Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the passing of one of the Libertarian Party's great statesmen: Harry Browne.
Browne, an author and investment advisor, and the Libertarian presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000, died of Lou Gehrig's disease at his home in Franklin, Tenn., on March 1, 2006. In his presidential races, Browne received 485,134 votes, or 0.5%, in 1996 and 384,431 votes, or 0.367%, in 2000. Among many other things, Harry was truly admirable for sticking to his principles and not selling out, with the issuance of his 4-part piece "When Will We Learn?" articles published immediately after the 9/11 attacks (links below). If nothing else, this one series of articles cast full sunshine on the fair-weather friends of liberty: Harry was viciously criticized over them. Many people -- many Libertarians included -- responding to his column were either more or less telling him to "shut up", save the critique of U.S, foreign policy and past mistakes for later (after Americans had satisfied their need for revenge first), or telling him to do his patriotic duty and hop on board the "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out" bandwagon. But sure enough, Harry turned out to have been right: Leviathan exploited 9/11 to get the Patriot Act, The Transportation Security Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and a smorgasboard of new powers and more bureaucrats. It was the pretext for a huge expansion of the government's two century long war on the American people. It also served as a pretext for the second Iraq War, the Afghan occupation, and well over a decade of meddling and death in other parts of the Middle East. Harry was wise enough to have the intuition to sense the government's desire to grow like this, but all the bloggers who spit their venom at him in September 2001 could do was fawn at the feet of President Bush, who went on the warpath with the claim that "We will rid the world of evil-doers." In my view, a reading of the blog responses from "When Will We Learn?" and other articles like it, reveals the reason why Americans haven't had a president like Harry Browne so far: Because we don't deserve one like him yet. Let's redouble our efforts to bring the message to everyone. More about Harry Browne: http://www.HarryBrowne.org/ <http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24444>When Will We Learn? Part I, September 12, 2001 <http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24488>When Will We Learn? Part II, September 14, 2001 <http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24521>When Will We Learn? Part III, September 17, 2001 <http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24561>When Will We Learn? Part IV, September 19, 2001 (Hat tip to the Harry Browne page and also to Robert Kiefer.) (Also note: This article is a day late -- but that's because many of your fellow Libertarians were busy at the polls yesterday, collecting signatures for ballot access! I am certain that Harry -- always the gracious type -- would wave it off and forgive us with a smile.) ---------------------------------------------------------- VOTE LIBERTARIAN! Are **you** ready to challenge the state? If so, then run for office in 2016, for your local school board, city council, or any other office. Let us know here: <http://Campaign.LPVA.com/>http://Campaign.LPVA.com/ If you'd like to see what's up for election next year, review the state election calendar: <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Felections.virginia.gov%2F&h=OAQE1cb9CAQEmMjiBrrAJQDiSVkrijZSjCttS7e4fcDmY0A&enc=AZO7w8vuN4gj_s-NjWCr0MDXGXfzXMyh4ptgAHMNRCQpD4q48zyXZCOaNpCZtnM4JmdGvzbh8ijcDiPt22RkZ3GPxkQ8JfLFTRn1XVzd7bzrr5867WsEn6Ywdk_WcOf0lsNpe4NNHffCUrggDuFfwVOhwe3CN-vqNtO2Y0tg9B87p0C3EOnLtumWdSTIK7WmApumzawEUaL4hbPaObYAEOz3&s=1>http://elections.virginia.gov/ /Cale /2013_2017_Calendar.pdf Good luck! ---------------------------------------------------------- Vote Libertarian. Challenge the state. Vote for freedom. <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.LP.org%2F&h=NAQEBPYakAQEVpfeH54BFSZaoGh61k5Mj5BHPdGCQWR8ExA&enc=AZPTDF4BrrjrmWHrjmzocMuTSOyxrjlF9KiFpfIrMYF3BYdcRezSivukwi2eznitBRJmI14jys2RG7IjUP436QYhumiyLlW8KTP6Le9_YWJTuRgBt1MzdwzTtIjDuiWjHOk74rLT2fjPY3Q0_BGICu2p84rrB6UFweCXBZd5euKlI67EOc_Cm1eMfpeZXwa473IkMo3OhLW964UbnKPee3F9&s=1>http://www.LP.org/ * 800-ELECT-US Libertarian Party of Virginia ############################################################# Have an announcement you'd like to post? 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