There is a great deal about the Libertarian Party that I agree with.

But its FATAL FLAW is that its founding was initiated by fans of the writings of Ayn Rand, and the fundamental principles of that party are strictly in line with her beliefs—which would allow businesses and financial institutions, release from all government oversight and regulation, to play it completely "deuces wild."

Even relatively mild forms of the ideas that Ayn Rand espoused—ideas that the Libertarian Party wants to make national policy—are what precipitated the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression (25% unemployment nationwide). At that time, there were no "safety nets" like unemployment insurance or Social Security. There were people literally starving on the streets. Social Security was one of the many programs instituted by Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of the "New Deal," along with the WPA and the CCC, that put people back to work on such projects as much needed road and bridge building—infrastructure we still use today, but now needs maintenance and repair. This gave previously unemployed people a paycheck, which they had to go out and immediately spend--on things like food and rent--and this sudden influx of money back into the economy from the grass roots is what got the economy going again. Snowball effect!

FDR also instituted a series of regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, to prevent things like the Wall Street crash from ever happening again.

Roosevelt's "New Deal" dug us out of the Depression and was a major basis for the general prosperity of the 1950s and 60s. Ronald Reagan trashed these regulatory agencies by such things as putting Wall Street financiers and brokers in charge of the Securities and Exchange Commission—classic "fox in charge of the chicken coop"—and did the same thing to the other regulators (appointed drug company executives to the Food and Drug Administration, for example).

Despite this, Carter and Clinton managed to keep things fairly well glued together, but when George W. Bush became president, the hand-puppet with both Dick Cheney's and Karl Rove's hands up his ass, he sent the country heading straight for the cliff.

The recent popping of the "Wall Street Bubble" was the result.

Barack Obama has been doing his damnedest to try to stop the hemorrhaging, with some success, BUT with the Republican Congress fighting him every step of the way.

Romney is Reagan redux. Only worse!

And the Libertarian Party wants to take the country back to before 1929!

So Hinkle, go ahead and vote for either the Libertarian Party or Romney. But when you wind up living in a cardboard carton in a back alley, and singing "Buddy, can you spare a dime?" in earnest—

—don't say I didn't warn you!

Don Firth

P. S. What am I wasting my time for? Trying to introduce Hinky to the Real World is like trying teach an oyster to dance ballet.

P. P. S. And Colin Powell, although he is a Republican, is one of those rare people (especially for a Republican these days) who sees things as they ARE.