I know many libertarians are angry with James Weeks. Not nearly angry enough, though.
Here is the struggling Libertarian Party, with the same Presidential candidate who drew all of 1% of the vote in 2012, finally attracting some attention from serious Americans desperately seeking a viable alternative to the two vile and untrustworthy candidates belched out by the major parties. For the first time, its nominating convention is news rather than trivia or a side-show. C-Span is broadcasting it live. Libertarian James Weeks, a candidate for party chairman, appears at the podium to argue for his candidacy, and knows that the Libertarian Party is being scrutinized and assessed. So what does he do to enhance its reputation, elevate its visibility, and increase the still infinitesimal odds that it will add another shocking and unforseen upheaval to the political landscape in a year that has already experienced so many of them?
He strips. He takes off his clothes until only his briefs remain, to a chorus of boos. “It was a dare,” Weeks explained at the end of his striptease. “I’m gonna go ahead and drop out.”
“Get off the stage! You’re making an ass of yourself!” one man yelled.
Though unquestionable correct, this was an understatement. Weeks betrayed the party, beliefs and colleagues. He didn’t just make an ass of himself, he made a laughing stock of his entire party, at the exact moment it was the one thing his party could not afford to be. Naturally, the outrageous stunt received far more publicity than anything else that occurred at the convention.
While making himself look bad (well, he does look bad, but he looks a lot better with clothes on), Weeks’ stunt reaffirmed the suspicions many Americans have that Libertarians exist in some parallel universe where the sky is green, the U.S. should have let Hitler take over Europe, and, apparently, fat men are strippers. He did this when the entire nation and the world need an alternative to Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the White House, and were looking in his party’s direction. This crisis is not a joke. By turning the Libertarian Party convention into one, however, Weeks made it clear that the search had better continue, and elsewhere.
One way we know (those of us ready to face cruel reality) that Hillary Clinton is more trustworthy than Donald Trump is that while it is not difficult to imagine him doing any of the corrupt things Clinton has done, Trump is constantly engaging in unethical conduct or saying things that Hillary Clinton wouldn’t consider on the most Pazuzu-infested day of her life.
What James Weeks did at the Libertarian Convention was something so irresponsible even Donald Trump wouldn’t do it.
Weeks may have dropped out of the chairman race, but he remains a very strong candidate for the Ethics Alarms Asshole of the Year.
Ethics Alarms 
He’s got my vote as “asshole of the year”. Sad considering the Libertarians have something to say on how massive taxation has ruined this country and the Feds encroachment on what were previously powers reserved for the states has made the the USA more like Sweden than the exceptional
country it was.
Asshole. Just when a viable third party is needed, when they actually have a chance (maybe not of forming government, but of being slightly less obscure). Asshole.
You hit the nail on the head. Things might just have to get even worse before they get better. CNN isn’t skipping a beat to throw dirt on the coffin of the Libertarian chance of candidacy – look at these anchors outright say this is what being a libertarian is all about. smh http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2016/05/30/libertarian-convention-strip-tease-daily-hit-newday.cnn
Can you blame them? Imagine what Democrats would say if, say, Paul Ryan did that in a GOP Convention.
Anyone else worry that Hillary could be blackmailed by what the Chinese, Russians, Norks, etc got from her server?
Sure, that’s one of many plausible and juicy scenarios.
I really expected the Libertarian Party to make their big move this year, to showcase their best and brightest and do everything they could to educate the voters on what it means to be Libertarian, they totally fell short of seizing this prime opportunity. We heard more about them in the past when the Big 2 parties had much better candidates…maybe they didn’t have a good candidate, maybe they didn’t have the people to make the push, maybe they were too busy bitching about the Big 2 and getting lost in economic conspiracy theories, I don’t know, but they blew it.
I’m a Dem, with a soft spot for socialism, and while I like Bernie personally and think he is our most honest and genuine candidate, I am under no illusion that he could do anything he promises or hopes to do. I know America is nowhere near ready to go there. And I really dislike and distrust Hillary. I think I could have gotten behind Elizabeth Warren, but with her bowing out, I might have been open to a Libertarian candidate given the current Big 2 choices, but, nope, they just couldn’t perform when they were called to the stage….
*sigh*
Just when you need them to be responsible……..
One can almost sympathize with the person who might say “Take that man out behind the building and have him shot.”
Yeah, this was not a good moment for my team. The candidates are pretty strong this year — two ex-governors with actual executive experience — and with Trump in the race, they might pull enough votes to get in the debates and sway the election away from Trump. This is not a good way to start.
“It wasn’t the best choice.”
It was a terrible way to start.
So then, is this election more comparable to Marius versus Sulla OR Caesar versus Pompey?