Tierney: South Park Refugees

John Tierney attends the Reason magazine conference in Amsterdam, and finds libertarian Republicans thin on the ground:

The G.O.P. used to have a sizable libertarian bloc, but I couldn’t see any sign of it at the conference. [South Park creators Matt and Trey] Stone and Parker said they were rooting for Hillary Clinton in 2008 simply because it would be weird to have her as president. The prevailing sentiment among the rest of the libertarians was that the best outcome this November would be a Democratic majority in the House, because then at least there’d be gridlock.

“We’re the long-suffering, battered spouse in a dysfunctional political marriage of convenience,” said Nick Gillespie, the editor in chief of Reason. “Most of the libertarians I know have given up on the G.O.P. The odds that we’ll stick around for the midterm election are about as good as the odds that Rick Santorum will join the Village People.”

"South Park Refugees," John Tierney, New York Times, 29 August 2006 (behind TimesSelect firewall)