[Radar]

The truth is I'm for as large a party as possible, as long as all the people in the party subscribe to the non-aggression principle (the cornerstone of libertarianism) and actually ARE libertarians. This means they don't support unprovoked wars against non-threats like Iraq, they don't want to close the borders or promote larger government to do so, they don't support stealing money through force like income taxes, etc.

I'm a big tent libertarian. As long as all people in the libertarian tent are libertarians, I'm fine.

The accusatory tone of some of the messages suggesting that use the term "purists" as though it were a negative are genuinely laughable.

In fact, they are exactly like this...

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George: Father Tucker, I live in this neighborhood and I'd like to become a member of your Catholic church.

Father Tucker: That sounds great George. Do you believe in and worship Jesus Christ?

George: No, I prefer to worship Satan and I don't believe Jesus ever existed. But I do believe in some of the other stuff in the Bible. I wanted to use the church for our animal sacrifices every week.

Father Tucker: I'm sorry to hear that son. We don't allow Satan worshipers to use our church for animal sacrifices or to become members of our church.

George: But father, I've been watching your parking lot, and I have been seeing your membership dwindle. If you started allowing people to use the church for Satan worship, your membership would increase by 10 fold.

Father Tucker: That may or may not be the case, but we are not flexible on this. Membership in the Catholic church belongs solely to those who those who share the same beliefs of our current members. That is to say they believe in and worship Jesus Christ. We also never allow our church to be used for Satan worship or animal sacrifices. There are no exceptions. I hope you find Jesus and choose to worship him. In fact I'd be willing to spend some time talking to you about him. If you change your mind and agree in the existance of Jesus Christ and choose to accept him as your lord and savior, we can work on making you a member of the church through baptism, education, and confirmation.

George: Father, why do you have to be such a purist? You are losing members left and right. If you really want to fill those pews, you'd let me come here with my fellow Satan worshippers. It's guys like you who keep this church from growing as large as it could be. What if we just got rid of a few things like baptism? Isn't baptism antiquated anyway? I think a lot of people don't join the church because of baptism. And don't you think Jesus Christ is a hard sell? It's pretty radical and a lot of people won't go for it if they have to stop sinning. How about if we get rid of baptism, allow Satan worshipping, and only have 5 commandments? Maybe then we could grow a lot?

Father Tucker: No. I'm sorry, but we can't do any of those things. Our belief system is what it is. We don't change our core beliefs simply because it might attract more people. We believe them because we consider them to be the truth. We can be flexible on many things, but not on our beliefs. I'm sorry.

George: Geeeze father. Who made you the Czar of Catholic purity? I'm sure in your mind, a tiny church is a GOOD thing. I guess you just don't want your church to grow. We need to get people like you out of the church. Why are you trying to FORCE people to believe a certain way or follow ancient rituals?

Father Tucker: We're not trying to FORCE anyone to do anything. We have a certain belief system, and we welcome everyone who share it, but we will not change our belief system or our message for expediency or growth. Nobody is forcing them to join our church or to believe a certain way just so they can join.

George: With that attitude, your church will never amount to anything.

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Nothing I've said contradicts anything else I've said. We don't have to agree on everything, but we do have to agree on 1 thing, and that is the core belief of libertarianism... the non-aggression principle. And no, there are no degrees of it. Non = none. Meaning it's never ok to use aggression against those who have not used it against you first. Iraq did not use aggression against the United States of America and America's defensive military is not for defending any people but our own.

Before people get their panties in a wad over the church analogy, the example doesn't have to be a church. It can be any private organization with a set of shared beliefs. It could be an atheist organization where people want to become members who only pray to one god and who want to mix church and state. It could be a vegetarian group where a prospective member says they eat beef, pork, and lamb, but no fish or chicken so they want to become members, and to change the rules to allow other meat eaters to join and to use the resources of the group to promote eating meat. It could be a person who wants to join the NRA or JPFO but who supports restrictions on certain types of weapons, and who calls the removal of all gun control laws "radical".

The point is that a particular group was created with a common set of principles and core beliefs and someone wants to join the group despite not sharing those beliefs and often times has the exact opposite beliefs. They further demand to be allowed into the group and want to change the group to suit themselves. In many cases they drive long-time and loyal members out of the group out of frustration.

The LP has done this and more by allowing these interlopers to actually be allowed into leadership positions within the party.

Some people want to be "Buffet Libertarians". They want to pick and choose which issues they happen agree on without regard for the principles or philosophy behind the traditional stands taken by the party. They want to toss out the pledge because it makes them uncomfortable by shining a light on the core beliefs that created our party, which they don't agree with and because it could be used to hold them accountable when they violate those principles or promote unlibertarian things.

I have no problem with people who don't agree with the Libertarian Party 100% of the time. We don't have to walk lockstep and agree on EVERYTHING, but we do have to agree on one thing, and that is the non-aggression principle. In the example of the church, you have to believe in Jesus Christ. In the example of the vegetarians, you have to agree that you don't eat meat.

Those who support the completely unwarranted, unprovoked, and unconstitutional war in Iraq do not support the non-aggression principle. There is no valid libertarian justification for the war in Iraq. There is no legitimate claim that Iraq ever posed even the slightest danger to America, or that America has EVER had a valid reason to invade Iraq at any time in history whether it was 1991, 2006 or any time between.