Obviously, I created this site to support Mary Ruwart, and have given my reasons in the Introductions section for believing she is uniquely qualified to be our
nominee. Nonetheless, I have long admired Steve Kubby and would be proud as a libertarian to have him representing us in the fall campaign for the presidency.
He is primarily known, of course, for being instrumental in the campaign to allow the use of "medical marijuana" that culminated with the passage of
the first "compassionate use" law in California. In that fight, he was a model of the plumbline libertarian strategist, making clear that he
believed the entire "war on drugs" should be ended, but still building a coalition for an intermediate step in the right direction that was
politically viable. Nobody who worked with him in that campaign thought he was only in favor of that first step, or that he wouldn't immediately get rid
of the entire mess of laws restricting the freedom of a person to put into their body any substance they choose if he had the chance.
While Kubby, Smith, Hess, Ruwart, and Phillies have all committed to supporting the return of a comprehensive platform that doesn't shy away from any part of what we believe (the absolute minimum I expect from a Libertarian candidate before I'm willing to consider them to be our standard bearer), Kubby is the one candidate who somehow managed to sign the Restore '04 petition before I did, and I raced to that site the moment I found out about it.
I think it is a shame that Kubby has gotten so identified with the medical marijuana issue that some have overlooked his overall consistency, and while his writings are not nearly as extensive or broad in terms of topics as Ruwart's, what I've read has demonstrated his skills as a persuader. Moreover, I have never known him to be a divisive personality: the way he maintained a coalition in support of medical marijuana is the same as the way he tries to maintain coalitions with all friends of liberty on the points of agreement. Ruwart masterfully led the Unity movement that kept the LP together during a 1988 presidential contest between Ron Paul and Russell Means that had the potential to be the death knell for the party, but I don't think that accomplishment was any more impressive than Kubby's ability to work with people who disagreed about almost everything except medical marijuana.. I am not surprised that many of the people I know and respect in the LP are supporting the campaign of Steve Kubby, or are agonizing over the choice between Ruwart and Kubby.
I'm not familiar enough with the other candidates to know how consistently and effectively they'd represent our principles and platform and, just as importantly, whether they'd be uniting figures among the different wings of the LP if they won the nomination. But I have no doubts on that score about either Ruwart or Kubby, because they have proven it over a long period of time as libertarian writers, speakers, and activists within and outside the LP.
I believe Ruwart will be able to run a more active campaign than Kubby, and that her books and online columns, as well as her planned campaign-related update to Short Answers to the Tough Questions, may well serve as the guide for Libertarian candidates in the years to come. I also believe that her contacts outside the LP are broader, because of her status in the Alternative Health Care community and the Fully Informed Jury Association, the sales of her libertarian primer Healing Our World over the past 15 years, and her "Ask Dr. Ruwart" column in the most widely circulated libertarian publication in the world, Liberator Online.
It is the positives in Ruwart, and not any negatives in Kubby, that decided it for me. There is nobody in the LP I respect and appreciate more than Kubby.
While Kubby, Smith, Hess, Ruwart, and Phillies have all committed to supporting the return of a comprehensive platform that doesn't shy away from any part of what we believe (the absolute minimum I expect from a Libertarian candidate before I'm willing to consider them to be our standard bearer), Kubby is the one candidate who somehow managed to sign the Restore '04 petition before I did, and I raced to that site the moment I found out about it.
I think it is a shame that Kubby has gotten so identified with the medical marijuana issue that some have overlooked his overall consistency, and while his writings are not nearly as extensive or broad in terms of topics as Ruwart's, what I've read has demonstrated his skills as a persuader. Moreover, I have never known him to be a divisive personality: the way he maintained a coalition in support of medical marijuana is the same as the way he tries to maintain coalitions with all friends of liberty on the points of agreement. Ruwart masterfully led the Unity movement that kept the LP together during a 1988 presidential contest between Ron Paul and Russell Means that had the potential to be the death knell for the party, but I don't think that accomplishment was any more impressive than Kubby's ability to work with people who disagreed about almost everything except medical marijuana.. I am not surprised that many of the people I know and respect in the LP are supporting the campaign of Steve Kubby, or are agonizing over the choice between Ruwart and Kubby.
I'm not familiar enough with the other candidates to know how consistently and effectively they'd represent our principles and platform and, just as importantly, whether they'd be uniting figures among the different wings of the LP if they won the nomination. But I have no doubts on that score about either Ruwart or Kubby, because they have proven it over a long period of time as libertarian writers, speakers, and activists within and outside the LP.
I believe Ruwart will be able to run a more active campaign than Kubby, and that her books and online columns, as well as her planned campaign-related update to Short Answers to the Tough Questions, may well serve as the guide for Libertarian candidates in the years to come. I also believe that her contacts outside the LP are broader, because of her status in the Alternative Health Care community and the Fully Informed Jury Association, the sales of her libertarian primer Healing Our World over the past 15 years, and her "Ask Dr. Ruwart" column in the most widely circulated libertarian publication in the world, Liberator Online.
It is the positives in Ruwart, and not any negatives in Kubby, that decided it for me. There is nobody in the LP I respect and appreciate more than Kubby.
