It was in the fall of 1992 that, while reporting for a Green Bay radio station, I interviewed Andre Marrou, the Libertarian Party candidate for president, and found my political philosophy.
“Both major parties want to be your parent,” Marrou said in the money quote of the interview. “Democrats want to be your mommy, and Republicans want to be your father.”
I don’t remember being vocal about how impressed I was by Marrou, but I had always made it clear I thought Ronald Reagan (“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem”) was the closest thing to a decent president in my lifetime.
That November, while I was covering the election results, somebody in the clerk’s office, I think (I don’t remember who), slipped me a piece of paper that indicated three people had written me in as a Libertarian Party candidate for Congress.
Four years later I actually did run for the state Assembly as a Republican — not having the guts to run as a Libertarian — this was back when the Libertarian Party was actually somewhat libertarian — and thankfully, I earned less than half of the vote. God only knows what would have become of me if I had become part of the system.
Over the years my regard for government has continued to decrease exponentially. I was talking with a friend the other day about how somehow, so many senators and congressvermin become extraordinarily wealthy despite having never held an honest job and earning a salary that puts them in the upper middle class at best.
“They get rich and we get dead,” my friend said. I couldn’t have said it better.
But 30 years ago, three people tried to send me to Washington, D.C. That might have been fun.