Posted on 11/08/2006 2:27:12 PM PST by quidnunc
New York – Glum Republicans might turn their attention to the Libertarian Party to vent their anger. Libertarians are a generally Republican-leaning constituency, but over the last few years, their discontent has grown plain. It isn't just the war, which some libertarians supported, but the corruption and insider dealing, and particularly the massive expansion of spending. Mr Bush's much-vaunted prescription drug benefit for seniors, they fume, has opened up another gaping hole in America's fiscal situation, while the only issue that really seemed to energise congress was passing special laws to keep a brain-damaged woman on life support.
In two of the seats where control looks likely to switch, Missouri and Montana, the Libertarian party pulled more votes than the Democratic margin of victory. Considerably more, in Montana. If the Libertarian party hadn't been on the ballot, and the three percent of voters who pulled the "Libertarian" lever had broken only moderately Republican, Mr Burns would now be in office.
Does this mean that the libertarians are becoming a force in national elections, much as Ralph Nader managed to cost Al Gore a victory in 2000? Hope springs eternal among third-party afficionadoes, but the nature of the American electoral system, which directly elects representatives in a first-past-the-post system, makes it nearly impossible for third parties to gain traction. The last time it happened was in the 1850's, when the Whig party dissolved over internal disputes about slavery, opening the way for the emerging Republican party to put Abraham Lincoln in office. And acting as a spoiler is dubiously effective at achieving one's goals. In theory, it could pull the Repubicans towards the Libertarians, but in practice, it may just elect Democrats, pushing the nation's economic policy leftwards.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
No, not the proposed comprehensive solution that Bush proposed, but the rabid rejection of it.
The comprehensive solution failed, the border wall passed, and Republicans lost. Obviously Reps chose wrong if their goal was preventing Democrats from retreating in Iraq, which is a *much* more important thing than a stupid wall that will be bypassed before it's finished.
Outside of Tancredo, one of the staunchest supporters of border security was our congressman, J.D. Heyworth. I had thought his seat was safe, but he lost, giving the Dems a turnover.
Senator Kyl was also a staunch border enforcer. He won, but it was not a cakewalk. And this is ARIZONA for goodness sake. If there is any state that wants to stop illegal immigration, it's us, yet our biggest border security proponent lost!?!?
Sean Hannity was out there again today pounding that we didn't build a big enough wall, or long enough wall, and if we had we would have won. Horsehocky. Even I can read the tea leaves. I turned him off.
Bush has the only solution that would have worked. Border security, AND employer sanctions, AND a guest worker program that would have legalized the 12 million mexicans who are here, and who will not be going home, most especially not now even to visit because we've got that stupid wall. They *used* to go back home for six months out of the year, but because we've cranked up the border security, they stay all year, and bring their families too. Better to try hard and cross the border one time than to go back and forth every season and leave their family where it's cheap to support them.
Republicans ... the stupid party, that can't even figure out what they did wrong when it's staring them in the face.
There seems to be this odd and erroneous assumption that if only Libertarians were expunged from the ballot, its adherents would then pull the GOP lever. Very odd.
ping for later
No. But thanks for playing. They could have, but they didn't. Not in terms of normalizing by GDP.
But if that's your issue, I hope you just loooooove the Democrats.
If you knew anything about basic physics
I'm a mathematician. Physics is too easy.
you wouldn't worry too much about a dirty bomb. In fact, given the data on radiation hormesis, it might actually reduce the incidence of cancer and lead to greater public acceptance of nuclear power.
Oh, right. OK, will you let me set one off in your garage?
If you think a dirty bomb boogy-man is going to scare me
Yeah, what's 3000 lives, let's elect Democrats and get the same, but worse. And with the terrorism as well. Should be fun. I hear Hamas is celebrating.
I took the libertarian test. Scored 95.
I did not leave the republican party. The republican party left me.
This is a great way to lose an election: isolate yourself by being rude and obnoxious toward anyone who doesn't think exactly the way you do, then blame them for your own failures.
This sort of dysfunctional thinking is not going to help anyone -- except the Democrats, of course.
This is the way alcoholics and drug addicts dig themselves into a dead-end: it's never their fault when things go wrong in their lives, it's always somebody else's fault. They repeat this fallacious mantra all the way down to rock bottom.
Here's something worth bearing in mind: It is not the responsibility of the Libertarian Party to ensure Republican victories at the polls.
Rather, it is the responsibility of Republicans to gather enough support from their fellow citizens to earn enough votes to win.
Not so surprisingly enough, insulting them doesn't appear to be a winning strategy.
If this disdain toward those who actually want limited government, infidelity to the Republican Party platform itself, insistence on being Conservatives In Name Only, blaming others for Republican failures and refusal to look in the mirror is any indication of what Republicans have to offer in coming elections, the GOP will eventually be running its campaigns from a shopping cart in the bowery.
If you want to win elections, then cease with the name-calling and at least try to act like you're worthy of support.
Or keep pushing potential allies away and blame them for your own shortcomings.
Your call.
Choose wisely.
The Bell Curve is everywhere.
They'll be using the same tax tables the rest of us will.
Not to mention the 5th column... THE drive-by-media!
LLS
That third party candidate ran left of Webb I thought?
The GDP "growth" is predominately the result of falsfying the CPI which even Fed members are finally, finally starting to admit is an inaccurate measure of inflation. Bush has surrounded himself with Neo-Keynesian types who believe currency debasement is the root of economic growth. Bush's free pills program alone added over a trillion to our unfunded liabilities.
Oh, right. OK, will you let me set one off in your garage?
I don't trust mathematicians with pencils much less hot isotopes. Several researchers I work with are currently deliberately increasing their background radiation levels for the purpose of stimulating DNA repair. I have a couple hot rocks around for these purposes as well.
If you think a dirty bomb boogy-man is going to scare me Yeah, what's 3000 lives, let's elect Democrats and get the same, but worse.
We need to cut the Neo-Wilsonian Global Democratic Revolution BS and start killing jihadis wherever they are found. Bush has allowed nation building to become more important than fighting radical Islam.
They'll be using the same tax tables the rest of us will.
Maybe we can piss enough of them off to really be screwed next time. Apparently it's quite entertaining.
Well put.
I would add that the best way to pursuade the voters is to do what you say you will do. If you run as a "conservative," you had better act like one once in office.
Oh, I think enough of them got pi$$ed off by the protest voters yesterday. Next election they'll have a better idea of who their allies are...and aren't.
"libertarians continue to be irrelevent."
Well, who'da thunk it, with the multitude of threads condemning Libertarians for supposedly "deep-sixing the GOP". What an odd way to demonstrate irrelevance, lol.
"It doesn't grow the federal government's entitlement programs a little bit. It grows them this much."
"This must be "Beat up a Libertarian day"
Libertarians deep-sixed the GOP!!! Libertarians are irrelevant!!! Honestly, it's starting to sound like a DU Bush-bash .. first they say he's stupid, then they say he's an evil genius, and round and round and round they go.
Better to hate the libertarians, even if you're not exactly sure why, that to risk winning an election.
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