However pissed off you may be about the results of last week’s Presidential election, you are less pissed off than libertarian firebrand and consummate Islamaphobe Eric Dondero. He is seriously pissed off. He is so pissed off that you really shouldn’t make fun of how pissed off he is.
And yet here we are.
New York Magazine recently chose to poke a stick at him to see how mad he really is.
Republicans around the country are responding to President Obama’s reelection in a variety of ways — among them: anger, depression, finger-pointing. But nobody had the same reaction as Eric Dondero, a former Ron Paul aide who blogs at LibertarianRepublican.net. In a post yesterday, Dondero, reasoning that the only recourse to Obama’s victory is “outright revolt,” laid out the terms of the “personal boycott” against Democrats which he plans to maintain for the rest of his life and that he hopes his followers will as well. What does the boycott entail? Cutting all ties with Democratic family members, friends, and lovers; refusing to work for a Democratic boss; spitting on the ground when a Democrat talks to you; and possibly shitting on your Democratic neighbor’s lawn, among other things:
All family and friends, even close family and friends, who I know to be Democrats are hereby dead to me. I vow never to speak to them again for the rest of my life, or have any communications with them. They are in short, the enemies of liberty. They deserve nothing less than hatred and utter contempt.
I strongly urge all other libertarians to do the same. Are you married to someone who voted for Obama, have a girlfriend who voted ‘O’. Divorce them. Break up with them without haste. Vow not to attend family functions, Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas for example, if there will be any family members in attendance who are Democrats.
Do you work for someone who voted for Obama? Quit your job. Co-workers who voted for Obama. Simply don’t talk to them in the workplace, unless your boss instructs you too for work-related only purposes. Have clients who voted Democrat? Call them up this morning and tell them to take their business elsewhere.
Have a neighbor who votes for Obama? You could take a crap on their lawn. Then again, probably not a good idea since it would be technically illegal to do this. But you could have your dog take care of business. Not your fault if he just happens to choose that particular spot.
It sounds like a great idea in theory, sure, but in practice? We wondered if sticking to the boycott all the time was truly feasible. So we e-mailed Dondero to see if he’d explain how he’d handle certain hypothetical situations. At first, he told us to “fuck off. And shove your silly little communist rag up your ass.” This seemed fair — after all, talking to the writer of a communist rag is probably a violation of the boycott. A short time later, however, Dondero wrote again, telling us that, on the advice of his co-editor, he would grudgingly answer our questions. His answers are reprinted below, verbatim, as promised.
I almost hesitate to urge you to do this — and yes, I’m joking about hesitating at all — but you’ll have to read the rest on your own at the link above to get the full measure of just how mad Dondero is — and let’s be clear, his burning scalp is experiencing a really bad case of Donde-rough.
While Dondero had until last year been a long-time Ron Paul aide, he then split with Ron Paul over the candidate’s non-interventionist foreign policy, leading to unkind articles like this one, which is also worth reading.
Orange County is famed as a libertarian Mecca (sorry!) homeland, but most of the libertarians I know here seem to be taking the election result with rather more equanimity. Some didn’t even vote for Romney in order to kick the Kenyan usurper (man, I really have to do something about that automatic spellcheck) President out of office, choosing instead to vote for the ticket of Gary Johnson and our own Judge Jim Gray. So the question is: is Orange County going to let itself be bested by some beefy puka-shelled porn star in commando gear (dammit!) foreign agent (oh, for God’s sake) Dana Rohrabacher impersonator (TECH SUPPORT!) guy who’s not from from Orange County? Or are our libertarians going to up the wrath and creativity to stay competitive?
We’re not suggesting that anyone do that — because some of what Dondero pledges to do is illegal, most of the rest is immoral, and much of it may be, strictly speaking, insane. We’d be happiest if everyone stayed respectable. But, if our libertarians readers would like to let us know how upset you are, and rate yourself on a 0-to-100 scale where 0=”Sasha Obama” and 100=”Eric Dondero” (and the scale could conceivably go way past 100 because LIBERTY!!!), this is your chance. You can answer some of the questions in the NY Mag article for yourself and post your thoughts here.
(Note: commitments to engage in actual illegal behavior, especially against specifically defined targets, is subject to deletion and/or redaction and/or rewriting in a way that you would not enjoy or possibly even find amusing.)
Public Notice: Orange Juice Blog shall not be held responsible for having asked this question. Yes, we know that that container over there was labeled “Pandora’s Box,” but we thought there might be some pizza in there so we opened it. Then, bam! We’re sorry, OK?
There is a Venn diagram and there are issues that I can work with Democrats and Republicans on. I rate myself a 33, a Tom Campbell on my outrage on this election.
I think what this man is doing, is exercising his first amendment rights-if some dumbass group of religious zealots are allowed by a judge on the supreme court, to protest at dead soldiers funerals because it’s their Constitutional right, by calling them “homos, that deserved to die”, then Dondero is entitled to boycott, turn away from or refuse whatever he wants, for his own personal reasons, and frankly, I think he is
courageous to do this among everyone who thinks what he does is equal to tantrum. For willing to make a stand for his beliefs, even though what he does is as unpopular as it is, I salute him.
IMO, Btw, it’s not anymore tantrum then just doing what you want because you are powerful and have money.
I’m not saying that he’s not entitled to do it. My criticism does address the form of his actions, but their content.
Same thing IMO, Content/Actions whats the diff?
Here’s an example. Whether I would be upset over someone cutting into my body and removing one of my internal organs — that’s form — would depend on whether they were a sadistic psychopath torturing me or a surgeon removing my inflamed gall bladder. The form can be described the same way in both situations. The difference is in content.
Does not absolve him at all. I am upset with him for not putitng this crap to rest when it came out. Been getting phone calls today about how “silly” RP looked last night. Did you see it?
Oh, comeon, you a lawyer, you know people can say whatever they want, it doesn’t mean they’re guilty.
Who said that anyone was “guilty”? Yes, they can say what they want — and others of us can make fun of them for doing it.
Exactly, MJ – why are you trying to stop us from making fun of this clown? Hey, NOW who’s opposing freedom of speech?
See how silly, as you, me, Greg, and this loon all get to fill this space with our words.
I’m expressing my thoughts, you are the ones who are squashing the freedom of speech, I don’t happen to think he’s anymore of “nutjob” then those who want to take cars away from people so they have to ride a bike or take a bus. That’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it. I’m not trying to shut you up, that’s my opinion, get it?
Me and Greg trying to squash people’s freedom of speech?
HOW????
By ridicule? No, that’s not taking away anyone’s freedom of speech!
And who’s trying to take cars away from people? Oh yeah, just our eccentric Republican Vietnam vet commenter “cook!”
I don’t know what’s “libertarian” about this nutjob. There’s nothing libertarian about opposing others’ freedom of religion, or favoring more war and national security state. No wonder he split with Ron Paul.
I was hanging out with a gang of local racists a couple years ago – Barbara Coe’s CCIR – and I noticed a bunch of them wore Ron Paul shirts. I said, “Yeah, I like how Congressman Paul sticks up for Muslims’ right to build a mosque near Ground Zero.” That totally freaked them out, they couldn’t compute. “That – that can’t be – he’s for the constitution!” I said, “Yes, of course he is, he’s for freedom of speech, assembly, religion.” That got them sputtering!
That was a pretty good story of mine: http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/08/drunk-at-the-ccir-potluck/
He was Paul’s long-time aide, he describes himself (and is perceived by others) as a libertarian Republican, and much (not all) of what he says fits with U.S. libertarian orthodoxy. Not a perfect libertarian, surely, but one nonetheless.
No, he’s a phony wacko, and no libertarians I know support more war and demonize anyone’s religion. As you said, he had a big break-up with Paul. He probably had a big break with reality at the same time. Libertarians should disown him.
There are, and long have been, plenty of pro-war libertarians. (Goldwater may be the most famous.)
Here’s an essay from 2007 that discusses the rift in the libertarian movement: http://www.fff.org/comment/com0702d.asp.
You may not know such libertarians, but I sure do. Their argument is that the proper functions of the government — providing security and securing enforcement of contracts — not only are compatible with but even require a “muscular” U.S. foreign policy.
you all need to take this guy very seriously, when texas seceeds, governor, soon to be supreme leader, rick perry is going to make this guy ambassador to the united states
I think Texas hasn’t considered all of the implications of secession.
The Dallas Cowboys will no longer be in the National Football League.
The Texas Rangers won’t be in the American League anymore.
Texas A & M won’t have a BCS ranking.
Finally, Congress might have to rename Tex-Mex cuisine, just like French fries.
Am I overthinking this, or does anyone else notice any red flags here? (perhaps either is the intent?) The guy is withdrawing from everybody and anybody he disagrees with (Fine)and making plans for petty retaliation against percieved wrongs(?????). Freedom of (from) association is certainly his right, but I do not think myself qualified to speculate about any further points on THIS curve. If I were a ‘conflicting’ neighbor or (former?) acquaintance, I might be inclined to set a (sufficiently ?) reciprocal distance. I just hope this guys next ‘media appearance’ doesn’t contain interviews with neighbors reminiscing how he ‘always kept to himself and never bothered anyone”.
I say, good for him, stick by your guns, and if “the shoe don’t fit” no one has to worry. My point of saying what I said about cars was that what the man is doing is no more “nuttier” then some other things that repubs or dems/libs dream up.
“And who’s trying to take cars away from people?” pa-leeeze, and you defend each other about poking fun? I guess that means you only poke fun at people YOU want to poke fun at.