B.P. Terpstra
Below are some random thoughts on Cato’s founder, Edward Crane. Consider it a free-flowing free speech exercise. Indulge me.
First, the “Libertarian Party Correspondent”, Edward H. Crane III strikes one as naïve, at best. Here he is in August 1973 (Reason, Aug/Sep2008, Vol. 40, Issue 4):
If there were any remaining doubts as to the viability and future of the Libertarian Party, its 1973 National Convention in Strongsville, Ohio, early in June must surely have eliminated them. The L.P. is no longer a tenuous coalition of hesitant and dubious allies but rather a united front of determined individualists committed to the common goal of freedom in our time.
In all due respect, the Libertarian Party still has its head up its backside, but for the believers, they’re still believing. They’re like devout communists in some ways.
Incidentally, Crane is the founder of the libertarian think tank Cato and a University of California Berkeley graduate who never let go of San Fran’s hippy culture.
He pretends to be shocked when a pastor (Mike Huckabee) questions the (sometimes racist) evolutionary theory of evolution. But so have many of the world’s greatest scientists.
Abandoning Darwin when it suits, Crane claims that the former Mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, “scares the hell out of” him because he’s tough on crime. Forget survival.
Cato seems obsessed with sexual rights, as opposed to sexual responsibilities, and is generally superficial in the Hollywood sense. But, don’t mention Muslim street gangs!
Crane’s disciples can afford their views, sheltered in their cozy libertarian think tank, while families dodge drug drivers on their way to work. Fantasy and libertarianism are partners.
I’ve long been suspicious of libertarian groupthink, mind you. And, while Cato’s slogan, “Individual Liberty, Free Markets, and Peace” sounds freedom-y it’s also hypocritical.
Indeed, when I write about drugs-first libertarianism, adults-first libertarianism, and males-first libertarianism, I often have Cato in mind. Or the Libertarian Party. It’s hard not to.
In 2000, Ann Coulter wrote, “Until several weeks of negotiations with the Connecticut Libertarian Party over its pro-drug legalization stance, my position on drugs was to refuse even to discuss drug legalization until I don’t have to pay for the food, housing, transportation and medical care of people who want to stay home all day shooting up heroin.”
It’s a point the seasonal libertarians fail to grasp, however, preferring to parrot laughably fake statistics from pro-drug Dutch and Portuguese socialists, with schizophrenic talking points.
“It’s not as if we live in the perfect Libertarian state of nature, with the tiny exception of those pesky drug laws. We live in a Nanny State that takes care of us from cradle to grave and steals half our income. I kept suggesting to them that we might want to keep our eye on the ball here.”
The libertarians also lose people when they discover how much “libertarians” enjoy censoring critical questioners. There’s a reason why the Libertarian Party never took off Ed.