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 ...
Voting one's conscience is now treachery? You really are quite the drama queen, aren't you. LOL
""One thing though, I have noticed about libertarians I have known personally is that very few seem to want to talk about much beyond making "medicinal" ""
I am one libertarian Republican who held his nose and voted straight ticket Republican, only because, as bad as the GOP has been lately, the Dems will be worse.
At this juncture, I don't know if I am madder at the Republicans for blowing a(n) historic opportunity to shrink government to Constitutional limits, or the voters for failing to see how bad the Dems will be.
I have worked for Republican candidates, and ran as one myself, getting no support from our local, or state, GOP. I'm done. If this is the best the GOP can do, and if this is what the voters want, good luck. I'm no longer optimistic about America's future.
Rush has often asked Dems why they love Clinton, when he lost them control of Congress. Perhaps they can ask us the same question about Bush. I was always suspicious about why he had to qualify his conservatism by calling it "compassionate." In my mind, conservatism, or at least the Reaganite version, is, by its nature, compassionate.
Bush signed on to the Kennedy version of the education bill, which was stripped of school choice, without which any education reform is just more big government. Bush signed on to the medicare extension, which will cost us massive amounts of money. He must bear a large part of the responsibility for Tuesday's disaster. He's still our President, and I will support him, and, with what the Dems will be putting him through, he will need all of our support, but, he did nothing in either term, except for the tax cuts, to stave off the disaster.
Under the Bush Presidency, and Republican control of Congress, the government has gotten bigger, more expensive, and more intrusive.
Even in his vaunted war on terror, we have been fighting a war, just like Korea and Vietnam, in a limited theater of operations, while the enemy is fighting us worldwide. Now the Dems will make it all worse.
I'm beginning to believe that our electoral system is broken, and another civil war would not surprise me.
"That's the LP'ers tactic...bow to us or we'll spoil it for everyone."
They are terrorists -- but with principals, doncha know.
LOL. The reality is some people allow their perceived conscience to override their intelligence.
Why do you continue? We're insignificant folks, remember? .000001% of the vote and all that? Pot-smoking/porn reading hippies, right? So why are people hyperventilating over Libertarians then because the GOP got its ass-kicked?
Come on, now Chief. You're a man who obviously love his job, and that job frequently involves intimidating people into complying with your orders. It's your entertainment.
If it was only a question of the Liebertarians knifing the GOP it would be one thing.
But they helped elect people who believe the world's problems are caused by Americans, the very same people the Islamofascists wanted elected.
Liebertarians put Nancy Pelosi as third in line for the presidency.
Liebertarians sided with John Kerry and John Conyers and Charles Rangel and Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid and Dick Durbin and John Murtha and Bill and Hitlery Clinton.
But even more treacherous: Liebertarians sided with the enemy in this vote. And the enemy is not the dhimmicrats. It is the terrorists.
We did? I wonder how many people who voted libertarian last night--or in general--voted for Reagan? I suspect quite a few. How many of them even voted for Bush the first time around? Again, I suspect quite a few.
I'm a libertarian and I voted for Republicans in the races that I thought would be close, and this is the thanks I get?
Nooo, you didn't run us off, of course not! Threads like this have nothing to do with why libertarians are finding the Republican Party increasingly hostile. After all, we love being called losers and idiots and being told that we're not wanted. Thank you sir, may I have another?
Keep it up, dude. You're getting 2008 off to a great start for the GOP.
Hard to forget. History is full of insignificant weak people who only have the courage to use a knife from behind.
Naw, treating traitors is my real entertainment.
Don't worry about him... someone peed in his Cheerios this morning and he thinks it was the libertarians.
If you voted, as a Libertarian, for the GOP in close elections, you are, according to the polls, a minority. Libertarian challengers drew enough votes from GOP candidates (in those tight races) to give the House and Senate to the dhimmicrats.
Libertarians seem to be saying they would rather have tax and spend dhimmicrats. That's okay.
Only problem is in so doing they handed the security of the nation to the dhimmicrats.
Ninety-plus percent of persons don't initiate force, assault, threat of force or fraud against other individuals or their property. It has nothing to do with politics. It's a matter of individual personal choice. A conscious decision each individual must make for himself and herself.
Voting for the lesser of evils still always begets evil.
Republican supporters and their counterpart on the left work to persuade people to vote for their candidates. Whom are "evil", but not as "evil" as the other side of the aisle. Politicians on both sides of the aisle initiate force, threat of force and fraud against United States citizens and their property.
Right wing and left wing supporters are delusional when they put politicians above themselves and their own principle of not initiating force against anyone or their property.
The democrat supporter says: "Vote for my candidate. He'll abuse you but not as bad as the republican candidate."
The republican supporter says: "Vote for my candidate. He'll abuse you but not as bad as the democrat candidate."
Politics is not the solution -- politics is the problem.
Criminals are the problem. The most destructive, most value-destroying criminals are politicians and bureaucrats. You know who they are -- withdraw your support.
For goodness sake, stop trying to persuade innocent citizens that stand firmly on the principle that no person may initiate force against anyone or their property to join you in support of your brand of value-destroying, force-initiating, criminal politicians.
Dump the criminals. Stand firm on the principle which you and 90+% of the populace honor and respect of one another. Evermore persons are abandoning their self-inflicted delusions. They're opting out of the lose-lose, vote-for-the-lesser of evils fraud..
And they wonder why people don't trust or believe them.
The libertarians are the suicide bombers of American politics.
If they don't get their way they will blow up everything. It doesn't faze them that they'll be blown up as well.
It's all about principals -- and of course getting stoned.
This libertarian voted straight Republican. It didn't do any good--too many CONSERVATIVES stayed home--but I did what I could.
As for those who voted Libertarian...if you think the Republicans DESERVE those votes, then the Republicans can TRY EARNING THEM by leaning in a more libertarian direction. But face it: the people who BITCH the loudest about "losing" a handful of libertarian votes (this means YOU) are also the people who are least likely to accept Republican policy moves in that direction.
So you have two choices: advocate and work toward a more libertarian direction for the GOP, or keep poring over the vote tallies and EAT YOUR HEART OUT.
Seriously. I'm good either way.
So you invent them to keep yourself entertained. Whooppee.
"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. . . The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. . . I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path." --Ronald Reagan
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