GOP Is Losing Its Libertarian Voters

HUMAN EVENTS ^ | Dec 08, 2006 | David Boaz and David Kirby

[Darkwolf377]

Personally, I would vote Libertarian before I'd vote for McCain.

Hillary's banking on it.

[Darkwolf377]

Why you would attack a Libertarian voter for not voting for the Republican party is unclear.

They took away votes that would have prevented the Democrats from taking over Congress in a time of war--how much clearer can one be?

[Darkwolf377]

As Libertarian for well over 30 years, I have been abandoned by the GOP, not the other way around.

How can a party that isn't the Libertarian party--and doesn't share the values of the Libertarian party, thank God-- "abandon" the voters of another political persuasion?

[Brilliant]

Very true. I still haven't figured out what the difference between Hillary and McCain is. Maybe that Hillary won't be able to get anything done if she's elected.

[Darkwolf377]

Well put.

Whatever happened to Republicans and Conservatives who thought social engineering--from the right OR from the left--should NOT be one of the functions of government?

I guess we're all screaming about how evil Big Brother is when it's the ACLU types who are wearing his mask. When it's the religious right, suddenly it's good government to tell individuals how to live their lives.

[Darkwolf377]

Very true. I still haven't figured out what the difference between Hillary and McCain is. Maybe that Hillary won't be able to get anything done if she's elected.

Yeah, a President Hillary will get NOTHING done with a Democrat, Pelosi/Reid-led Congress on hand.

[oldfart]

"Considering that a majority of Americans probably consider themselves fiscally conservative and socially liberal, and a "whopping 44%" of that number consider themselves Libertarian makes zero sense--show me where ANY Libertarian candidate has pulled in numbers that would indicate a voting bloc of that size anywhere in the USA."

Until people (and not just Libertarians) actually start voting their conscience rather than voting for 'a winner,' Republicrats will continue to run the show. The continual drumbeat of "a vote for the third-party is a vote for the Democrats" actually furthers a system that is purported to be made up of two parties but which is rapidly merging into one.
Several people here have already pointed out that Republicans have become so fiscally irresponsible that the Democrats actually look better in that respect. I imagine we will be treated to a Democratic government for a few years. Perhaps that is what is needed to make the Libertarians wake up and actually vote for Libertarians rather than "waste" their votes on RINOs.

[Brilliant]

There isn't a chance in hell I'm voting for McCain, even if Hillary or Obama are the Dem nominees. Heck, it could be Hillary/Obama, and I'd still not vote for McCain.

[beyond the sea]

Stand up, do something other than gripe and moan on the internet. Have you actually helped a conservative cause? LOL! And if this is what Free Republic's become, a bitch and moan session, then I suppose my time is done here. Frankly, I can join any chat site and get the same results.

I hear you.

For years, I have been thinking of these political shows on tv with their little round table political discussions with the "influential political writers" around the table, and all the political musing on so many variant websites, to me I really have been seeing them as a strange but humorous form of masturbation.

It's funny to me and I swear that this is true, when I see those round table sessions such as on Tim Russert's "Meet The Depressed", I really almost visualize all those participants at the table with their hands down under the table, "pleasing themselves ". All the talk serves to just make the participants feel better...... and darned if it doesn't.

Along those lines most of this political chat here and elsewhere seems to me to be about the same thing. And, as America's political scene morphs as the years go by, and Congress becomes with each day a club of like-minded, spineless cowards, I see most of these political ruminations as a large waste of time and often are just pure posturing.

It would be very funny if it weren't so pathetic.

p.s. I appreciate the Congressional numbers you produced here ..... thank you very much.

****

[Jim Noble]

I used to be a libertarian.

Obviously, 44%, or 4% for that matter, is a gross exaggeration.

But voters for whom their personal and family Liberty is the #1 issue - now that's another matter.

The 1994 landslide pulled in all sorts of what I now call "liberty voters" - who, having seen Waco, Ruby Ridge, and HillaryCare became convinced that they were about to lose something important.

The modern GOP congressional majority became contemptuous of liberty voters and their interests.

But there cannot BE a GOP majority without liberty voters, and they have come to hate the Dobsonites.

This Humpty-Dumpty has gotten badly broken up.

Fortunately, the cure is at hand - more Hillary.

[Jim Noble]

But do the "social conservatives" even care.

No, I don't think they do.

They imagine that they can form a working majority alone.

I think that's because they don't get out much.

[FreedomPoster]

So forget Libertarians, and libertarians, for just a minute.

What do you think about the huge increase in non-military spending during the last six years? Do you think middle-of-the-road swing voters see any hypocrisy in all the pork involved in that, and are turned off by that, especially when compared with GOP "small government" (empty, of late) rhetoric?

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

It is a shame that the libertarian movement has been hijacked by people who seem primarily interested in drug legalization at the expense of every other issue.

The druggies, like the sex perverts, can only perpetuate an ever increasing market for their filth by molesting the minds and bodies of the young ones.

Recreational drug use has been chemical warfare waged against the young people of this country since the 1960s...

[EBH]

I agree with you. I don't buy what this article is trying to sell. They state in on point that the 'libertarian' is an educated voter. In speaking with folks that are libertarian I have found that they simply undervote. In other words they went to the polls and voted on the issues, not the candidates.

[Lurker]

Recreational drug use has been chemical warfare waged against the young people of this country since the 1960s...

Piffle.

L

[Darkwolf377]

What do you think about the huge increase in non-military spending during the last six years? Do you think middle-of-the-road swing voters see any hypocrisy in all the pork involved in that, and are turned off by that, especially when compared with GOP "small government" (empty, of late) rhetoric?

Why is it that so many Libertarians start such questions by telling everyone to forget Libertarianism, so that after the question is answered they can say "Ah ha, so the answer is Libertarianism!"

Libertarianism is the political policy of those who live on paper, not reality.

[Darkwolf377]

Well put on all points.

The GOP has bnankrupted itself by becoming what, it should be obvious to anyone with a brain, EVERY politician becomes in DC--a politician who uses pork as a means to get re-elected.

[oldfart]

You didn't answer his question.

[Darkwolf377]

Again, Hillary is banking on it. You can deny you're helping elect her all you want, but you're professing exactly the line that puts a smile on her evil face.

[Lurker]

But I don't believe Libertarians really care about smaller government

You may not believe it about Libertarians, but that's irrelevant.

The Republicans have already proved they don't care about smaller government.

L