GOP Is Losing Its Libertarian Voters

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

[Darkwolf377]

When we added to the question “also known as libertarian,” 44% still claimed that description.

Yeah...suuuuure they are.

Zogby is a joke if he believes this is an accurate reading of the public's true feelings and positions. 44% Libertarians? Gimme a break.

[Defender2]

Old FRiend, I do not even want to touch this one. (Chuckling)

[AZRepublican]

Oh GOP isn't losing libertarian voters, they vote on specific issues and individules. If GOP candidates wants them they have to run like true Republicans.

[Anti-Bubba182]

This has to assume the GOP and not the Democrats are losing the most to the Libertarians.

I could never figure why anyone votes libertarian. You might as well stay home.

[onyx]

Libertarians don't vote for Libertarians?

[Indy Pendance]

They only bitch and moan on chat sites.

[prov1813man]

Unless I read it wrong, what this article seems to presume is that libertarians and conservative evangelicals abandoned republicans to vote for democrats. This makes no sense at all. I presume what happened is that libertarians voted libertarian and "conservative evangelicals" stayed home.

While both the actions were, objectively, votes for dims and terrorists, they still indicate a need for more, not less conservatism from the republican party.

[dfwgator]

They only bitch and moan on chat sites.

And smoke doobies.

[onyx]

They have chat sites too?
Wish they'd restrict themselves to those sites and spare this forum.

[Wormwood]

They’re going to need to stop scaring libertarian, centrist, and independent voters with their social-conservative obsessions and become once again the party of fiscal responsibility.

Repeated in bold, in case anyone missed it.

[KantianBurke]

"But in 2004, presumably turned off by war, wiretapping, and welfare-state spending sprees, they shifted sharply toward the Democrats. John F. Kerry got 38% of the libertarian vote."

I don't buy it. You mean to tell me that if one is disgusted by Bush due to his many liberal policies, 38% of Libertarians will thus vote for a candidate that will make things that much worse? Sorry. No sale.

Other than that, the GOP needs to get back to its libertarian positions of smaller govt and reduced spending.

[Indy Pendance]

Dude, doobies are like so 70's man.

[B Knotts]

President Bush and the congressional Republicans left no libertarian button unpushed in the past six years: soaring spending, expansion of entitlements, federalization of education, cracking down on state medical marijuana initiatives, Sarbanes-Oxley, gay marriage bans, stem cell research restrictions, wiretapping, incarcerating U.S. citizens without a lawyer, unprecedented executive powers, and of course an unnecessary and apparently futile war. The striking thing may be that after all that, Democrats still looked worse to a majority of libertarians.

Some of these criticisms are legitimate, but I take special exception to two:

1. "stem cell research restrictions." by which the dishonest author means embryonic stem cell restrictions - in fact, there are many pro-life libertarians who object to Mengalian experimentation on human life

2. "gay marriage bans" - certainly, at least some libertarians recognize the statist nature of the homosexual rights movement; it has not been shy about pushing things like "hate crime" statutes which punish thought instead of the crimes themselves, and "anti-discrimination" laws which restrict religious freedom and freedom of association.

These guys aren't fooling anyone who knows a thing or two about libertarianism. 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.

[Indy Pendance]

That's what they think this place is.

[dfwgator]

And I liked them better before Michael McDonald.

[onyx]

They're in for a rude awakening.

[Indy Pendance]

Touche!

[Sunsong]

If Republicans can’t win New Hampshire and the Mountain West, they can’t win a national majority. And they can’t win those states without libertarian votes. They’re going to need to stop scaring libertarian, centrist, and independent voters with their social-conservative obsessions and become once again the party of fiscal responsibility. In a Newsweek poll just before the election, 47% of respondents said they trusted the Democrats more on “federal spending and the deficit,” compared to just 31% who trusted the Republicans. That’s not Ronald Reagan’s Republican Party.

I think there's a lot of truth in this article. But do the "social conservatives" even care. We shall see...

[Indy Pendance]

This place is THE place for political chat. Practically no one on this site is willing to go to freeps and attend activism events anymore. We will fix the world via a keyboard and my most profound post! Just wait until Reid reads what I just said! That'll fix him for good! Can you imagine the march for justice ala 2006? LOL, we'd get 10 people.