Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.don't forget the x factor;
x=how many democrat votes were obtained by hook, crook, coercion or voting
machine "repair"?
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.I'd count "Small Government Republicans" in this group too. I know one, he is very smart, LOVED Reagan, but was pissed at the largesse of the Republicans these days. He stayed home and didn't vote. I tried to convince him otherwise, but thats what he did...
This post is spot on. I am a stong libertarian but voted republican this election because of the lessor evil principle, but I understand the outrage libertarians feel. The expanded medicare pill program, the NCLB (what ever happened to eliminating the Department of Education), George Bush doing Americore ads, the Federal Government growing at 2-3 times inflation over the Bush term. Good riddence to Dennis Hastert. Under his leadership the Federal Government grew at 2-3 times inflation, earmarks exploded, tax cuts are not permenant, and the only time the House (and Congress) acted fast was to suck up to the Big Daddy government interests of the Religious Right. The republicans should be loosing libertarian support because they lied and ran as small goverment pols but did not act accordingly.
Good!
I did not leave the republican party. The republican party left me.
Their being a bunch of geldings didn't help either.
Republicans losing our Libertarian base? What will we do for pot now?
Libertarians are not conservatives. Having to pander to them also costs the GOP a huge number of social conservative votes in every election.
The fact that Libertarians cause the anti-liberal vote to split, helping to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate isn't news. In 1992, the first time Diane Feinstein ran for the U.S. Senate, she won with about 47% of the vote. The Libertarian got about 5%, and the Green Party candidate got about 3%. In 1996, in a special election, to replace Sen. Packwood, of Oregon, then-Congressman Ron Wyden won with 49% of the vote. The Republican, Gordon Smith, got 48%. The Libertarian got 2%, and the American Independent Party (like the Constitution Party) candidate received 1%.
Why does this usually happen in the West? In the rest of the country, voters who dislike the democrat U.S. Senate candidates usually unite against the Democrat well.
bump
Right, the Libertarians are abandoning the Republican Party, in favor of the Democratic Socialists, because they are younger and better educated. Give me a break. Zogby will have to come up with a better explanation than that.
Just as I hit the post button, I thought of a possible explanation for the Zogby opinion that the younger, better educated Libertarians are favoring the Democratic (Socialists).
What Zogby means is that these younger voters have spent more time in the unionized public school system and institutions of higher education, and are thus more thoroughly indoctrinated into the anti-capitalist economic theories, but they still retain libertarian label because they support gay marriage and oppose the war on drugs.
You've got libertarians complaining the GOP is controlled by the social conservatives on abortion, gay marriage etc. While I think that's overstated Bush has overall been quite conservative on social issues and done most of what social conservatives want. At the same time you see all these complaints on Free Republic that Bush hasn't been serious about abortion etc. Makes me think some "social conservatives" smoke what the libertarians want to legalize.
People who call themselves fisically conservative and socially liberal are liberal. The source of our economic rights is the same as the source of all our other rights. Those who discount it will soon find ways of justifying the taking of the economic rights of others for their benefit.
I haven't read this entire thread, but after reading the first page, I can already tell that a lot of people don't get it. Sorry but this article is accurate, and a significant portion of libertarian voters as defined by this article voted Democrat in the last election.
But, but, why would libertarians vote for the party of even bigger government?! Well, think about it. As definied by the article, libertarians are voters who are fiscally conservative and socially liberal. The Republican Congress for the past several years has placed a huge emphasis on socially conservative wedge issues while also being fiscally irresponsible. So why the hell should these libertarians vote Republican? They probably saw the Democrats as being more palatable on social issues while thinking that nothing could be worse than the existing Congress when it came to fiscal responsibility.
While I'd consider myself more of a fiscal conservative/social moderate and don't know if I'd be considered a libertarian as defined by this article, I can definitely sympathize with them. Will the upcoming Democratic Congress be better than the previous Republican one? Of course not. But the Republican Party better learn that there's more to their potential constituency than James Dobson and his followers.
From the article:
"Libertarians are broadly defined as people who favor less government in both economic and personal issues. They might be summed up as “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” voters."
This is a non-sequitur. If one posits that "socially conservative" means "eager to have the government enact right-wing social controls" (a popular usage, whether or not it's accurate), it does not follow that "socially liberal" means "favoring less government in personal issues." "Socially liberal" in fact means "eager to have the government enact left-wing social controls."