Mike Gravel Joins The Party

While I’ve not officially shed my (D) tag, everything about the Libertarian party fascinates me.  It’s not an ideological shift that I’ve made, it’s a philosophical outlook on life.  Liberty is probably the most frequently championed idea on this blog and I’m glad Mike Gravel is making noise in the media about how terribly corporate and lame the Democratic party has become.

From Mike Gravel’s website: 

I  wanted to update you on my latest plans before news gets out. Today, I am announcing my plan to join the Libertarian Party, because the Democratic Party no longer represents my vision for our great country. I wanted my supporters to get this news first, because you have been the ones who have kept my campaign alive since I first declared my candidacy on April 17, 2006.

The fact is, the Democratic Party today is no longer the party of FDR. It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism — all of which I find anathema to my views.

By and large, I have been repeatedly marginalized in both national debates and in media exposure by the Democratic leadership, which works in tandem with the corporate interests that control what we read and hear in the media.

I’ve personally always felt Mike Gravel wasn’t a perfect fit for the democratic party.  He’s well known for being one of the truest mavericks in politics and it’s no surprise that the libertarian party appeals to him.  That said, I think he’ll have to stretch a few of his ideological positions to perfectly fit into the more narrow scope of the libertarian style, but at some point you have to prioritize on ideology and I think he’s doing just that.

Read: “A personal message from Mike“

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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