Joecephus.com - Random musings from the land of the burning river.
  • Home
  • About
    • Comment Policy
  • General
    • News
    • World
    • Science/Tech
    • Economics
    • Sports
    • The Joecephus Daily
  • Music
    • Album Reviews
    • Liberty Songs
  • Beer
    • The Weekly Pour
  • Cigar Reviews
  • WTF?
  • Politics
    • Civil Liberties
    • Nanny State
  • Web Store
Joecephus.com - Random musings from the land of the burning river.
  • Home
  • About
    • Comment Policy
  • General
    • News
    • World
    • Science/Tech
    • Economics
    • Sports
    • The Joecephus Daily
  • Music
    • Album Reviews
    • Liberty Songs
  • Beer
    • The Weekly Pour
  • Cigar Reviews
  • WTF?
  • Politics
    • Civil Liberties
    • Nanny State
  • Web Store
Civil Liberties, Politics

On Ron Paul, “States Rights” & Nicholas Sarwark

January 5, 2017by JoecephusNo Comments

I am, at least as of the time that I am writing this post, a registered Republican. Truthfully however, at this point that is only because of the ridiculous ballot access laws and Ohio Senate Bill 193. I am not currently a member of the Libertarian Party, nor do I have any sort of affiliation with any member of the Libertarian Party.

Recently I have seen an article by a former legislative aide for Rep. Ron Paul, that was posted at the Ron Paul Institute make the rounds on libertarian leaning social media sites. The title of the piece, “Libertarian Party Chairman Denounces Ron Paul’s Support for States’ Rights” caused an eruption in comments across Facebook.

The article was loosely about an interview that Nicholas Sarwark, the current chairman of the Libertarian Party had on a Lions of Liberty podcast recently. I say “ loosely” because the entire basis of the article was a completely taken out-of-context piece that used one line out of a forty minute long interview.

I even saw a liberty minded Facebook friend of mine re-post the article with the comment “Looks like the Libertarian Party is being destroyed by socialists.” I can understand given the title of the posting at the RPI how a liberty minded individual might get upset , I mean denouncing Ron Paul and for supporting States Rights of all things.

The thing is, if you listened to the actual Lions of Liberty podcast, you would see that at no point did Nicholas Sarwark ‘denounce’ Ron Paul or Ron Paul’s support for States Rights.

But hey, let’s not allow things like facts to get in the way, no one can speak ill of muh Ron Paul.

The Ron Paul discussion in the podcast started at about 25:30 minutes into the interview and came after a discussion about the Gary Johnson campaign and how Bill Weld displeased many hardcore libertarians. Sarwark himself admitted that many of the things that Bill Weld said during the campaign were not things that he would have said, or things that he necessary agreed with. His point was however, in growing the Libertarian Party as a viable third option — do you want a pure ideological person standing on a soapbox speaking to ten people or do you want a slightly less pure person with a giant microphone who is able to reach millions?

Mark Clair, the host of the podcast, responded by saying that he thought a lot of ideologically libertarian leaning people got spoiled by Ron Paul and his manner of speaking libertarian ideas. Clair, then went on to say that “…we still have to look at Ron Paul and what his… success was, I mean he floundered out of the Republican Primary.” Clair followed up with talking about how the bigger thing to look at Ron Paul was at how many people he turned on to the idea of liberty, partly because of his ‘ideologically pure’ libertarian message. Moving forward Clair wondered how do liberty minded people turn on more people to the liberty message as not everyone can be Murray Rothbard.

Sarwark, in talking about Ron Paul, commented that you ‘run a very dangerous line’ if you get too caught up with any one personality, be it in politics or any other aspect of life.

His point was that there is no one true pure as fresh snow ideological libertarian and everyone is capable of being wrong on some things. He had mentioned how he had spoken to Ron Paul supporters who if you were to mention an issue that Ron Paul was not a pure libertarian on they would twist themselves up into pretzels while trying to say otherwise because “Ron Paul could do no wrong.”

Sarwark also pointed out that the strength of libertarianism is that the principle doesn’t care who the messenger is. It is either a libertarian position or its not, no one is perfect and its okay to not be pure and it is also okay to be able to call out the things of libertarians that are not really libertarian positions.

Sarwark was particularly talking on same-sex marriage, citing Ron Paul whom for a long time said that it should be up to the States. His point was that “States rights” do not trump individual rights or civil liberties.

Clair, even agreed mentioning how you see people get caught up in personalities, such as opposing something, but then supporting it because Obama does or opposing something but then supporting it because Trump does. Then saying that he agrees with about 95% of what Ron Paul says but “heaven forbid” you mention that other 5% and then the name calling ensues.

That is exactly what happened with the reaction after the article was posted on the RPI website.

Nicholas Sarwark did not “denounce” anyone and “the socialists” are not taking over the Libertarian Party.

I swear libertarians are more often then not, their own worst enemy.

Also, in regards to the whole “States Rights” issue, the 10th Amendment provides that the “powers” not delegated to the Federal Government are reserved to the States and/or the people.

States don’t have rights, we the people do.

Nicholas Sarwark, rightfully stated that you can’t use “States Rights” to allow government to take away individual rights based on gender, race or [in this case] sexual orientation.

The 10th Amendment does not provide for allowing the States the “right” to trump the natural individual rights of American citizens.

About Me

Foul-mouthed & tattooed, ‘small l’ libertarian Lover of heavy metal, outlaw country, cigars & craft beer. Broken-hearted fan of Cleveland sports.

For more Click Here.

Social Media Links

Tweets

  • There is no better choice than a bad-ass, pro-freedom, abolitionist who worked as a spy for the Union during the C… https://t.co/6YU9sDIorOyesterday
  • RT @TheLouPerez: Harriet Tubman did not go through a universal background check when she purchased her gun.yesterday
  • RT @mkibbe: “Government lockdowns centralized wealth at the expense of working folks.” There, I fixed it.yesterday
  • RT @BridgetPhetasy: RIP satireyesterday
  • I saw this #highschoolpicturechallenge trend on facebook over the weekend. I don't think I've changed one bit. … https://t.co/xuX7MkZypZ2 days ago
  • @slice15211 @robert76xs500 @michaelmalice That argument would be wrong. You cannot get any clearer than the words "shall not be infringed."2 days ago
Distinguished Ruffian

Blogroll

Knuckledraggin My Life Away

Altar & Throne

The Logical Libertarian

The Thompson File

American Thinker

The Feral Irishman

Arizona Luke

Confessions of a Closet Republican

Elementary Politics

Misfit Politics

BlazingCatFur

Julie Borowski

Schismatic Pandemonium

Laughing Conservative

Brodigan.tv

Rocking Philosophy

All The Right Snark

The Lonely Libertarian

Libertarian Republican

Instagram

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

There may be an issue with the Instagram access token that you are using. Your server might also be unable to connect to Instagram at this time.

Error: No posts found.

Make sure this account has posts available on instagram.com.

Click here to troubleshoot

Error: admin-ajax.php test was not successful. Some features may not be available.

Please visit this page to troubleshoot.

Last.fm

  • Click to view the Last.fm page for this track
    I'm Not the Devil
    Cody Jinks
    I'm Not the Devil
    5 days ago
  • Click to view the Last.fm page for this track
    On A Cloud
    Cross Canadian Ragweed
    Cross Canadian Ragweed
    5 days ago
  • Click to view the Last.fm page for this track
    Moving
    John Fullbright
    From The Ground Up
    5 days ago
  • Click to view the Last.fm page for this track
    Graveyard Shift
    Scott H. Biram
    Graveyard Shift
    9 days ago
  • Click to view the Last.fm page for this track
    Church Babies
    Scott H. Biram
    Graveyard Shift
    14 days ago
  • Click to view the Last.fm page for this track
    Church Babies
    Scott H. Biram
    Graveyard Shift
    14 days ago

Guns and Bikinis

Subscribe to Joecephus.com Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© 2017 copyright JOECEPHUS.COM // All rights reserved