Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Signatures Collected: Schiff Will Be on the Ballot

Peter Schiff in a letter to supporters writes:

 We did it!


Thanks to your overwhelming support our campaign team collected and submitted well over the 8,500 signatures required for the petition. Although we are awaiting the official certification of these signatures, we are confident that my name will appear on the ballot August 10th [for the Republican primary]...
 
I have no doubt that we have what it takes to win this election. But the fight has just begun. The next 2 months are critical to positioning our campaign for victory on November 2nd. But first we must win the nomination.

9 comments:

  1. I'm sorry but I don't get a warm fuzzy feeling when a libertarian candidate says "we", anymore than I get a warm fuzzy feeling when a statist candidate says "we".

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  2. And yet, Taylor, had Schiff written "I did it!", you would have blasted him for his self-centeredness.

    People like you can't be pleased...

    Let's see, you're down on the individualism that Libertarianism emphasizes, and you're down on the state socialism that statism emphasizes.

    Have I mentioned that people like you can't be pleased...

    Oh, BTW, "people like you" = damned if you do, damned if you don't complainers...

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  3. EPJ is starting to receive heavy traffic from the Angry-Psychosphere, it looks like!

    Anon,

    You've inadvertently stumbled upon my point after missing it in my original comment-- Schiff is not suddenly a "good" politician, working for you and me, because he is a libertarian. He is still motivated by his own ego and already he is taking on the language of "bad" politicians who try to hide their own ambition through collective terminology like "we did it".

    There is nothing individualistic about collective politics.

    I don't know where you come off making the claim that I am "down on the individualism that Libertarianism emphasizes", you seem to be carrying a grudge from some other comment I've made that you disagreed with me about.

    Great job on the "people like you who can't be pleased" part... is repeating this mantra the way you rationalize your collective politics? Sigh, some individuals just can't be pleased, so we'll ignore what they have to say and wave our guns around as if they don't matter.

    The truth is probably closer to you not liking how what I have to say puts the kibosh on your childish fantasies about mass salvation at the voting booth-- best to just ignore contradicting logic. Can't talk now, off to the polls to vote for freedom! (Man, I feel great about myself, I am really DOING SOMETHING now!)

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  4. @Taylor

    Actually, in this case, I think the "we" is appropriate. It was Schiff and his supporters that went out and obtained the signatures to get him on the ballot.

    It wasn't some kind of bogus "we" as in "We" fought inflation or the economic crisis, it was actually a group of people that can be identified as "We" by those in that group. They went out and got signatures.

    As for the characterization of the commenter as from "the Angry-Psychosphere". Can we please save that stuff for the true nut jobs like Paul Krugman?

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  5. Wenzel,

    Is the "We" in "We did it!" the same as the "we" in "we are confident"?

    You are correct that in this case some uses of we seem to make grammatic sense. So my comment was off-topic in that sense. However, I have heard Schiff use "we" in the more global, political sense and I remain uncomfortable about that.

    As for the Angry-Psychosphere, I'd be happy to tone it down. I'd also be happy to see less anonymous and more named commenters-- it can get pretty difficult to figure out "who" it is that is attacking you and wrongfully accusing you of things at any given moment sometimes!

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  6. No, don't tone it down!

    Aim at Krugman, Mankiw etc. The real sell outs.

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  7. @ Taylor

    Hmm, Angry-Psychosphere, childish fantasies, rationalizations, waving my guns.

    You left out Teabagger trailer trash didn’t you?

    One challenge to your Libertarianism bashing and you’re reduced to ad hominem attacks?

    Are you Rachel Maddow in disguise; characterizing private property arguments as civil rights arguments?

    Paint my comment anyway you wish, straw man, but the fact is, your initial comment was pejorative, and while Peter Schiff is not the next Yahweh (I've read he has that horrible aflliction of ego), he is a fine man who emphasizes personal and financial accountability in government.

    I’m quite sorry you have a problem with his candidacy….

    Oh, and the name is sam.

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  8. Sam,

    You seem to have a confused notion of what libertarian individualism means-- becoming antagonistic towards someone who is critical of a libertarian candidate and conflating his criticism of that individual with criticism of libertarianism in general, would not be an individualistic way of thinking but rather a collectivist one. The underlying principle here seems to be that by criticizing one libertarian (actually, one libertarians ACTIONS, as I said nothing of Schiff himself but rather what Schiff said/how he said it), I have affronted the "community of libertarians" and have attacked all. That is false.

    Sam, you are either so ignorant of libertarianism or so just plain stupid that it isn't worth my time to suffer your belittlings and respond to your impertinent behavior any longer, and so I won't. You should check out my LIBERTARIAN blog, here on this site, at http://conant.economicpolicyjournal.com -- maybe if you read it enough, you'll learn a thing or two about libertarianism and finally know what you're talking about for a change.

    Oh, and don't bother to thank me, I provide educational services to "people like you" (people who have no idea what they're talking about yet argue as if they represent some kind of sacred authority on the matter) gratis. All I ask in return is that when you next decide to drop me a snarky comment (perhaps on one of my own posts), you make sure you sign your name so I know which drone I am responding to next time.

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  9. Taylor wrote:

    “Sam, you are either so ignorant of libertarianism or so just plain stupid that it isn't worth my time to suffer your belittlings and respond to your impertinent behavior any longer, and so I won't. You should check out my LIBERTARIAN blog, here on this site, at http://conant.economicpolicyjournal.com -- maybe if you read it enough, you'll learn a thing or two about libertarianism and finally know what you're talking about for a change.”

    Taylor, might I suggest polishing your marketing skills a bit when attempting to promote traffic to your website?

    sam

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