I wrote this letter to Lew Rockwell a few weeks ago

[lew]

Thank you Mr. Rockwell,

I am a 22 year old Floridian that wouldn't be where I am today without you. For you to better understand what I am thankful about, let me begin by telling you about my upbringing.

I was brought up in a conservative Christian home. My family could probably be described as being part of the Religious Right. We held conservative values very deeply, and as such, my family almost always voted Republican. I was not yet old enough at the time, but I would have surely voted for George W. Bush in 2000 if I would have been. I did not have much of a political philosophy at that age, but I had more than others I knew at that age. I understood the political process and greatly admired our Founding Fathers. I loved conservatism and believed that the Republicans were the champions of it. My heroes were Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Reagan. Not until around 2003 did I realize that a lot of what I believed was wrong.

The first recollection of a third party I had was that of Ross Perot. I was quite young at the time and he barely held a thought in my mind – only that I was puzzled by this man that was running for President that was neither Republican nor Democrat. Even as late as 2000, I was quite ignorant of any political happenings outside the Big Two Parties. The only thing I knew of third parties in 2000 were those parties behind Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan. Of course, in my mind, I believed Nader to be a far left-wing pothead, with Buchanan being a far right-wing racist. I had no other thoughts about either of these two men beyond that. I was too busy getting caught up in the man that would champion conservatism – George W. Bush.

For the next few years, I would regularly get into debates with others about what a great job Bush was doing. I believed he was a great Christian conservative. I was for the War in Iraq and for just about everything else the President pushed forward. I regularly would listen to the likes of Sean Hannity and others. As I said previously, this all changed in late 2003.

In 2003, I actually recognized third parties for the first time. Somehow during surfing the web, I stumbled upon the Constitution Party's website. I immediately liked, and was shocked by, what I saw. Here was this party that actually believed in conservatism. They were true Christians and were adamant against voting for both Democrats and Republicans. They gave example after example of why neither a Christian nor a conservative should vote for the reelection of George W. Bush. For the next several weeks, I thoroughly researched for myself these claims. I found them indeed to be true. My conservatism was not being represented by Republicans. I had been duped. I started to discuss the Constitution Party with my friends and family and, as most of your readers probably are aware of, they thought I was going crazy to think that I would vote for a third party. Well, 2004 came and went and I was proud of my vote towards Michael Peroutka, the Presidential Candidate for the Constitution Party.

A little while after the '04 election, I once again being to reevaluate my political philosophy and began to drift away from the Constitution Party. Though I still like them far better than the Republicans and Democrats, I started to clash with some of their philosophy and thus went searching again on the Internet for those that were similar to me.

That search led me to libertarianism and the Libertarian Party. I never fully aligned with the LP, but their platform and readings did influence me. The more I researched, I found I liked libertarianism even more so than conservatism. While I certainly am still a Christian conservative in one sense, I no longer feel that I should push my conservatism upon others. Once I learned that libertarianism was an evolution from the Classical Liberalism of our Founding Fathers, I aligned myself up with it even more. The biggest problem I had with the LP was I felt that, just like the Constitution Party was almost "too Christian", the LP was almost "too atheist." So, off I went searching again. After a little while, I finally struck gold. I discovered anarcho-capitalism.

The discovery of anarcho-capitalism changed my life. I became an adamant believer in it. I studied as much as I could of the late, great Murray Rothbard. After reading an article I stumbled upon at anti-state.com entitled "Jesus Is An Anarchist", it was a done deal. I no longer called myself a conservative. I neither called myself a libertarian. I called myself an anarcho-capitalist. After discovering this political philosophy, I thought that my search was finally complete. But I was wrong. I had one final political transformation after aligning myself with anarcho-capitalism. And that happened the day I found lewrockwell.com.

When I stumbled upon lewrockwell.com, one of the first articles I read was an article by Thomas DiLorenzo about President Lincoln. What I read literally changed my life. For the first time clearly, I started to not look at our socio-political situation as conservative vs. liberal vs. libertarian. I didn't see it as Christian vs. atheist. I didn't even see it as Republican vs. Democrat vs. third party. I saw it as statist vs. anti-statist. For an instant, I could see clearly in my mind the progression of statism throughout the ages, and in particular, the advancement of it through our own country's short history. I was amazed by what I saw. I changed my political philosophical "name" one last time – to paleolibertarianism. I found at last what I had been seeking out for years without even realizing it – a political philosophy that was libertarian, admired the Founding Fathers, favored anarcho-capitalism, and had no problem with religion or cultural conservatism in social thought. I was home.

So, thank you Mr. Rockwell. I want to personally thank you and all the others that you have influenced, as well as those that influenced you. I for one am one that will seek to champion the cause of paleolibertarianism and I hope and trust that others have been as influenced by your site as I have. Thank you.

[Phantom]

all this time I thought lew was your name

[lew]

Originally Posted by Phantom

all this time I thought lew was your name

I got "lew" originally from "lew siffer" (lucifer) which is what I have registered all my pirate software for years as.

Then I dropped the "siffer" a while ago and the "lew" now reflects back on Lew Rockwell, much more so than Lucifer.

[Donkey®]

Yeah...it isn't creepy or stalky at all.

[lew]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

Yeah...it isn't creepy or stalky at all.

[DosEquis]

[hsmith]

i email him back and forth lol

[lew]

Originally Posted by hsmith

i email him back and forth lol

I have a few times as well.

[Bryan Morton]

Libertarian Christians

Christian_Libertarians : Christian libertarian Group

Peace,
Bryan

[motivez]

Originally Posted by lew

I got "lew" originally from "lew siffer" (lucifer) which is what I have registered all my pirate software for years as.

Then I dropped the "siffer" a while ago and the "lew" now reflects back on Lew Rockwell, much more so than Lucifer.

Holy shit, I always thought it was "lew sniffer" for some reason. Like, lew as in loo, how the British say bathroom.. but I got the rockwell connection, so I figured you just spelled it weird.

So, behind the scenes, I was always a little bit at why you'd name yourself bathroom sniffer

[motivez]

Do you think he'll respond to your letter?

[lew]

Originally Posted by motivez

Holy shit, I always thought it was "lew sniffer" for some reason. Like, lew as in loo, how the British say bathroom.. but I got the rockwell connection, so I figured you just spelled it weird.

So, behind the scenes, I was always a little bit at why you'd name yourself bathroom sniffer

[lew]

Originally Posted by motivez

Do you think he'll respond to your letter?

He did.


"Dear Jason, you made my day. Thanks a million!"