My friends, I'm coming out of my long lurking state to make a personal plea. This isn't about Freedom Democrats specifically, this is about me. I am asking for your support of the Democratic challenger, running in a difficult race against an out of touch Republican opponent.

This is not in anyway an endorsement by this blog, I am asking for you to contribute through an independent Act Blue page. This is a personal appeal to you from myself not as the founder of Freedom Democrats but simply as a campaign staffer reaching out for help in a difficult race. Every little bit counts.

This race should be of interest to the readers here because of the type of conservative politics that this Republican represents. There's the anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim xenophobia. There's the cronyism and corruption.

What makes this particularly offensive to me, a libertarian Democrat, is the way in which some aspects of the Ron Paul movement hold up this Republican as an example of the "pro-Constitution, pro-liberty, pro-American sovereignty candidates who share Congressman Ron Paul’s commitment to the values and principles our nation was founded upon."

Yeah right.

If ever you were upset with the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of the Ron Paul campaign (but not Ron Paul at the debates), this is a race you should care about. If you think libertarianism needs to cast aside its association with the worst aspects of paleo-ism on the right, this is a race you should care about.

This is a very bad Republican. But I can understand if you want me to make the case for the Democratic challenger.

He's got it right on Iraq, coming out in support of the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. He's got it right on civil liberties, including the 2nd Amendment. I'm personally comfortable with his faith background, which is arguably the only reservation I can see the readers here having. I can personally vouch for him; he's not running to bring a religious left theocracy to office. Is he a libertarian? Not hardly, he's ultimately a center-left Democrat. But I've seen him reach out and appeal to libertarians, myself included, and I know he's a hell of a lot better than the guy in Congress right now. In a perfect world, it wouldn't be so unusual to find a Democrat who stood up for the Bill of Rights and a responsible foreign policy.

So I'd appreciate any and all support you can give him.

Thank you, and back to the blog as normal.