An Open Letter to Mike Dillon July 28, 1994 Dillon Precision Products, Inc. 7442 E. Butherus Drive SEE AUGUST 21 ADDENDUM, BELOW Scottsdale, Arizona 85260-2415 Dear Mike -- Years ago I noted a tendency among the "girls" my wife works with at the office to urge her to cut her long silky hair because it would be "cute" and "so much more practical". I became suspicious that the "girls" didn't have my wife's best interests at heart -- in fact, if they thought they could get away with it, they'd probably advise her to wear _mud_ on her face because it would be "cute" and "so much more practical". You'll appreciate my feelings, then, when I saw your reply to a reader of _The Blue Press_ who wrote to you about the Libertarian Party: "All successful political movements start at the bottom. If you want a Libertarian senator, representative or president, first nominate them as a Republican or Democrat. Indeed, a vote for any third party is a pure squandering of votes. The place to install candidates is in the primary elections. This November, we can't afford the luxury of voting for principles alone." There's much I could say (and will) about this "advice"; before I do, I want you to know I agree with your opinion of Linda Thompson which preceded it. Even if she's not an _agent provocateuse_, we'd still be treated like the 1932 Bonus Army (or worse) if we marched on Washington as she demands. Those who see the Bill of Rights as the Ten Commandments of American political conduct must _become_ the government through traditional channels, no matter how much time or effort it takes -- and _then_ arrest the criminals who sponsored and voted for the Brady Bill and the Feinstein Amendment, along with those responsible for the 1968 Gun Control Act, and any dinosaurs still living who illegally crammed the 1934 National Firearms Act down the nation's throat. The question Mike, is which party is likeliest to aim for that objective -- or better yet, you tell me who "squandered" their votes, those who voted in the past for consistently pro-gun Libertarians, or those who voted for ... Republicans of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, and later the whole Senate, who approved the appointment of Janet Reno despite her often- stated desire to confiscate every privately-owned weapon in America? Ex-Senator Jack Kemp, the Great White Hope of Republican conservatism, who on "Face the Nation" advocated banning semiautomatic weapons? John Chaffee, Republican Senator of Rhode Island who introduced a bill last year to confiscate every handgun in the United States? Republicans of the House and Senate like Kay Bailey Hutchison, without whose help the Brady Bill would never have passed? Pete Wilson, Republican governor of California (and no worse than his predecessor, George Dukmejian) who let that state's Roberti-Roos "assault weapon" law pass when he could have vetoed it? New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman and New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who have done nothing to relieve their constituents of the burden of illegitimate gun laws? Republicans of the New Jersey Senate who refuse to repeal that state's illegal ban on semiautomatics? Thirty-eight Republican members of the House, and "conservatives" in the Senate like Hank Brown, who voted for the Feinstein Amendment? Richard Nixon, who stated shortly before his death that the Brady Bill doesn't go far enough because, "Guns are an abomination"? Late Republican Chairman Lee Atwater who gloated that Republicans can afford to ignore gun people, who'll vote Republican no matter what, because where else are they gonna go? Again I ask, Mike, who "squandered" their vote? Top to bottom, leftmost to rightmost, the Republican Party has been trying since at least 1988 to "broaden its appeal" by "moving to the center" -- a process which consists of dumping traditional constituencies which its leadership in their "wisdom" see as "marginal" in terms of social acceptability or political correctness. And _foremost_ among such "marginal constituencies" are gun owners. Great men don't "move to the center", Mike, great men _move the center_. Given the history of the last 20 months, given the pattern of the last several votes in Congress, given the disdain with which George Bush held up that tiny stainless revolver in his first Presidential campaign, or the treachery with which he outlawed importation of semiautos, I don't believe we'd be better off today if he'd been re-elected. If you do, I'm disappointed in your powers of observation. It's now much _more_ than perfectly clear that the most likely way any gun-owner can "squander" his vote is by casting it for a Republican. The course you suggested to your Libertarian reader is like telling German Jews of the 1930s that if they want their own Chancellor, they should nominate a National Socialist. The Republican Party is rotten through and through. William Bennett started all the fuss over semiautos, proposing to ban those weapons most clearly meant for Constitutional protection. William F. Buckley is said to have endorsed the Brady Bill, and so is Barry Goldwater. George F. Will demanded repeal of the Second Amendment _months_ before Michael Gartner. And some blame _all_ recent gun legislation on Nixon, since Edwin O. Welles and William Colby of the Nixon-era CIA founded the national anti-gun lobbies. Nor should it ever be forgotten that Waco was planned and rehearsed during the Bush administration. And even Rush Limbaugh, although he often pays lip- service to the Second Amendment, is friends with Kemp, an outright toady to Bennett, and was a towering mountain of Jello all through the Waco siege. At this point, in the absence of a suitable Libertarian candidate, it's better to elect the slimiest liberal Democrat than risk getting daggered in the back -- again -- by a treacherous Republican. We Libertarians, Mike, aren't the ones responsible for that miserable state of affairs. We aren't the ones who made the Republican Party unworthy of respect by any decent individual. We aren't the ones who chose to violate the oath of office and betray our country by voting for one blatantly unconstitutional proposal after another. We aren't the ones who made it necessary to choose between the Republican Party and the Second Amendment. _So don't take it out on us._ Fact is, if people like you (and the NRA, whose principal distinguishing characteristic the last 60 years has been a palpitatingly spineless compulsion to surrender in the face of enemies like Sarah Brady, Diane Feinstein, Janet Reno, and Hillary -- or even Chelsea -- Clinton) had listened 20 years ago and endorsed our candidates then, we'd be the majority party by now, and none of us would be in the present mess. Until you face that fact and accept your responsibility for it, you will be wading in the cesspool of shirked responsibility and unaccountable power that your side so often accuses liberals of having created. You will have taken up residence in the cloud-castles your side accuses Libertarians of building. So let's do this one more time, Mike, to make sure we've got it straight ... Libertarians oppose all proposed and pending victim-disarmament laws -- commonly but improperly known as "gun control" -- and, _given the political power_, Mike, will: 1) repeal, nullify, or otherwise dispose of every one of the more than 20,000 victim-disarmament laws already on the books (not one of which is Constitutional or consistent with the concepts of individual or human rights) and abolish all agencies, at every level of government, responsible for enforcing them; 2) promote unregulated "Vermont Carry" of concealed weapons by civilians nationwide, and decriminalize the act of self-defense, so that it no longer costs an individual's life savings to defend himself from the government, once he's successfully defended himself from _freelance_ criminals; 3) pardon and provide restitution to anyone ever inconvenienced in the slightest by victim-disarmament laws; 4) arrest, prosecute, convict, fine, and imprison any any senator, congressman, state legislator, county commissioner, or city councilman who ever introduced, sponsored, or voted for victim disarmament legislation, along with every sheriff, chief of police, mayor, governor, and president who ever enforced it, and throw them all in jail where they belong; and 5) where such a violation of individual or Constitutional rights has resulted in a fatality, impose the maximum penalty on all such officials. Can Republicans be counted on to offer the least of these things? In a broader sense, will Republicans work toward a Constitutional separation of medicine and state that will forever prevent nationalized healthcare? Will Republicans promise to eradicate every last trace of socialism from America? Will Republicans extend America's borders for the first time in a century by offering statehood to any Canadian province that ratifies the Bill of Rights? Will Republicans get us back to the Moon and beyond, this time to stay? My party, the Libertarian Party will, Mike -- I'll personally see that it does. For your part, it's time that you -- and the entire nation -- discovered that the words "conservative" and "Republican" are fully separable. The "girls" at the office don't have my wife's best interests at heart, so I always urge her to ignore their "advice". For the same reason, I think we Libertarians will forgo yours -- which over the decades has brought us straight to the brink of disaster -- and follow our own course, wherever it takes us and the rest of the country. Wherever that may be, it has to be better than where the Republican Party has led us. Sincerely, L. Neil Smith ADDENDUM ================================================ AUGUST 21, 1994 Since this letter was first written and sent, Republicans have continued to betray the Second Amendment, most recently today by contributing more than enough votes to pass the Clinton "crime" bill in the House of Representatives. Thus I reiterate: in the long run it's better to elect the slimiest liberal Democrat than to vote for any Republican ever again. The Republican Party must be amputated from the American body politic like the gangrenous limb it has become.