Blanton Runs But Cannot Hide

http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/09/libertarian-party-political-party-or-debate-club

Earlier, Mr. Blanton didn't dispute that replacing government ownership of schools with tuition vouchers would be progress toward disentangling school and state.  Now, he flees from my detailed answer to his question of why a voter who recognizes this might not vote Republican.  He also ignores my pointing out that in my three congressional campaigns I've emphasized most of the very same "radical" issues that he says Libertarian candidates should emphasize.  So what does our desperate Mr. Blanton do now?  Why, he teases me for not having gotten elected to Congress.  ROTFLMAO.

I've never called myself a "perfect" candidate, or claimed to have run a "perfect" campaign.  But in 2008, I received 11,929 votes (4.37%) — 2000 more than my Green opponent, despite there now being 50% more registered Greens in our district than Libertarians, and despite her purchase of TV commercials on local cable systems. My percentage was the highest among the eight third-party candidates in four 4-way races in California for Congress or state legislature. It also broke the record (set by my 2004 total) for highest percentage ever won by a third-party candidate in my district (with data going back to 1992).  In that 2004 race, my campaign was covered in a story on the national Fox News Channel, and I was interviewed on the top-rated morning news program in the nation's 5th-largest metro.

Mr. Blanton claims he has been maligned here merely for "throwing out a whole lot of ideas about what is wrong with the LP and LP candidates".  In fact, he's been insulting and boorish, and his only "idea" seems to be this: if Libertarians aren't going to win office this year, then government abolitionism should be the theme of every Libertarian campaign, every year, forever.

Blanton says he has no interest in voting for a Barr or a Holtz.  What he still doesn't comprehend is that his brave and daring act of non-voting isn't interpreted by the political world the way that he fantasizes that it is.  His not voting doesn't yell "smash the state!"   It simply whimpers that he doesn't care whether public policy moves to the left vs. to the right vs. toward freedom.

Blanton's parting shot -- if he can actually stick to his pretense of being done here -- is that he's "playing" Bob and me.  But I've already said here that Blanton is somebody who is "staying in character", and he's served as a wonderful foil for me, as shown in the first paragraph of this comment.

But wait, Blanton's not done.  He asks "where's the beef?" about my 2008 campaign site, so now I get to quote him the front-and-center positions I took that made my site more radical than that of LP anarchists like Tom Knapp, Susan Hogarth, Morey Strauss, and Dan Grow:

End subsidies for all corporations and farms
End speech limits on candidates and publishers
Abolish trade barriers and wage/hiring rules
Stop disarming and monitoring peaceful adults
End all government banking and lending
Let you control your own retirement savings
Let all healers & insurers compete freely
Let adults use any substance or medicine
Legalize all consensual adult relationships
Make schools compete for students & tuition
Defend choice in procreation and risk-taking
Oppose mandatory worship and national service
End taxes on income, production, sales, gifts
Tax only land, resource use/pollution, traffic