The Humble Libertarian original

Wow, for some reason John McCain looks like someone I could vote for now. Last week, the Republican National Committee released a major 2013 report entitled " The Growth and Opportunity Project ." In the words of its report, the purpose of the project was "to dig deep to provide an honest review of the 2012 election cycle and a path forward for the Republican Party to ensure success in winning more elections." Here's a shovel. Keep digging. Using your handy-dandy Cmd+F function, you will be unable to find any of the words from the following list in a report about why the Republicans are losing elections and how to start winning them again: liberty freedom capitalism constitution founding fathers libertarian(s) tea party ron paul civil liberties federal reserve national debt jeff frazee rand paul 2016 we seriously ****ed up; we submit our resignations That last quip aside, if the chairman's people didn't dig deep enough to ev...

By: Carl Wicklander Just as there are founding national myths, there are also myths meant to allay the conscience after catastrophes. Already we are hearing why the Republicans are going to lose the White House this year. Some are apt to blame the contentious, lengthy primary fight as the reason why Republicans are doomed. Apparently this is the first disputed presidential nomination process in American history. But John Avlon’s take at The Daily Beast (h/t Judy Morris ) is so off-the-mark as to be clownish. Avlon writes: “A cleansing bout of craziness in 2012 could be just what the GOP needs. “I’m talking about a nominee so far to the right that conservative populists get their fondest wish—and the Republican Party is forced to learn from the result. Namely, that there is such a thing as too extreme. . . . “If Mitt Romney does finally wrestle the nomination to the ground, and then loses to Obama, conservatives will blame the loss on his alleged moderation. The right...

By: Wes Messamore NASHVILLE, Tennessee (The Humble Libertarian) - As Super Tuesday primary and caucus results came streaming in from all over the country, a seemingly young filmmaker from Kentucky announced late Tuesday night that he would be releasing a low-budget documentary about Sen. Rand Paul's successful 2010 bid for the U.S. Senate. The filmmaker, who announced the upcoming release in a video on YouTube using the handle jgmdavi , said that he plans to debut the political documentary by the Republican National Convention in August. (Watch the full video announcement below.) The video announcement, which is clearly addressed to fans and supporters of Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and his father, U.S. Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX), opens with the words: "Many of you were there in November of 2010 when Rand Paul was elected to the U.S. Senate. Shortly thereafter he was sworn into office. Since then, in just over a year in Washington, he's be...

By: Carl Wicklander My friend Wes Messamore recently asked, “What happened to the Tea Party?” As the conservative base is debating between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, two veteran politicians with big government track records, the question is certainly a pertinent one, even if it’s a little late. When the Tea Parties became a visible force on the American political scene it was originally to protest the unpopular bank bailouts, the proposed auto bailouts, and the overall growth of Washington’s claws into American life. Today it’s unclear what any self-described Tea Partier stands for. Like all mass movements there were different elements to the Tea Party and it’s inaccurate to think of them as a unified monolith. Rather, there were different Tea Parties. There were some protesting the power Washington exercises over citizens’ lives. There probably really were a few that got interested in politics at the time the Tea Party became visible but the majority of people marching u...

As a 22-year-old young man in a denim jacket, with long, dark hair down to the middle of my back, and a big sign that said something against the banks, you might have guessed that I was an Occupy Wall Street protester– but this was the summer of 2009 and the Occupy Wall Street protests wouldn’t happen for another couple years. I was protesting at a Tea Party, and I was proud to be there. Before Occupy Wall Street, there was the Tea Party, and we didn’t like big Wall Street banks much either. In fact, the Occupy kids are a little late to the game. At the risk of sounding like a “hipster” I have to admit that I’m a little proud that I was out there protesting Wall Street banks before it was cool, nearly three years before many of my peers. And I’m more than a little amused that their mothers and grandmothers were out there protesting Wall Street with me while they were too doped up on the sugar high from President Obama’s recent inauguration to see the problem. Despite the unfair me...

It was October of 2009 near the end of President Obama’s first year in the White House. The Tea Party was at its zenith, raging across America in full swing in opposition to Washington’s Wall Street bailouts, the trillion dollar stimulus package from earlier that year, Obama’s health care plan, a lagging economy, and a 10-percent unemployment rate. The previous month, one million Tea Party activists swarmed Washington DC to make their voices heard ( yes, one million , probably more! ). Obama was under close scrutiny and facing strong criticism (some of it warranted, some of it maybe a little far-fetched) for every liberty he took, from his ritzy Valentine’s Day vacation with Michelle Obama, to his occasional indulgence of a cigarette, to his golf game. So of course, we all remember the fallout over Obama’s lavish, star-studded, Alice in Wonderland-themed Halloween party that October, right? No? That’s because the White House was awfully shy about publicizing the details o...

On this anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, which took place on December 16, 1773 in Boston Harbor, let us ask ourselves the question: Do Americans today face taxation without representation? This was one of the major grievances that motivated the Sons of Liberty to disguise themselves as Native Americans, board a ship bearing tea from the recently bailed out East India Company, and throw all of the tea overboard in defiance of a distant, disinterested, and corrupt government. Sound anything like what we're going through today? The 2009 Tea Party movement that has rallied grassroots organizers in cities across America to protest the abuses of our very own distant, disinterested, and corrupt government in Washington, has been criticized by its detractors who say American taxpayers do have representation, so our situation is not the same as the colonists' in 1773. Nothing could be further from the truth. One of the steepest taxes (and certainly most regressive- meaning tha...

Time Magazine has selected “The Protester” as its Person of the Year for 2011 because they are “redefining people power” throughout the world, citing the protests of the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States as examples. Time writes: “It’s remarkable how much the protest vanguards share. Everywhere they are disproportionately young, middle class and educated. Almost all the protests this year began as independent affairs, without much encouragement from or endorsement by existing political parties or opposition bigwigs. All over the world, the protesters of 2011 share a belief that their countries’ political systems and economies have grown dysfunctional and corrupt — sham democracies rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change. They are fervent small-d democrats. Two decades after the final failure and abandonment of communism, they believe they’re experiencing the failure of hell-bent megascaled crony hypercapitalism and pine...

Would you believe it? Fear of Big Government is at a near record high in a trend led by *Democrats* since 2009, a period during which one of their own is presiding over the country. That speaks VOLUMES about how Americans feel toward federal overreach. I invite any Democrat to join the Tea Party. We'll welcome you with open arms. Check out my full coverage at IVN.us . Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Make NO MISTAKE about Newt Gingrich . Newt Gingrich is NO conservative. He is NO Tea Party candidate. He is an establishment Republican In Name Only . His record and positions on past issues are all we need to know that a Newt Gingrich presidency would not shrink the size of government, increase your liberties, or return America to its Constitution. The Truth about Newt Gingrich . DID YOU KNOW? 1. Newt Gingrich supported the TARP bailouts : At the height of the national debate over the TARP bailout in 2008, Newt Gingrich even told George Stephanopoulos in an interview that he would have voted for TARP if he were still in Congress ( video proof ). Is that the position of a true conservative? Is that the position of the free market? Is that the position of the Tea Party? No, no, and no! 2. Newt Gingrich supports the individual health care mandate , a key part of ObamaCare : Newt Gingrich has supported a key provision of ObamaCare for years , and continues to sup...

Counterfeit Tea Party candidate Herman Cain has just announced an end to his 2012 presidential campaign! The New York Times reports : ATLANTA — An unapologetic and defiant Herman Cain suspended his presidential campaign on Saturday, pledging that he “would not go away,” even as he abandoned hope of winning the Republican nomination. Instead, Mr. Cain announced what he called a “Plan B,” continued advocacy of his tax and foreign policy plans. “As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul searching, I am suspending my presidential campaign,” Mr. Cain said. “Because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters. Not because I’m not a fighter.” Mr. Cain, with his wife at his side, adamantly professed Saturday that the accusations of sexual harassment and of a long-term affair that have swamped his campaign were not true. The circus-like atmosphere surrounding Saturday’s announcement – complete with numerous postponemen...

As it turns out, the man arrested this week for allegedly firing a rifle at the White House was actually a Tea Party supporter! Lol. No, not really, but could you imagine ! I just couldn't help myself baiting "progressive" bloggers with that headline. Dear progressive blogger or reader, If you saw this headline somewhere and your soul jumped for joy, and you rushed to click on the link so that you could have one more piece of evidence to blog or share on Facebook, proving that the Tea Party are a bunch of uncivilized, violent brutes, then do the right thing, have some integrity, and reblog or share this article anyway even though it actually paints the Occupy group in a potentially bad light. Love, A Raving Tea Partier PS: I used scare quotes for the word "progressive" above because I think most self-styled progressive programs and policies would actually just take us back to feudalism, which is pretty regressive-sounding to me. Now the rest of you hav...

Note: this article first appeared at The Silver Underground. Please read it there and share their version to help me reach my incentive bonus! Thanks, --Wes --- At a time when Americans seem more divided than at any point since the Civil War, two grassroots protest movements, the Tea Parties and Occupy Wall Street protests, signal the possibility of a major realignment in American politics along the lines of massive shared opposition to the domineering financial sector and its corrupt counterparts in government… Washington Bails Out Wall Street Since the very beginning in February 2009, I have defended the Tea Party movement against its detractors in the media and government. Just weeks before they spread like wildfire across the nation, while working through my senior year of college, I sat in front of the television in the Fall of 2008, watching with bewilderment as Congress passed a “$700 billion” bill (which has turned out to be more like $3 trillion in additi...

After weeks of heated rhetoric and accusations directed toward the Tea Party movement in the days leading up to the debt ceiling agreement and afterward, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) stirred up the war of words again in California this weekend by saying: "the Tea Party can go straight to hell." But the media is not reporting what she said right after uttering these words... something that can easily be interpreted as a death threat or an incitement to violence. Find out what she said in my most recent CAIVN article. Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

Lauren Kelly writes at AlterNet : The Rachel Maddow Show staff dug up a video yesterday that shows an interesting moment of candor by Sarah Palin's husband Todd. In the video, Palin is arguing with a woman who says she's an Alaska resident and disapproves of how his wife quit the Alaska governorship and "sold out." Palin doesn't disagree with the Alaska woman; he just says, "What would you do" with "thousands and thousands of dollars a day?" The Palins had "all this debt," he says. Well in that case... Here's the video: And I know the picture above is of Michele Bachmann, not Sarah Palin... I dunno. I just thought it might be relevant. *smiles* Wes Messamore , Editor in Chief, T H L Articles | Author's Page

As many times as journalists, politicians (including the vice president), and even the Department of Homeland Security have called conservatives terrorists in the last two years, it is now more urgent than ever for conservatives to rethink their support for the vast and growing "national security" state and the systematic erosion of America's civil liberties, due process, and rule of law. After 9-11 Americans understandably wanted to be sure their country was safe. Conservatives were willing to maybe give up just a few liberties for security, especially if it was only the terrorists' liberties. So they didn't examine bills like the Patriot Act too closely or ask too many questions. Usually quick to point out and denounce violations of the Constitution penned by our Founding Fathers, conservatives hoping for security allowed the government to run roughshod over various amendments of the Constitution as it built its vast and increasingly unchecked national ...