Evicting Libertarian Party Principles: the Portland Purge

[KBCraig]

There is exactly one federal military installation in NH: Portsmouth Navy Yard.

Nope. It's on Seavey Island which is still on the Maine side of the river.
http://www.mli.usm.maine.edu/news.htm

That would make it zero, then. 

On May 29, [2001] The United States Supreme Court dismissed New Hampshire's claim against Maine regarding the ownership of Seavey Island in the Piscataqua River.

I've read the case, which is interesting. The Constitution declares that only Congress has the right to draw state boundaries, but SCOTUS has claimed that right in this case.

[tracysaboe]

Just as a fun aside, I spoke with John Babiarz yesterday, and he said that the NHLP plans on sticking it to National.  They are planning to affirm the old platform, and possibly break with National.  Fun stuff. 

I thought they already broke.

Or didn't they break once before?

Tracy

[Incrementalist]

Incrementalist, my friend, you're still basing your actions on pragmatism rather than moral ideals.  You need to understand that those of us who base our lives on moral ideals are NEVER going to agree with pragmatism.  I, for one, am hopeless.  You're wasting your breath.  I will NEVER be a pragmatist.  It's not in my worldview.  And I suspect that there are others here that will similarly never be convinced.

It's possible to be both an idealist and a pragmatist.  Pragmatism is a strategy, not a philosophy.  One can have strict idealistic goals and employ pragmatism as a method of reaching those goals.  In fact, I've heard many principled idealists argue that they have a moral imperative to practice pragmatism as their ideal demands that they imploy the tactics that put them in the best position to realize their goals.

but I respect that you're not a pragmatist.  I would just respond by saying that your form of idealism is best represented in the activism that you've been doing.  Russell, Kat, JP, yourself, and others have all done a great job on the street.  In politics, however, raw idealism without pragmatic strategy is a recipe for failure.  We argue for pragmatism because we want the LP to be a successful vehicle in the political arena.

[FrankChodorov]

Incrementalist, my friend, you're still basing your actions on pragmatism rather than moral ideals.  You need to understand that those of us who base our lives on moral ideals are NEVER going to agree with pragmatism.  I, for one, am hopeless.  You're wasting your breath.  I will NEVER be a pragmatist.  It's not in my worldview.  And I suspect that there are others here that will similarly never be convinced.

It's possible to be both an idealist and a pragmatist.  Pragmatism is a strategy, not a philosophy.  One can have strict idealistic goals and employ pragmatism as a method of reaching those goals.  In fact, I've heard many principled idealists argue that they have a moral imperative to practice pragmatism as their ideal demands that they imploy the tactics that put them in the best position to realize their goals.

but I respect that you're not a pragmatist.  I would just respond by saying that your form of idealism is best represented in the activism that you've been doing.  Russell, Kat, JP, yourself, and others have all done a great job on the street.  In politics, however, raw idealism without pragmatic strategy is a recipe for failure.  We argue for pragmatism because we want the LP to be a successful vehicle in the political arena.

this is the exact same problem the Greens went through in the mid-90's.

the anarchists were purged and the green "movement" morphed into the Green "Party"...

[Thespis]

The new platform.