ReasonTV: Wayne Allyn Root Explains How He Will Become President

At FreedomFest 2011, Reason's Matt Welch sat down with Wayne Allyn Root to talk about his media plans and presidential aspirations. Root said "America cares about jobs number one, jobs number two, jobs number three, jobs number ten thousand…". He beleives that America is focused on the economy and not as much on the social issues such as online gambling.

Held each July in Las Vegas, FreedomFest is attended by around 2,000 libertarians and advocates of limited government. Reason.tv spoke with over two dozen speakers and attendees and will be releasing interviews over the coming weeks. For an ever-growing playlist, go here now.

About 7 minutes. Shot by Zach Weissmueller and Jim Epstein and edited by Sharif Matar.

Go to reason.tv for downloadable versions, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to receive notifications when new material goes live.

Comments

[Colin]

You could've just posted the headline alone.

It was enough to make me chuckle.

[Warren]

Fusionism: The dysfunctional marriage where conservatives come home drunk and beat their libertarian spouses, then show up with flowers and promises when they lose their job.

[BakedPenguin]

"Poor Mrs. Dondero. Another black eye..."

[One Off]

Baaaaa...

[goober1223]

This completely "meh" post is the perfect excuse to comment on the post below. Eff that guy.

BTW, has it ever been disclosed which posters here were named? It'd be hilarious to hear them announce some of these names in court.

[Anonypussies all]

has it ever been disclosed which posters here were named?

Yeah, "pseudonymous Hit & Run commenters," i.e. everybody.

[BakedPenguin]

I followed a couple links to a redacted printout, and felt shame that I had no comments with a black line through them.

[JW]

John's typos are now on his permanent record.

[Pro Libertate]

I'm no expert on this, but wouldn't Section 230 immunity protect the foundation from most litigation based on user comments?

[Pro Libertate]

Sorry, that was a response to goober1223. And I don't mean to open the door to a lot of comments on the litigation--Reason has every, well, reason to want to avoid this nonsense.

[Clich? Bandit]

In the interest of saying my piece and THEN agreeing with the sentiment that this is the wrong article to post on and Reason has every right to stop etc. etc. This type of thing can seriously harm the 1a. I must say that Reason has done a comendable thing by standing on their principles(no shock there) and that the purpose of 1a is for speach WE DONT LIKE...not the speach we do like. It is unfortunate that resources must be spent defending this kind of thing.

Ohh, and "BAD WARTY!"

[Warty]

Did anonopussy's post just get deleted?

[BakedPenguin]

I think I "threaded it" out of line. Didn't look at the OP handle prior to responding.

[JW]

Not against Warty. He LOOMS.

So, who among the peanut gallery did he sue?

[Pro Libertate]

They're listed as defendants under their commenting names.

[T]

Damn, that's almost a roll call for here. Were you sick that day, ProL?

[Pro Libertate]

It's not my style to say the things that got everyone into trouble.

Though I suppose Episiarch could sue me for something pizza-related.

[BakedPenguin]

Every time he talks about food, I remember the line from Goodfellas "I order linguine with marinara, I get egg noodles with ketchup..."

Wait a minute. Italian food... coke... more coke... sleeping with coked out chicks...

Shit! Episiarch is Henry Hill!

[Pro Libertate]

Mein Gott! I am absolutely convinced. It even explains the move to Seattle.

[*]

It's not my style to say write the things that got could get everyone into trouble.

[Warty]

Holy shit, how awesome. I LOOM LARGE

[Bradley]

INTERNET BLOGGER "Latter Day Taint"
INTERNET BLOGGER "Shari Lewis"

I fucking lost it. This is too much.

[yonemoto]

I especially like "protefeed"

[yonemoto]

aw shit, how did I miss the post right below?

[Art-P.O.G.]

This actually happened to me twice in this thread.

[heller]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA he spelled Prolefeed's name wrong! From now on he shall be known as "Protefeed"

[Clich? Bandit]

It can't be overstated how awesome it is for the Rason Staff and friends to fight the disclosure stuff. (makes me want to be a better commenter) I should uncancel my subscription (joke) and donate more. Also, some of us are behind proxies and the like so I am sure they would have some trouble narrowing it down (in my case I have told them who I am before, for different stuff but I mean the truly anons on here).

This post is about WAR, I like his hair.

[BakedPenguin]

I think he's wearing a better tie than Matt is in this video.

[Art-P.O.G.]

I was once very open about my identity. It makes me sad I missed that thread. I also should donate, but last time I tried my internet kept timing out. I'll probably try again in a bit.

[Clich? Bandit]

As an aside, my conspiracy hat tells me that the placement of this WAR piece was to draw fire from "previous post/s" and eschew focus on this piece itself...back to tuning in static on the microwave now.

[P Brooks]

I resisted the urge to post something about a topic not directly related to the matter incorporated in this post.

I'm better than you.

Nyah

nyah

nyah.

[Pro Libertate]

You were probably only saved by your steadfast, admirable refusal to kneel before threaded comments.

[Clich? Bandit]

I, hypocritcally, support this.

[P Brooks]

Shari Lewis? That hypocrite; like she never tried it.

[kilroy]

I notice there's no attribution on this blog entry....

[Warty]

The fact that I didn't know I was being sued until after I was done being sued is...confusing.

[P Brooks]

You know who else disabled comments on "sensitive" matters?

[R C Dean]

Pauly Krugnuts?

[P Brooks]

I didn't know I was being sued until after I was done being sued

Pseudonymity FTW!!!

[Sams]

The dude does have point : Gary Jonhson ''legalize Drugs'' campaign just got drown.

In contrast Ron Paul economy and constitution platform is still going strong.

[np]

That's true, but I am definitely not comfortable with that stance (and with Root himself) and I don't see how can anyone stand up for freedom, especially on principle, and ignore one thing while promoting another. Even Ron Paul emphasizes that liberty is not some piecemeal thing.

While economic issues certainly affect more people in general, the severity of the restrictions and penalties on social issues are always much worse. You can be negatively affected economically and still get on with life, still find opportunity. But if you're on the short end of the stick on any number of social/non-economic issues, your life is over.

[Robert]

Please explain the life being over thing. Are you saying so many people are so wedded to social, non-economic issues that they might as well die if they can't have it their way? How about some contemporary examples?

[np]

No, I'm saying it is because of how few are immediately affected that law makers at state and federal level can get away greater levels of criminalization or severity. Look at alcohol prohibition--it didn't and couldn't last long because of the large number of people affected. But look at the War on Drugs and long that's been able to last since 1937 for MJ (and everything else).

This isn't about people who "might as well die if they can't have it their way". If you have a felony conviction for all intents and purposes, your life is heretofore over. This is the result of people having it their way with other people's lives rather with than their own. We say the same about economic issues, that we don't want other people to have their way with our money, so why not apply the same principle to non-economic issues as well?

you asked for some examples (reason's commenting system is limited to two links, so I can't provide many):
- as was mentioned above, online gambling; anything related to illicit trade or personal exchange; or heck, nearly anywhere the interstate commerce clause is used today

- Drugs; again, any jail time or felony conviction means your salaried or professional career is done; looking for many types of work afterward becomes nearly impossible after a background check

- Many matters dealing with sex
- see how this guy's life is turning out:
http://reason.com/blog/2011/07.....e-my-victi
there's much more related, just search reason
- others include the PROTECT Act (USC 1466a)

- obscenity laws (again, felony; see for example Paul Little recently, 2 years federal prison; Jesus Castillo, Mike Diana, prison.. for comics)

- DMCA - bypassing DRM is again a felony (only recently last year they made an exception for phones); ridiculous expansion of computer fraud/tampering laws

- Security, Terrorism:
- see case of warrantless GPS tracking by FBI of student Yasir Afifi, who first posted on unknown-looking device on reddit
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/07/.....of-america
- once a suspect, always a suspect; turns up in background checks; always on file everywhere you go, despite being clearly innocent
A commander with the Bloomington police said these reports would be kept on file for decades. When Qureshi found out that the 11-page report reading "suspicious person" would be kept that long, his eyes filled with tears.

[Bradley]

Suck it, Root

[troy]

Wow, Nick and I now have something in common besides a unibrow.

[Watoosh]

I'm sorry, but I just have to poison the well here.

This is the guy who said former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was a-ok, because his (Wayne's) businessman buddy in Egypt said so.

You're welcome.

[heller]

Deleting my post that listed sued commenters? Really?

[Warty]

Ha! They think you're no better than rectal.

[heller]

Shut up Shari.

[Coeus]

Don't worry. I'll give you even money that all the comments on this post end up getting wiped. Poor Root, man can't catch a break.

[Coeus]

Disapointing. I can't seem to access the pdf. I wanted to see if anonbot got sued.

[Matt Welch]

Yes, really. Please note what it says at the top of every comments string, particularly the last sentence:

"We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time."

This litigation has been a serious pain in the ass, and a drag on both our time and our pocketbook. After a long battle, we preserved our right to say what we said, and say more about the matter as we see fit. In doing so, we asked commenters to please hold off on doing their usual goat-dance on this particular subject matter, for reasons that would probably be obvious to my 3-year-old. Even me typing this comment right now is costing me time I'd rather be spending on more productive pursuits. If we have to, we'll just shut down comments altogether. Seriously, people, take it somewhere else.

[Joshua]

It would be nice if there was a free speech post that did NOT refer to any friends of goats. We could go on and on about how litigiousity is harming free speech more than the government.

I'm with Cliche Bandit on this one. This whole thing makes me want to extend my subscription and make a goddamn donation.

[chaussures mbt]

maybe!

[better than you]

You can sue people for being mean on the internet now?

[Art-P.O.G.]

I'll be honest with you. I don't like that look in Wayne Allyn Root's eyes one bit.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Pennsylvania Constitution, Art. I, Sec 7:

"The printing press shall be free to every person who may undertake to examine the proceedings of the Legislature or any branch of government, and no law shall ever by made to restrain the right thereof. The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man, and every citizen may freely speak, write and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. No conviction shall be had in any prosecution for the publication of papers relating to the official conduct of officers or men in public capacity, or to any other matter proper for public investigation or information, where the fact that such publication was not maliciously or negligently made shall be established to the satisfaction of the jury; and in all indictments for libels the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court, as in other cases."

[WekTee]

OK wow that looks like it might jsut work. Very cool indeed.

http://www.anon-surfing.it.tc

[Brian from Texas]

Although I'm in the Ron Paul camp, I'm certainly happy to see Root seriously thinking about seeking the Libertarian nomination. If the GOP are once again foolish enough NOT to nominate Ron Paul, Root will certainly have my vote in 2012. Perry, Romney and the other GOP candidates are unacceptable alternatives to Barack Obama.

[Citizen Nothing]

Sorry. I've been voting straight LP since 1980. I've certainly not been above voting for straight-out goofballs. But if that goofball WAR gets the nod (or, honestly, if Paul would somehow get the Rep. nomination), my string will be broken.

[Bradley]

If you were waiting for the right time to your LP voting streak, 2008 would've been the year.

[Bradley]

I accidentally the verb.

[sgtjarhead]

Root is more neo-con than Romney, Bush, Palin, and Bachman combined. I have read his books. He seems like a Glen Beck sort of creature. A golem, constantly moving into the limelight and back into the shadows again, and at no time ever arguing from first principles. What a weasel!!!

[A Serious Man]

I think this calls for an "I am Spartacus" moment.

[JOhnny MAckson]

Wow! These are crazy internet times we live in. I mean really! LOL

Jess
http://www.anymouse.com

[capitol l]

I do my goddamn best to inflame and insult, but can't even make the "wall of shame." *sadface*

Guess I'll have to try harder.

[Clich? Bandit]

ANON-BOT!!!! You're back!!! I missed you anon-bot.

[BakedPenguin]

*sigh* I know your pain...

[heller]

Uh, it didn't even get to court, so no it wasn't read aloud.

[Art-P.O.G.]

I wish anon-bot had been named in the lawsuit. Hell, that would've put a smile on my face.

[?]

You're taking your bitch-slapping well.

[heller]

Hahaha, what's that? You got banned? Oh I don't give a fuck!