Who else knew that Drudge was a Libertarian?

[The Backlash Cometh]

Disclaimer: He insists that he's a libertarian with a small (L) but I refuse to recognize the difference because the principles & personalities are the same.

"Linking news sites, Matt Drudge creates an Internet success"

Matt Drudge, Internet personality, is a self-styled seeker of the truth, specifically of hidden and obscured truths. If there's a Drudge brand he'd like to convey, it's of the relentless, rumpled, ever-vigilant newsman -- always connected and plugged into his network of operatives.

The truth is a bit less dramatic.

From his Miami Beach condo, Drudge monitors television news channels and websites on three computers set up in his home office. Using WindowsXP and other off-the-shelf software, he updates his website, Drudgereport.com, several times a day.

Contributors to traditional print and broadcast media sometimes derisively refer to Drudge, who gained national notoriety for his postings during the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair, as a gossip monger -- or worse. But Drudge, 36, has turned Drudgereport.com into quite a tidy enterprise.

By his own estimate, the former convenience-store clerk makes about $1.2 million a year, including revenue from his nationally syndicated Sunday night radio show, which airs locally on WIOD

Much more:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/6652451.htm

[MissouriTeacher]

1. Yeah, whatever.

99% of conservatives who aren't Christian fundamentalists think they're libertarians.

I see them on the 'net all the time, claiming to love liberty and defending the Bush administration in the next breath.

[Touchdown]

2. Don't you get it!

Everybody's a libertarian!

Are you for legalization of pot? Congratulations! You're a libertarian.
You once read an Ayn Rand book. You're a libertarian!
You think gays deserve to have all the freedoms that everybody else has. BING! libertarian.

So that means that you would agree with all of their other platforms and social darwinist tripe! Just give in, and join the cult! "You're already one of us...resistance if futile!"

See how easy it is to have a stealth co-opting of various social issues to make the Libertarians look much bigger and more numerous then they really are? It's a membership coup!:7:thumbsup:

:eyes:

[Ein]

3. I hate Ayn Rand 'objectivists'

They are so pompous they think they see the world so objectively that they deserve that title. Objectivity is a farce... and thier philosophy that in a laissez-faire system everything will be incense and peppermints is pure idiocy.

[Northwind]

4. Don't call them Objectivist

They are anything but objective.

Call them Randoids.

[Nikia]

7. I went to a few Objectivist meetings as a college freshman

I had read the Fountainhead and thought that it might be interesting to learn about the philosophy. What really struck me as odd is that for people who proclaimed their belief in individualism and free logical thought, they seemed to be merely followers incapable of their own thoughts. Everything was "Ayn Rand said this or that." That was how they answered questions and explained everything. It was like when Christian fundamentalist are asked to explain why homosexuality is wrong and they say "Well, that's what the Bible says." It just seemed rather contradictory to me.

[Touchdown]

8. I love the old truthism...

Individualists of the world UNITE!

Bunch of blowhards!

[LibLabUK]

5. Bwhahaha

"See how easy it is to have a stealth co-opting of various social issues to make the Libertarians look much bigger and more numerous then they really are? It's a membership coup!"

Don't forget the post-mortem baptism of historical personalities into their ranks.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi LibLabUK!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Nikia]

6. I once scored Liberatarian on a political preference test

I am now a little skeptical. It was on a Liberatarian website that I checked out because Wisconsin had a Liberatrian candidate for governor and I was intersted in the party platform. I think that maybe the test was worded and rigged so that most people would score as Liberatarian.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Libertarians v civil libertarians

The difference between the two is a world apart; and the rhetoric from Ayn Rand is anachronistic in lieu of the disasters that we have witnessed in this free market experiment.

[Touchdown]

11. Then you should change the terminology.

...and take the "libertarian" away from the "civil". Who decided that that was the proper term for ANYTHING involving concepts of freedom anyhow?

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. The difference, for me, is in the pudding.

Libertarians are interested in protecting constitutional rights that protect their greedy practices; and civil libertarians are interested in protecting the rights that protect the needy and downtrodden.

[MrPrax]

12. Hey That Reminds Me...

Remember back with Dukasis and him being called a 'card-carrying civil libertarian' - - creepy stuff.

But in all honesty, other than the last two years, you almost never hear the word 'libertarian' in any context.

I presume there must be a project going on...
A few months ago folks from the Ayn Rand Institute were giving a lecture in Canada and for some reason Canada Customs seized some of their literature for 'review' (usu. means a complaint about 'hate' or obsencity)

When I was back in college in the 80s, you never heard 'libertarian'--it was always Randian and Objectivism.
I always was suspicious of these people becasue of their attitute. The 'social democratic and left' clubs, they dismissed as commies, BUT they felt they were intellectually ABOVE the usual conservative mess of clubs.

That always struck me as a classic 'front' outfit...it seemed to go away, BUT now has comeback
And they still don't make sense...

[metisnation]

10. the pattern is on the wall

He is positioning himself on the Libertarian side to buffer himself from being wrong. This is a purely strategic move by Drudge.

[Woodstock]

15. I just read he's been riding Arnold's back

about his raunchy sexist past