Stoning - a Barbaric Demise

By Tom Rhodes, 3/13/2014

The current death sentence passed to the LPF by the GOP and Democrats is lapidation. The LP and LPF are becoming viable and a serious threat to the statist parties in charge. This is not something they can or will tolerate any longer. So with their complicit friends in the press, they are going to attempt to destroy the viability of the LP, using infamous GOP hitman Roger Stone to destroy the LPF. The actions and rhetoric of Roger Stone make it clear that he's neither an advocate or promoter of the LPF, nor a serious candidate. I believe he's a shill to damage the image and keep the LP from main stream acceptance. As LPF Director at Large Pete Bloom so eloquently put it the Libertarian Party does "not advocate the personal choice of drugs or prostitution, we advocate the natural right of people owning their own bodies, and the responsible government that comes from using the rule of law to stop the use of force or fraud." This is not the position of Roger Stone.

His actions and words make it fairly obvious that is goal is to marginalize our party and make it unpalatable political body by focusing on what most Floridians still see as prurient interests. His rhetoric is to advocate prostitution, drugs and hedonism, not liberty and natural rights. This is self evident by his campaign Slogan, "Florida must get Stoned." His campaign reminds us of his well earned and self-perpetuated reputation as a Republican Hit man. It is not consistent with a professional political party, rather is completely inconsistent with someone actually seeking to grow good libertarian government. He's cultivating the exact image for himself (thus the LPF) that as a political hatchetman he would try to force on his victims.

He made his fortune in life by devising dirty political tricks from the time of Nixon forward that were funded by the Republican Party. If he were serious about helping and being part of the Libertarian Party of Florida, he'd have been participating in building the party, he'd share and use his media access to help the party, and bring both people and money to the LPF. He instead garners press coverage that his infamy has brought him to project unpalatable ideas and positions from an extreme viewpoint to denigrate the party he professes to support.

There is nothing in Stone's history to indicate he's a convert to libertarianism. He is the quintessential Republican who wants to smoke dope. The track record of our national party with recent converts like Bob Bar, Wayne Allen Root, and Gary Johnson have not been successful, and make us look like holding tank for wayward republicans, not a serious party with serious ideas.

The LPF has no control over our image anymore, like it or not the press is going to make Roger Stone the image of the LPF; an oversexed crack pot hedonistic image of dope smoking republicans looking for whores. Not an image the more traditional aged population of our center right state will trust or elect to office. The sound bites Stone will provide the press will be the death of us, and any serious Libertarian candidates and the serious libertarian message will be destroyed in the extremism of the Republican Hit Man. The LPF is about to suffer a vile slow painful death by Stoning.