No, LBN, the real difference on TPW is between those with the courage to use their real name, and those who hide behind pseudonyms.
Michael, you need to distinguish between 1) what I want the LP to say to voters, and 2) what I say to anarcholibertarians to answer their arguments that the LP shouldn't say it. What I want the LP to say to voters -- instead of "abolish the state as soon as possible" -- is that we stand for
* Free Minds, Free Markets
* Civil Liberties, Economic Freedom
* Individual Liberty, Personal Responsibility
* Getting the Left out of your wallet and the Right out of your bedroom
All of these are just ways of reproducing the Nolan Chart in a slogan. You say "simply put, the LP is too socially liberal for the GOP and too fiscally conservative for the DP". That's EXACTLY what I want us to say to voters. If instead we say the LP is "centrist", it makes us sound as confused as a Ross Perot or Joe Lieberman.
Steve, if you believe that "the principles of libertarianism, all of them" can be written in a single self-consistent document, then you would seem to be little different from the Objectivists you criticize. See
http://libertarianmajority.net/major-schools-of-libertarianism and
http://libertarianmajority.net/free-variables-in-libertarian-theory.
http://libertarianmajority.net/major-schools-of-libertarianism and
http://libertarianmajority.net/free-variables-in-libertarian-theory.
I agree that the key is to "move us in the direction of more liberty", and that's what the Platform Committee's proposal is all about. If you (or anybody) can think of a single libertarian principle that a 2/3 majority of NatCon delegates would agree is missing from our draft (http://libertarianmajority.net/pure-principles-platform), I'd like to know ASAP so we can fix it before Denver. I keep asking this question, and nobody has ever answered it. Nobody.
I don't see how it is that you get to advocate a stateless society as an achievable goal, but it's somehow impractical and naive for Mike Gravel to advocate a healthcare system whose only government intervention is vouchers. However, I completely agree with you that radical decentralism is the best way to fight the ratchet mechanism of the nanny state. Instead of federal healthcare vouchers, just defederalize healthcare and let the states compete for the best policy. Instead of a Fair Tax, just end the federal income tax and send a bill to each state for its share of the radically-reduced federal budget.
Susan, thank you for educating us delegates about whether you think that the LP should be ecumenical toward Chicago-style libertarianism. Your fearless willingness to hold high your beliefs and clarify the principles you advocate for the LP is a credit to your Radical Caucus, and will surely have a major impact on your LNC race.
