My politics are EZ - do no harm and mind your own business.

How I became a Libertarian:

As a child in the 1950s, Senators Josiah Bailey, Robert Byrd, J. William Fulbright, Al Gore Sr., and Representative Howard W. Smith (among many others) taught me to not be a Democrat because the racial segregation they so strongly supported just seemed wrong to me even as a child.

Later, President John Kennedy and his brother Robert taught me to dream big dreams and that there may be powerful good in either party (and how we mourned, and still do, their deaths, recalled on this 22nd of November).

Presidents Johnson and Nixon taught me that leaders of both parties will lie, cheat, and steal for power and may not be worthy of trust.

President Carter taught me that a good heart may not be enough to qualify a person for the highest office of our land; and that it is not wise to beat a swimming rabbit while there are photographers present.

In the 1990s and early years of this century, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld taught me that patriotism can be twisted for evil purposes and that we should be cautious with government power overseas while John Ashcroft taught me to fear government power at home.

Both Presidents Bush taught me that you can't trust the Republicans to control spending and government bloat.

Recently President Obama has taught me that any opposition to the policies and actions of those in power can be dismissed and marginalized simply by ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagrees.

Then I took this very short quiz:
      http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz/quiz.php

Bingo. I'm a Libertarian.

My original intention with this rant was a short Facebook post, but in writing it I decided I'm simply not up to the fights that such a post would generate.

The morning after

It seems inconceivable that I not write something today. Some right-leaning friends see yesterday's election and Obama win as the beginning of the end of the world. While I am far from being a far-left liberal myself, I just don't see it that way. Mr. Obama is our newly elected president. He is not our new king or dictator. On issues I agree with or disagree with, he will have to work with congress and will have opposition. The democratic party does not have a firewall, and even if they did, they are rarely monolithic. Take environmental rules that may discourage the use of clean coal. That may (or may not) be Obama's plan, but how is he going to get the representatives of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Montana on board?

I find myself fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I guess that makes me a Libertarian. I don't generally do bumper stickers, yet I've got a Kinky Friedman and a Constitution Voter (ACLU) sticker on my white truck. I will disagree with much the new administration will try to do, but I have a hard time imagining that I will disagree with more than I have been disagreeing with over the last 8 years.