The Holy Trinity

David Weigel | January 17, 2008

The San Francisco Bay Guardian, which endorsed Ralph Nader in 2000, endorses three candidates for the primaries: Barack Obama, Ron Paul, and Cynthia McKinney. The last endorsement is the best:

McKinney has her downside — in recent years she's been flirting with the loony side of the left, getting a bit close to some Sept. 11 conspiracy theories that hurt her credibility (although she's also made some very good points about the attacks and the lack of a serious investigation into what happened). And some of her supporters have made alarmingly anti-Semitic statements (from which, to her credit, she has attempted to distance herself). But she has to come out now, strongly, to denounce those sorts of comments and show that she can build a real coalition.

As for Paul: "He's been associated with some statements that are racially insensitive (to say the least). He clearly shouldn't be president." It doesn't say anything like that about Clinton, oddly.

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Comments

Episiarch|1.17.08 @ 10:37AM|#

J-E-W-S.

|1.17.08 @ 10:43AM|#

Goddamn Dirty Hippies!

|1.17.08 @ 10:49AM|#

You don't understand - blacks have reason(!) to make unfortunate comments about jews, while whites NEVER have any justification for any comments about blacks that do not involve acknowledgement of collective racial guilt.

Brian Carnell|1.17.08 @ 10:54AM|#

They forgot that Cynthia McKinney is the *only* national politician, to my knowledge, who has publicly supported Robert Mugabe and his disastrous regime in Zimbabwe.

|1.17.08 @ 11:03AM|#

I suspect working for that paper would require forgetting a lot of stuff. I like how they say Ron Paul should clearly not be president...in their endorsement of him for president!

|1.17.08 @ 11:05AM|#

It occurs to me that in the last little while the quoted paragraph about McKinney could easily have been printed in reason about Paul, and the snarky remark about Paul could have been printed about McKinney.

When it's you and yours...

Abdul|1.17.08 @ 11:12AM|#

Whoa, up until now, I always looked to the San Francisco Bay Guardian first for presidential reccomendations. Now I'll have to turn elsewhere. Anyone have a copy of the Socialist Worker's Weekly or a Ron Paul newsletter from 1988?

|1.17.08 @ 11:16AM|#

A McKinney administration could be disastrous, if only for her propensity to overcome bureaucratic red tape by punching bureaucrats.

I suppose you could say that a McKinney administration would be totally awesome for the same reason.

|1.17.08 @ 11:22AM|#

I'm surprised you all think this way. Indeed, it is shocking to consider the uniformity of opinion among Libertarians in this country. Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5% of Libertarians have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market & individual liberty.... Given the inefficiencies of what we laughingly call the "Libertarian Party" and their views on the federal govermnment, I think we can safely assume that 95% of the libertarians are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.

We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of Libertarians, but it is hardly irrational. Libertarians commit tax evasion/fraud, ID fraud, they violate social contracts, and don't take responsibility for statements in their name, and don't get me started on their beliefs on vaccinations and colloidal silver.

-Except from the Mojotron Survival Report

I like Mojotron|1.17.08 @ 11:26AM|#

he's a funny guy

|1.17.08 @ 11:26AM|#

Thanks, Mojo. You've really opened my eyes to what's really going on in this country.

|1.17.08 @ 11:33AM|#

Mojotron,

Do more! Do more!

Do the fleet-footed libertarians and "funny" names for New Libertarian City.

|1.17.08 @ 11:35AM|#

Does McKinney have an opponent in the Green primary?

Jim Morrison|1.17.08 @ 11:39AM|#

Mr. Mojotron's risin'.

Ben|1.17.08 @ 11:42AM|#

"From its roots in the Magna Carta and Adam Smith's economic theories to the Bill of Rights, it's clear the United States was founded on a social compact that libertarians too often seem to deny."

Wow, for all the times I've read the Bill of Rights or things written by Adam Smith I never realized that these things made it clear that the US was founded on a social compact that I've been denying as a libertarian. Thanks San Fran Bay Guardian for opening up my eyes.

|1.17.08 @ 11:46AM|#

BTW I didn't actually write that and can't tell you who did but can assure you that they no longer have access to my computer and have been removed from my "buddies" list, and I distance myself from those paleosarcastic beliefs.

Tom Walls|1.17.08 @ 11:49AM|#

The conservative says "Do the crime, do the time"
The liberal says "Do the crime, do no time"
The libertarian says "Got some time? Do the crime!"

"I think we can safely assume that 95% of the libertarians are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

squarooticus|1.17.08 @ 11:50AM|#

Anyone who is smart enough to get away with "tax fraud" (that is, being able to avoid being robbed by a very well-equipped and well-informed gang of thugs) has my respect and admiration.

I am not smart enough to get away with it, so I pay taxes... but when this government is finally exposed for what it really is---a criminal gang---I will be the first on line to get back what was taken from me, hopefully driving these crooks to drink themselves to death in the poorhouse.

The Democratic Republican|1.17.08 @ 12:03PM|#

Ben -- I COMPLETELY agree -- that was the single most obnoxious line in what was otherwise an interesting read. It seems like reading anything from CA is entering a totally different world.

R C Dean|1.17.08 @ 12:04PM|#

Mojotron, it is to laugh. I love his whole "collective responsibility" schtick - if any libertarian has done it, all are guilty of it.

|1.17.08 @ 12:26PM|#

Ahh, the competition for the best incredulity. But Reason fiddles as America burns.

|1.17.08 @ 12:56PM|#

Andrew Cuomo use "shuck and jive" correctly while spinnig the results of the NH primary. The easily offended are, predictably enough, offended by his using a common American English phrase that originates with the African American community. Get a life. It's common American English now, which is at worst an unintended compliment to the influence of African Americans on our culture.

Russ 2000|1.17.08 @ 1:33PM|#

I suspect working for that paper would require forgetting a lot of stuff. I like how they say Ron Paul should clearly not be president...in their endorsement of him for president!

You can't dumb down a newspaper much more than that.

|1.17.08 @ 2:07PM|#

"You can't dumb down a newspaper much more than that."

Saying that McKinney has a down side is pretty base. No?

Mr. Chartreuse|1.17.08 @ 2:19PM|#

Does McKinney have an opponent in the Green primary?

At least four others:

http://thirdpartywatch.com/2008/01/14/green-party-debate-2008-and-the-nader-factor/

sand and cotton|1.17.08 @ 2:19PM|#

Why do people keep calling this an endorsement of Ron Paul? They keep trashing his name through out the entire segment.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/018656.html

|1.17.08 @ 2:28PM|#

Why do people keep calling this an endorsement of Ron Paul? They keep trashing his name through out the entire segment.

From what I can tell, it's because he's anti-Iraq War and non-interventionist in general.

svf|1.17.08 @ 3:00PM|#

... and in spite of the routine Paul-trashing, it sure is refreshing to see this statement printed in a relatively well-circulated publication...

Paul is absolutely correct that if we stopped trying to police the world, ended the war on drugs, and quit negotiating trade deals that favor multinational corporations over American families and workers, we would be a far more free and prosperous nation.

LarryA|1.17.08 @ 3:05PM|#

"From its roots in the Magna Carta and Adam Smith's economic theories to the Bill of Rights, it's clear the United States was founded on a social compact that libertarians too often seem to deny."

You mean the "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness" compact?
SFBG isn't even on speaking terms with it.

But some of us have no interest in making common cause with the religious right or Dick Cheney or Halliburton or Don Fisher. There are forces and interests in the United States that need to be opposed, defeated, consigned to the dustbin of history, and for all of Obama's talk of unity, we worry that he lacks the interest in or ability to take on a tough, bloody fight against an entrenched political foe.

So for SFBG the best Republican candidate is a dead Republican, i.e. Ron Paul.

The conservative says "Do the crime, do the time"
The liberal says "Do the crime, do no time"
The libertarian says "Got some time? Do the crime!"

Actually the libertarian says, "Why is this consensual act which harms no one a crime? Let's rescind that law."

Geotpf|1.17.08 @ 7:47PM|#

"de stijl | January 17, 2008, 11:35am | #

Does McKinney have an opponent in the Green primary?"

Actually, she has a bunch. On the California ballot, there are seven people in the Green Party presidential primary. Other than McKinney, the only name I recoginze is Ralph Nader.

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/election_2008/certified_list_pres_primary.pdf

Nader and McKinney are also running for the Peace and Freedom Party nomination, a California-only leftist political party that should have merged with the Greens years ago.

Interestingly, there appears to be 12 people going for the Libertarian Party nomination.