August 1998
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McWilliams and Davis join LP at convention
Author Peter McWilliams and IRS whistleblower Shelley Davis "signed on the dotted line" to become official members of the Libertarian Party amid standing ovations at the National Convention on July 4.
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| Libertarians are "the beacons of liberty in this country," said author Peter McWilliams, who held up a $100 bill to pay his LP membership dues. He joined the party right after his speech. |
In response, McWilliams paid his Libertarian Party dues with a $100 bill, and signed his name on the membership form.
Holding it up for the camera, and watching the huge image of his signature projected on the oversized screen, McWilliams paraphrased the famous quote of John Hancock when he signed the Declaration of Independence: "That ought to be big enough for [Drug Czar Barry] McCaffrey to see!"
Joining the Libertarian Party seemed a natural transition for McWilliams, the bestselling author of more than 30 books and long-time critic of "consensual crime" laws.
"I'm tired of people thinking that Libertarians don't have morality, that they don't have values," McWilliams had said at one point in his speech. "That's a lot of hogwash. Libertarians are the only politicians with values."
Libertarians, he said, are "the beacons of liberty in this country."
Just hours earlier, Davis, the author of the IRS expose Unbridled Power, was also joined by Crickenberger on stage after her speech.
Crickenberger told her, "It's been pretty clear to me that not only do you have a profound distrust of the IRS -- which is inherently a Libertarian trait -- you seem to be pretty Libertarian in other areas as well."
He asked her: Would you be willing to join the Libertarian Party?
In response, Davis smiled and said "Why not?" -- signing a membership form on the spot.
For Davis, becoming a Libertarian was an "evolutionary process," she said.
As a lifelong Democrat who often stumped for her father when he ran for office, she said she eventually became disenchanted with both major political parties and subsequently realized that the Libertarian Party best represented her own views.
Afterwards, Crickenberger said the two events weren't quite as spontaneous as they might have seemed.
"In both cases, these were people I had talked to ahead of time [about joining] because I realized they had significant Libertarian leanings," he said. "Peter and Shelley are just another example of how more and more people of public prominence are joining the Libertarian Party."
