New York race for governor of interest.

New York State has always had a slightly more interesting ballot than other states each election. One reason is that candidates routinely run for office with several ballot lines. A Democrat, for instance, might also be the candidate of the Liberal Party (and here we mean "liberal" in the US sense of the word not the actual sense of the word). Republicans there routinely seek a second line as a candidate for the Conservative Party.

Now conservaties are not classical liberals. They have as much in common with classical liberalism as do their counterparts on the left: the socialists. That Republicans routinely seek ballot as "Conservatives" in New York as well is an indication that they do NOT support social freedom. Of course these days they have pretty much abandoned economic freedom as well. They are too keen dancing to the Bush March.

One exception to that rule is Bill Weld. Weld was the governor of Massachusettes for a few years and elected as a Republican. He was one of those Republicans who had more in common with the old Right like Goldwater and Reagan than with the new big government Right of George Bush. Weld has made it clear that he wants government out the bedroom as much as out of the boardroom. His GOP compatriots are rabid socialists of the soul. They think government ought to use all its power to push the Religious-Right moral agenda. And there is nothing liberal about that. It is not modern liberalism and it is not classical liberalism. It is statism.

Weld is now living in New York state and he is running for governor there. He is seeking the nomination of the state Libertarian Party as well. Weld is wanting to roll back the income tax for the state exempting the first $75,000 in income. Weld is not entirely consistent but then that is to be expected for a major party candidate. But he is light years ahead of his competition, John Faso. Faso is a right-wing statists. Faso is calling for the death penalty.

Now I get baffled by conservative statists like Faso. They don't trust government to get it right when it comes to delivering a letter but they think government can be trusted with the power to kill people. Faso also wants the state to kill repeat "sexual offenders". So he is also expanding the traditional Right version of state killing to include crimes other than those which result in death. That is a very bad sign.

I'm of two minds. I would much rather see Bill Weld as governor. On the other hand when flagrant statists like Faso win the nomination it makes it very clear to the American people exactly how extreme the Republican Party has become. These days I happen to think Republicans are worse enemies of freedom than Democrats. So a weaker GOP is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think "Killer Faso" can win the main election very easily. Weld would certainly be more likely to win in November. Havng Faso as the candidate would only speed up the decay of the Republican Party. So in some ways it's a toss up as to which I prefer. But on the issues Weld is clearly superior to anyone else and beats not only Faso but any Democrat.