Notes from the LP Convention: Viguerie in wrong decade; Munger shines; Delaware's Paul Thompson checks in

Thanks to Waldo (whose browser is apparently waterproof and can function in the bath tub), I have a link to Richard Viguerie's keynote address to the Libertarian Convention, and I've also managed to find the first few minutes of North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Michael Munger's co-keynote address at his Kids Prefer Cheese.

I have to agree with Waldo on Viguerie: "a speech straight out of the 1950s. All it lacked was Communists and the Negro Problem."

Nothing in Viguerie's speech touched a single Libertarian value that is not subsumed in Conservatism. No mention of the folly of the war on drugs, government regulation of private relationships, no discussion about shrinking the government or getting it out of our lives.

Senator Taft would have been very, very proud of you, Richard.

In the other hand, Michael Munger's speech actually addressed Libertarian issues (at least in its first three minutes):

This administration in Washington is a really great recruiter for our party. Everywhere I go, people are disgusted.

They glance around, to make sure no one is listening, and then tell me, “You know, I never considered voting Libertarian before. But when I see the Patriot Act, when I see the casualties in the war in Iraq and the war on drugs, then I start to think Libertarian.”

The government is not providing the basic services that our more optimistic fellow citizens have come to expect. When I talk to people in the cities, Latinos and African-Americans, people who send their children to schools that look like war zones, schools that may be the single most disastrous examples of the failure of statist social engineering, I hear it: “I’m starting to think Libertarian.”

Of course, some folks also ask me, “Why don’t Libertarians care about real people? The Democrats and Republicans are interested in real people.”

I answer, yes, Democrats and Republicans are interested in real people. And fleas are interested in real dogs. We don’t elect them dog-catcher, though.

Why would you think that if I care about you, I should want to run your life? Or, if I don’t want to run you life, why would you think I don’t care?

As I said, this year is a great opportunity for Libertarians, for an alternative.

Of course, you can guess which candidate managed to get his speech covered on C-SPAN.

Further note: Paul Thompson, our Delaware delegate to the convention has checked in via email. This is a conflation of two brief reports:

Hello, Delaware Libertarians! I have arrived at the Sheraton formerly known as Adams Mark in Denver, and registered and obtained my credentials as your delegate to the LP National Convention. I am just beginning to get acclimated to the convention site, finding my way around.

Already a disappointment; I came here expecting to see a coordinated group effort to take a block of delegates to the Rockies game tomorrow. Apparently the convention program has no direct role in any effort to get to that game. I'll keep trying but it looks doubtful.

Also, the computer access from here is at the hotel Business Center, with its three computers. Of course I'm on one of them now, but how adequate this will be throughout a convention full of delegates that include our overrepresentation of computer geeks, we'll have to see. Anyway, I will report later on during the convention as availability allows....

We are mostly through the Bylaws part of Convention business. it looks like a contentious convention. Whether a pessimistic prediction David Nolan made yesterday that this could be as divisive as 1983, we'll see....

A brief update now, before I get back to the floor.

The cyber cafe now has five computers, so access is a little better. Also, at least one risk of a civil war here has been averted, in the platform fight. I am happy to be on the generally prevailing side of this, but much happier that the opponents didn't go into all out war mode and then "our side" stopped short of some things I thought would be piling on. More about this after I get home, if any are interested.

Paul's reference to the platform fight is covered in a post at Third Party Watch, regarding the fact that the group behind the minority report essentially gave up after losing the first two or three votes.

We'll have more from Paul as he checks in.

I'm off now to watch the candidates debate on C-SPAN.