Libertarians Emerge as a Force (Losertarians deep-six the GOP)

The Economist ^ | November 8, 2006 | Unattributed

[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.

[AdamSelene235]

Yes, obviously this is all the fault of libertarians and certainly has nothing to do with the GOP's behavior.

[narby]

And a conservative third-party candidate running on a pro-trains platform cost Allen the election in VA.

Willie Green???

[rivercat]

Libertarians running as third-party candidates have no chance of being elected to any national office.

Big L Libertarians are not the same as small l libertarians. Big L is a Party, small l typically means economically conservative, usually more so than Republicans.

[eleni121]

A blowout by the same definition the media uses to describe the GOP losses.

[RedStateRocker]

Sorry. Actually what you wrote makes more sense than most of the mindless tripe of the whiners blaming the Libertarians for the crappy candidates the GOP ran. Burns was/is a corrupt jerk, I've heard him speak, I know more about him than the MSM tells the sheeple and he is a dirtbag. A dirtbag with an (R) by their name is still a dirtbag.

[AdamSelene235]

Will someone tell me why conservatives would vote for a libertarian since they are for open borders?

Especially considering you can vote GOP and get same thing.

[steve-b]

LOL -- FR today is worse than DU for goofball attempts to shift blame for a political fiasco. What next; dark murmurings about Diebold?

[kenn5]

I jealous that I did not think of it first!

[steve-b]

We can only be certain of three things as it relates to Libertarians:
1. They're too insignificant to have an impact on anything
2. They're more closely aligned with the Democrats anyway (that's why they're called "liberaltarians")
3. They stole enough votes from GOP candidates to impact the election

ROFL -- quidnunc and Echo Talon remind me of the lawyer who advanced the following defense for a client sued for damaging a rental car:

1. My client never touched this car.
2. This car was already damaged when my client drove it off the lot.
3. This car was in perfect condition when my client returned it.

[AmishDude]

Yep. It's all about pot.

Minimum wage? Nah, too much trouble. It's all about pot.

Of course, Libertarians can't even be bothered to fight for the right to smoke tobacco.

Too much trouble.

Libertarians would put us all in chains as long as we were given an occasional doobie.

[AdamSelene235]

Personally I hold libertarian tendencies and don't see anything wrong with a protest vote in a safe seat. What I do have a problem with are the idiots who know an election could come down to a wire but who go out and vote third party anyway. The GOP hasn't exactly done a good job with Congress

If the GOP was not chastised during this election they would only have continued their monstrous growth of government.

Tolerating bad manner only makes them grow worse.

[NittanyLion]

LOL...that's a good one. Have to remember that.

[AmishDude]

I hope you can afford to protect yourself -- after the tax increases and minimum wage hikes -- when the dirty bomb hits.

[longtermmemmory]

paid spoiler whores that is all the libertarians are.

[Gondring]

The only thing can they can do is act as spoilers for the GOP.

Yes, they can spoil the GOP's attempts to move to the left.

[My2Cents]

The libertarians are long on ideology, short on pragmaticism.

[AmericaUnited]

Maybe we need to offer rides to the polls for libertarians and as many bong hits as they can take while in transit...

[AdamSelene235]

I hope you can afford to protect yourself -- after the tax increases and minimum wage hikes -- when the dirty bomb hits.

I certainly can.

Reducing taxes is pointless in the absence of finanacial restraint. The Republican Congress and Presidency have massively increased the unfunded obligations of this nation which is just as bad as a tax hike.

If you knew anything about basic physics 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.

If you think a dirty bomb boogy-man is going to scare me into supporting speech crime CFR legislation, expanded medicare, massive increases in social spending, further federalization of publik skewls, the Dept. of Homeland Security, TSA, free drugs for Africa, etc, etc then you deserve to dwell in the dustbin of politics.

[DemforBush]

You hit it right on the head. Bravo!

[MamaTexan]

Either way, it is pathetic of us to spend one moment whining, crying, mewling and puking about people who are A DIFFERENT PARTY "stabbing us in the back". they didn't stab us in the back; they stabbed us in the chest, in a sword fight, which they had the RIGHT to fight, because they're NOT Republicans and they owe us NOTHING.

Well said!