presidential nomination is doing in London in the first place.

Here's the problem: pure ideologues of any stripe scare the hell out of me. Anybody who thinks "that the solution to any problem is simple"--from a Libertarian, Progressive, or any other perspective in between--is someone you don't want anywhere near serious power.

Political ideologies provide a conceptual framework for thinking about the world, not a blueprint for solving individual problems.

Try to remember that if you want anybody to take you seriously as a candidate for anything.

Comments

Unknown said…

Wayne Allyn Root is contesting for the 2008 US Presidential Elections as the candidate of the Libertarian Party. To campaign for the election, he has planned to start a TV reality show to be broadcast in the countries of US, Canada and UK. He is also writing a book 'The Conscience of a Libertarian' to make campaigns.

January 30, 2008 at 4:02 AM

Steven H. Newton said…

That's all nice, but doesn't respond to the inanity of his comments that every political problem has a single simple solution.

January 30, 2008 at 12:52 PM

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