Eric Garris
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Eric Garris (born December 1953) is an activist in the libertarian movement in the United States, best known as the founding webmaster of two prominent libertarian websites.
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[edit] Early life
Garris was born in Paris, France, where he lived until he was two. He was raised in southern California by a Jewish mother who was a member of the Communist Party USA and a WASP father descended from Commodore Matthew Perry. While living in Venice, California, Garris became active with the New Left and joined the Peace and Freedom Party, where he formed a libertarian faction inspired by Murray Rothbard and remained extremely loyal to Rothbard and his program. Garris was the key leader of the libertarian faction which briefly gained control of the Peace and Freedom Party in 1974. He then left the Peace and Freedom Party and became active in the Libertarian Party.
[edit] Libertarian activism
When Rothbard and his supporters began to feel that the Libertarian Party, through outfits such as the Cato Institute, was becoming too cozy with the Republican Party and its policies, they founded the "Libertarian Radical Caucus" (revived in 2004 as the Rothbard Caucus) which was led primarily by Garris and his most consistent collaborator Justin Raimondo. After the Libertarian Party's major schism of 1983, they began an entryist strategy into the Republican Party, and during the 1990s they became strong backers of Pat Buchanan.
[edit] Internet pioneer
Eric Garris was among the early pioneers to tap into the power of the Internet in the battle of ideas. One of his early efforts was helping to found the online magazine LewRockwell.com.
Most notable, however, was his joint project with Raimondo, the online magazine Antiwar.com, which was launched in 1995 to stand against the foreign interventions of the Clinton Administration, and whose reach and influence have grown since the George W. Bush wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Garris has served throughout as the webmaster of Antiwar.com and LewRockwell.com.
Garris has also been a long time friend and collaborator of Richard Winger.
[edit] External links
- "The Internet vs. The State" - Talk given by Garris in November 2005
- "The Mind Behind Antiwar.com" - 75-minute audio interview on 2006-10-30
