Ferret Man for Lieutenant Governor?

October 10, 2002 10:39 PM

Ferret Man for Lieutenant Governor? The candidate for Lieutenant Governor of the Libertarian Party of California has made it his personal crusade to legalize the domestication of ferrets in his home state. This is a reasonable political cause, but it has left the impression that California Libertarians are wacko, a trend that even bothers some Libertarians. Oh yes, the official Libertarian candidate for governor is a practicing Druid who lists Gene Roddenberry (?) as one of his favorite political philosophers. Is there something in the water at Libertarian Party meetings?
posted by jonp72 (16 comments total)

Um.
Hm. And here I thought the impression was just that Californians are wacko. Although personally, I prefer the term "flaky".
posted by kavasa at 10:45 PM on October 10, 2002

And here I thought the impression was just that Californians are wacko.

Guilty as charged.
posted by jonp72 at 10:49 PM on October 10, 2002

"Is there something in the water at Libertarian Party meetings?"

Yes, and it makes you turn blue, if I remember correctly...

Sad thing is, I would really like the Libertarian Party if they showed signs of common sense... but that would be against the party platform, it seems.
posted by insomnia_lj at 10:49 PM on October 10, 2002

My small dog once cornered and killed a ferret. I was living in an artist's studio warehouse in Baltimore. Somebody's pet ferret escaped. I heard these weird sounds, a gawdawfull racket, screeching - not rat noises - as I was confering and faxing at high speed - about how to save the world from environmental catastrophy - with a big cheese fundraiser who had pulled in 1/2 million for Al Gore. "Yes Mr. ____" "Of course Mr. ___".....Then I saw, from the corner of my eye, my 20 pound dog tossing something...ratlike.....bigger than a rat.
posted by troutfishing at 10:56 PM on October 10, 2002

I think this is a very-- Ooh, shiny buttons!

Poing!
posted by rainking at 11:19 PM on October 10, 2002

The Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, Gary David Copeland, also spit in the face of a radio talk show host last month because the host turned the mike off on him. The party withdrew its endorsement of him after that stunt.
posted by blucevalo at 11:24 PM on October 10, 2002

You know, I always thought the problem was they're all so individualistic and have such contempt for the herd--you know, the Grouch Marx Club thing--that they can't even form a posse to head off the head cases who run for office. Libertarian Party--I know those words but I don't understand what they're doing together.
posted by y2karl at 11:37 PM on October 10, 2002

Groucho, to be sure.
posted by y2karl at 11:37 PM on October 10, 2002

As has been noted (by whom, I can't remember): there are many fascinating, brilliant libertarians in America. A pity none of them belong to the Party.
posted by apostasy at 12:12 AM on October 11, 2002

There's a Libertarian candidate running for governor here in Massachusetts, and I had a lot of faith in her until I saw her on a recent debate.

woah..

She is really odd.. She had to have said "Small Government is Beautiful" about 50 times in the debate.

She has some pretty radical ideas, but she's a little too kooky for my tastes.
posted by quibx at 5:55 AM on October 11, 2002

Liberty regularly publishes supremely anguished reflections on the Libertarian party, kookiness and corruption thereof. It does seem rather like an anti-party ideology, doesn't it?
posted by thomas j wise at 6:01 AM on October 11, 2002

I have no sympathy for the California Libertarians. When I was an LP member in New York, they ran Howard Stern for governor. These things are why I stopped going to the Party meetings.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 7:57 AM on October 11, 2002

Unfortunately, the ferret-legging libertarians are the harmless ones. The ones who scare me are the well-groomed, well-spoken libertarians who've learned to temper their rhetoric just enough to get elected. One of those will likely be Governor of my state soon, so I'll report back on the ferrets.
posted by octobersurprise at 8:07 AM on October 11, 2002

Gubernatorial candidate Gary Copeland isn't alone. Gene Roddenberry actually had quite a bit to say on political matters and humanism. I wouldn't call him a Great Philosopher, but calling him a philosopher isn't a stretch. Listing Roddenberry as a favorite philosopher does not necessarily make Copeland kooky.
posted by tolkhan at 10:04 AM on October 11, 2002

It's not for nothing that Libertarians -- and sometimes libertarians -- whether from California or not are sometimes labeled the "moonbat wing". I think the basic problem they have is that we have an entrenched two-party system -- for better or worse -- and fringe parties like this attract people who not only don't fit anywhere else, they don't even fit in together. But in this party, which won't ever get elected, it sorta doesn't matter.

Put it another way: Those interested in practical politics will be in one of the two major parties.
posted by dhartung at 11:08 AM on October 11, 2002

when you stop and think, gene rodenberry was a great political thinker. remember the episode where the two guys were both black and white. the criminal was black on the right side of his face and white on the left. the bounty hunter chasing him was white on the right side and black on the left. it was a great episode that spoke to the problems of racism in the u.s. at the time.
posted by jasontromm at 2:13 PM on October 12, 2002