Look. Rand Paul is a libertarian. Bernie Sanders is a socialist. A socialist is pretty much the polar opposite of a libertarian. A libertarian is pretty much the polar opposite of a socialist. And there’s at least one major difference between the two, aside from ideology: libertarians are, by and large, not drooling idiots.
So good luck with that, Bernie.
[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers. On the one hand, this post is from September; on the other hand, I fully agree that it still applies. And on the gripping hand, Cavanaugh really should not have to keep having this explained to him…
I’m so pleased that the fellow from Reason.com is enjoying watching Barack Obama get kicked around:
Still, Obama’s fast fade is satisfying to see. After the sordid backstairs intrigue that brought us the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act over the objections of most Americans; after the automotive bailout and Cash for Clunkers and the unbelievably negligent expenditure of $787 billion in failed stimulus; after the expansion of the war on drugs and the illegal war in Libya; after his stubborn refusal to change course after the Democrats got clobbered in the mid-term elections, this couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. It’s always good for America when a presidency runs out of steam, and Obama’s gift is to have had that happen after only three years.
I had a longer screed penned, but it all boiled down to “Being a functional adult, I didn’t care for Tim Cavanaugh’s reasons for voting for Obama in 2008: so I don’t particularly care for Cavanaugh’s laughter at a situation in 2011 that he himself helped to create.” So I deleted all of that. Shame, really: it included a bit about Libertarians, keepers, and coming in out of the rain…
Moe Lane
You know: the circular one. Via Slashdot:
Despite having had some time to get their act together, Obama’s Department of Justice has filed yet another brief defending the RIAA’s outlandish statutory damages theory — that someone who downloaded an mp3 with a 99-cent retail value, causing a maximum possible damages of 35 cents, is liable for from $750 to $150,000 for each such file downloaded, in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum.
Not that anybody should have believed that errant nonsense in the first place, of course: expecting a Democrat to favor less government in anything is more or less the Platonic Ideal of an oxymoron. They’re not really permissive of other people’s customs or viewpoints, you know. It’s just that a couple of the customs and viewpoints that they’re ferociously attempting to impose happen to overlap with some of those of the libertarians’.
Just the messenger, folks. Just the messenger.
Moe Lane
PS Via Instapundit, and Glenn is hitting this theme himself today.
(Via Instapundit) I don’t know off the top of my head whether Cory Doctorow actually drank that particular Kool-Aid, but there’s an astounding amount of whining and denial taking place in the comment section to his critical post about Obama and wiretapping. Between the “the Master loves us and would never betray us” contingent and the “they’re all pawns of the establishment!” contingent, there’s endless opportunities for schadenfreude. Which we should restrain ourselves from indulging in too deeply… for quite cynical, pragmatic reasons, such as “some of these people can be encouraged to vote their class interests.” Which is to say, Republican: because right now the dig-libs are going to get a much better level of pandering from us than they’re going to get from the Democrats. The latter isn’t even bothering with lip service at this point.
Yes, that means “selling out.” As Michael Flynn once noted
Moe Lane
PS: Besides, the way things are right now if the dig-libs decided to infiltrate county and state GOP organizations they wouldn’t just get away with it. The existing power structure would give them all free sodas.
Crossposted to RedState.
