RIP Mr. Driving without a License Michael Badnarik

Ballot Access News alerted me yesterday to the death of the 2004 Libertarian Party presidential candidate, and what's in the header was what I immediately thought about because that's what he was known for at the time.

Wikipedia reminds me, per the first commenter at BAN, Andy, that Badnarik was indeed a true-blue Libertarian nutter in one other way, namely, in that he believed the 16th Amendment had never been properly ratified.

Also in comments there, No. 2 person said that Greens appreciated him for the investigation of alleged vote fraud in Ohio in 2004. I use the word alleged, which said commenter did not, because there was no actual fraud. Unethical vote suppression by Ohio's then Secretary of State? Plenty. Anything fraudulent? No. Mark Hertsgaard has the facts.

Well, Libertarians got butt-hurt about my takedown comments. I replied that, to riff on Liberty Valance, here at this blog, I'd rather repeat the truth before post-mortem hagiography gets set in stone. I noted I'd written takedown obits here of warmonger John McCain, warmonger and NATO-monger Madeleine Albright, First Amendment mocker Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others, for precisely that reason.

And, per a pre-demise post he wrote at his own website, and comments therein, you're a big old gun nut if you have to take a hogleg to a medical conference. That's amplified by having a vertical called "gun friendly restaurants" at the top of the website.

And, his idea of American history was full of shit, as he claims the Civil War didn't exist, and (naturally) uses the secessionist "War of Northern Aggression" instead.

Finally, on current politics, though rightly calling out the departure of Trump, it's typical wingnut bullshit to talk about Americans who "voted for and supported Marxist/socialist legislation." It's a lie. If Badnarik, like many Republican wingnuts, knew it was a lie, then he was part of the problem on both the coarsening of American political discourse and the shifting of Overton windows, and ultimately, to hoist him by his own petard, himself a cancer on the political world. If he truly believed this bullshit, he was an even bigger idiot than the previous post about the Civil War indicates.

This:

They have converted the United States into a communist nation – sometime unintentionally, but often deliberately.

would be fucking laughable if Badnarik didn't mean it quite seriously.

And, of course, and shock me, I googled his blogging for COVID, and as you would expect, he rejected the idea of government actions in the name of public health, even to the point of threats of violence.

You bring the syringe, I’ll bring my .45, and we’ll see who leaves a bigger hole.

(Some Libertarian! [For non-Libertarians, the issue of war, but also somewhat of violence in general and its use, has been a contentious issue within the party.]) And, per him listing that quote elsewhere, I'll take him as a general antivaxxer.

And, as for the Andys of the world, just click the "obits" tab and you'll see plenty of them. I even wrote a semi-takedown of one of my most-liked authors of the past 25 years, David Roberts.

So, goodbye, Badnarik and you won't be missed in this corner of the non-duopoly world. You're the biggest nutter Texas Libertarians, at a minimum, have produced until Dan "Taxation is Theft because Me and My Poopy Pants Don't Like Paying Taxes" Behrman, and given Danny Boy's political takes, you were in the same house on COVID nuttery, too, and presumably on gunz and other lunacies.