2008 Woodie Awards
The Bright Side of the Bush Victory
Osama bin Forgotten. Remember him?
Tom Trasente
Issue date: 11/12/04 Section: Opinions
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I used to believe in the Republican Party, but like Pat Buchanan, a few years ago, I decided I had enough. Too much small government talk, and too much big government action. Since I was a Republican in the mid-nineties I voted for Dole in 1996 which was my first time voting. In my freshman year of college in 1996 and 1997 I was introduced to libertarianism by a co-worker of mine. It took me some time to adjust my views and agree with them on issue like narcotics and defense, but over the years and with reading I came around to their viewpoint. From this time on I left the GOP and moved further to the right of limited government and individual rights. By the time the 2000 election rolled around I eagerly marked off an absentee ballot for Harry Browne of the Libertarian Party.
I used an absentee ballot because I was living abroad in that paragon of libertarianism: China. Yes, of course, ridiculous that China is a paragon of libertarianism but that is not the point. The issue here is that while there I was teaching English to students fourteen hours a week. This left me with a lot of time on my hands, time which I partly used to read on the Internet. I became a fan of the living Justin Raimondo, Pat Buchanan, Karen Kwiatkowski, Charley Reese, Lew Rockwell, Ted Rall, and David Hackworth; the dead Randolph Bourne, the international Daily Star and Frankfurter Rundschau, and the electronic cryptome.org, thememoryhole.org, and cursor.org; to name a few. The best thing about the Internet is HTML and the two words the first letters represent hypertext. The Internet allows an author to link information effortlessly. No more God awful and arcane references or footnotes or endnotes to follow up, look up, and end up with nothing. The Internet brings it all together with just a bit of code and a click!
As for the 2000 election I was happy Bush won. How could I not be? Conservative, scornful of nation building, and pro-business how could I prefer Al "reinvented government" Gore? After the election the nation was 50/50 and large segments of the population thought Bush stole the election. The conditions such that they were, Bush got nothing done. But with September 11, George the Uniter became King George IV the Wimpy Warmonger.
I used an absentee ballot because I was living abroad in that paragon of libertarianism: China. Yes, of course, ridiculous that China is a paragon of libertarianism but that is not the point. The issue here is that while there I was teaching English to students fourteen hours a week. This left me with a lot of time on my hands, time which I partly used to read on the Internet. I became a fan of the living Justin Raimondo, Pat Buchanan, Karen Kwiatkowski, Charley Reese, Lew Rockwell, Ted Rall, and David Hackworth; the dead Randolph Bourne, the international Daily Star and Frankfurter Rundschau, and the electronic cryptome.org, thememoryhole.org, and cursor.org; to name a few. The best thing about the Internet is HTML and the two words the first letters represent hypertext. The Internet allows an author to link information effortlessly. No more God awful and arcane references or footnotes or endnotes to follow up, look up, and end up with nothing. The Internet brings it all together with just a bit of code and a click!
As for the 2000 election I was happy Bush won. How could I not be? Conservative, scornful of nation building, and pro-business how could I prefer Al "reinvented government" Gore? After the election the nation was 50/50 and large segments of the population thought Bush stole the election. The conditions such that they were, Bush got nothing done. But with September 11, George the Uniter became King George IV the Wimpy Warmonger.