June 28, 2008
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The Boston Tea Party v.2
Back in July, 2006, the Libertarian Party‘s National Convention saw the LP’s platform gutted by Carl Milsted and cronies, all to get rid of the “extreme” and “wacky-sounding” rhetoric contained in the pre-2006 platform, because that sort of language “scares people off.”There’s one problem with that sorry excuse for an operating premise — there are people who are NOT scared off by the sort of principled rhetoric that the Milsted Minions are terrified of. Instead of being scared off, they are ATTRACTED by it. I ought to know, as I’m a piece of evidence supporting my side here. Back in 1993, I was disgusted by the Republican Party’s support for anti-gun bigots. At the same time, I received some literature from the LP. One of the news items covered was an “assault raffle,” where the Arizona LP’s Phoenix chapter was raffling off a MAK-90 as a fundraiser. I thought “Here’s a group that I want to be a part of.” I filled out and mailed the enrollment coupon on 1 January 1994, and have remained in the LP ever since.
As a result of the 2006 Portland Platform Purge, Tom Knapp founded the Boston Tea Party. The BTP (v.1) slowly became inactive, but Tom resurrected the BTP platform as the World’s Smallest Political Platform, or WSPP.
Fast-forward to May 2008. There are fourteen candidates for the LP’s presidential nomination. At almost the last minute, former GOP Congressman Bob Barr jumped into the running. There were some serious questions about his past — whether or not he had changed from being a drug-warring, pagan-outlawing, homophobic war pig. There were other questions about the “Bob Barr Leadership Fund” slush PAC.
In the midst of all of this, I saw a note from Jim Davidson on Facebook pitching the revitalized Boston Tea Party. At first I thought it was a joke — the first meeting of the BTP was held in Denver concurrent with the 2008 LP National Convention — but then I noticed that one individual, a Dr. Tom Stevens, was already trying to take it over, and the BTP hadn’t even nominated any candidates. Stevens and cronies have since resigned, after setting up a few bogus “state affiliates.”
When Stevens and his buddies quit the BTP, there was at least one vacancy on the National Committee. Somehow my name came up as a good interim replacement, and I accepted the nomination to the Committee. Since then, I’ve set up a Yahoo! group for the BTPNM and have recently applied to the National Committee for state affiliate status.
And so, I’d like to take this time to invite libertarians, both Big-L and small-l, to consider joining the Boston Tea Party. You don’t need to give up whatever partisan status you have with any other party to do it — all you have to do is sign up on one of the BTP’s email lists or message boards, and signify that you support the BTP platform.
Boston Tea Party USA Official Site
BTPUSA Myspace Group
BTPUSA Facebook Group
