{"article":{"id":103157,"heading":"Gary Nolan fights back","author":"Benjamin Todd","created":"2004-02-18 15:54:05","modified":"2004-02-19 21:08:35","last_modified":"Fri, 20 Feb 2004 04:08:35","article":"

When the Right's Wrong, What's Left?

By Gary Nolan

CNSNews.com Commentary

June 10, 2003

When I changed parties a few years ago, many of my Republican friends couldn't believe it. After all, I'd been a Republican since my first vote.

I had long dreamt of the day when the Republicans would win control of the House and Senate. In 1994 I got my wish. I was certain the policies Ronald Reagan espoused would soon become a reality.

Spending and taxes would fall faster than sweat from a fat man's brow on a hot day in Juarez. Freedom from government regulation would reign across the land. Political expedience in the legislature would come to a screeching halt.

I'm not sure when I realized I'd been hoodwinked. Maybe it was the passage of one of those expensive Bud Schuster highway bills, or the failure to get rid of the National Endowment for the Arts. It could have been the failure to cut corporate welfare, or the constant caving by the Republican leadership.

It might have been seeing prominent Republicans fighting for more gun control, tobacco legislation and \"campaign finance de-form.\" The neo-cons had taken over the party and I was through. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, the party left me.

I joined the Libertarians, the party with principle. Some of my friends have come to agree with me. Others cling to the faint hope that Republicans will someday live up to their small-government rhetoric. But personally, I feel you'd be safer trusting a rabbit to deliver a carrot than to trust the new Republican Party to stand by the Constitution.

Think I'm being too harsh? Here's the neo-Republican record.

The much-hated Clinton \"Americorps\" program has received hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding.

The Department of Education, once a target for elimination by Republicans has a new benefactor, the Republicans. In his first budget, President Bush asked for a 72% increase for primary, secondary and vocational education. With the passage of the \"No Child Left Behind Act,\" the federal government is more involved in local education than ever before.

How about the despised \"Gore Tax\" - the hidden tax the phone companies are forbidden to list on your bill? The tax Republicans once called \"unconstitutional.\" It's still on the books.

Did the tobacco lawsuits end? Actually, the Republican attorney general has pursued this extortion plan just like his Democrat predecessor, Janet Reno.

Think Republicans oppose federal interference in state and local affairs? Think again. Federal officials, paid for with your tax dollars, have been actively campaigning against state and local medical marijuana initiatives.

But since these initiatives keep winning by 2:1 margins, a \"conservative\" Republican has now introduced legislation that would allow federal agencies to spend your taxpayer dollars on advertising to influence the outcome of such initiatives.

The nose of the camel is already inside the tent and we'll soon be seeing the camel's other end.

The list goes on and on. More money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, steel tariffs, and billions of dollars from hard working Americans sent to Africa to fight AIDS.

It's not too difficult to understand where the Republicans went wrong. They were taught by the Democrats that getting elected is a simple matter of buying the vote. What better incentive to gain votes than promising free health care, job training, education and cheese?

The neo-cons have compromised a once-great vision of small government - a government not involved in nation building; a government that respects the rights of individuals; a government that is fiscally sound, with low taxes and even lower spending. The Republicans are now the party of neo-tax cuts, no spending cuts and deficits.

Now we have a larger government than even Bill Clinton asked for, the \"Patriot Act\", and more debt than you can shake a bankruptcy file at. I do know what's right and I do know who's left. Libertarian thinkers, they're right and they're all that's left.

Gary Nolan is a candidate for the Libertarian Party nomination for president.

<\/p>\n","contact":"bentodd2000@yahoo.com","link":"http:\/\/www.garynolan.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Gary Nolan has been called a Neocon. Absolutly NOT true.","numcomment":7,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2004\/02\/103157.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":103162,"heading":"Is Libertarian candidate Gary Nolan a Neocon?","article":"Being on the Board of Directors for the group "Free the Eagle" calls Gary Nolan's commitment to Libertarian ideals into question -- the neo-con group has played a part in the affairs of the John Ashcroft, Jesse Helms, Ollie North, Iran-Contra, and the Mujahedin, to name but a few ... ","author":"Eagle Eye","parent_id":103157,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-02-18 18:02:04","modified":"2004-02-18 18:02:04","fileurl":""},{"id":103163,"heading":"more sellout when","article":"the party failed to accept anti war platform at convention. Justin R wrote vociferously of this betrayal. Membership is precipitously down because campaign funds were used to not very good results.\r\n\r\nTypical party infighting crap. And yes, we have a hawk wing, its the F-ing Ayn Rand crowd, the law and order never pay taxes, anarcho right.\r\n\r\n","author":"a3m","parent_id":103157,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-02-18 18:03:34","modified":"2004-02-18 18:03:34","fileurl":""},{"id":103167,"heading":"he sounds like a neocon","article":"Hmmm.... can anyone who seeks freedom trust a politician who makes an appeal to Republicans?\r\n\r\nEspecially on a leftist website friendly to communists and anarchist?\r\n\r\nfoolish","author":"more rational","parent_id":103157,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-02-18 18:50:12","modified":"2004-02-18 18:50:12","fileurl":""},{"id":103171,"heading":"libertarian, neo-Con..What's the Diff? Pito! (dick)","article":"funny how libertarians and neo-cons alternate positions with each other. Larry Elder, L.A.'s most famous house-negro libertarian just joined the republican party. Mr. Nolan went\r\nin the opposite direction. Sounds like just a strategic ploy to suck the more selfish liberals and moderates into thinking libertarianism is a legit ideology when its just conservatism in sheep's clothing. same shit, slightly different smell.\r\n\r\non that note:\r\nrecently at LMU there was a forum on "academic freedom post 9-11" that was hijacked by harvard libertarian shitheads like \r\nAlan Charles Kors, co-author of that libertarian screed against progressive university curriculums entitled the SHADOW UNIVERSITY, a favorite tome of the right. these mo-mos\r\nthink that the most oppressive limits on personal freedoms on college campuses are regulations against hate speech and curriculum that challenges racism and sexism. Oh, so higher education is supposed to be about vindicating ignorance, no thank you.\r\n\r\nlibertarians and neo-cons suck (each other I presume based on their dovetailing lines of thinking).","author":"neo-con poseurs suck too","parent_id":103157,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-02-18 19:19:56","modified":"2004-02-18 19:19:56","fileurl":""},{"id":103186,"heading":"Same Difference","article":""Libertarians" are merely those who believe in total freedom from laws, taxes and all other restraints...as long as that freedom only applies to those whose annual income exceeds $200K a year. Otherwise, they are as hard-line law'n'order as any Bush-shite.","author":"Old European","parent_id":103157,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-02-18 22:04:55","modified":"2004-02-18 22:04:55","fileurl":""},{"id":103196,"heading":"Libertarians","article":"The Libertarians seem to be making perfect sense until they start talking about drugs and the legalization thereof.\r\n\r\nThat's where they lose me.\r\n\r\nGD","author":"GD","parent_id":103157,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-02-19 02:25:16","modified":"2004-02-19 02:25:16","fileurl":""},{"id":103261,"heading":"Photographic evidence of Neocon ties","article":"I was asked, "Are you sure that Nolan's 'Free the Eagle' is the same as Ruff's 'Free the Eagle'? I can't really find any hard information (address, phone #, web site) for either."\r\n\r\nWell here's the proof: They are one in the same -- click this link to see a photo of Gary Nolan and Tammy Lyles (executive director of FREE THE EAGLE) standing together. - http:\/\/www.garynolan.com\/photos.shtml\r\n\r\nNOTE: it's listed under "MORE PHOTOS"\r\nGrover Nordquist (Americans for Tax Reform), Tammy Lyles (Free the Eagle), and Gary Nolan - http:\/\/www.garynolan.com\/photos\/norquist.jpg\r\n\r\n\r\nMakes you sick to your stomach, doesn't it?!","author":"Eagle Eye","parent_id":103157,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2004-02-19 21:08:35","modified":"2005-08-15 02:50:22","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2004\/02\/norquist.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2004\/02\/norquist.jpg"}}]}