Posted on 11/14/2006 6:25:58 PM PST by Purple GOPer
In one closely watched Congressional race (Sodrel v Hill, IN-9) and two critical Senate races (Missouri and Montana), the Republican candidate was defeated by fewer votes than the Libertarian candidate received.
[Note: the last data I could find on the Missouri race still had two of the 3746 precincts to report, so it is possible that statement isn't true for Missouri, but if it is not true it is still very close and does not diminish my point.]
In other words, in these two critical Senate races and if the Republican had gotten the Libertarian's votes, the Republican would have won.
For the rest of this article, please recognize that I am speaking of the small-"l" libertarian, and not the Libertarian Party of the candidates mentioned above. A "libertarian", in the shortest definition I can muster, is someone who is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. In other words, it is someone who wants the government to perform a very small set of legitimate functions and otherwise leave us alone.
I can hardly contain my glee at seeing this happen after years of hoping it would. And in such dramatic fashion, with such important results. I did not hope it would because I wanted Republicans to lose, but because the Republicans had become corrupted (by which I do not mean corrupt in the typical sense.) They became enamored of power, and believed that they could get away with expanding the size, intrusiveness, and cost of government as long as they had government aim for "conservative" goals rather than liberal ones. This loss, and the way it happened, was the best thing that could have happened for Americans who care about a government focused on limited government and liberty.
No, the Democrats are not that government. They believe in anything but limited government, and they only believe in liberty in one's personal life, but not in one's economic life. In a sense, Democrats believe that the citizens work for the government.
Republicans on the other hand have acted in just the opposite way: they believe in economic liberty and they know we do not work for government. But they do not believe in personal liberty. The failure of the strategery of the Republicans, to focus on "the base" by trotting out social issues such as the South Dakota no-exception abortion ban (which lost, I'm pleased to say) demonstrated two things: First, social issues do not have long coat-tails. Second, the GOP base is fiscal conservatives more than it is social conservatives.
Fiscal conservatives, even more than social conservatives, were the demotivated voting block. Fiscal conservatives who are not socially conservative, i.e. voters who are libertarian even if they don't know it or wouldn't identify themselves that way, were the key swing vote in this election and were the reason that the GOP lost Congress...the Senate in particular.
In a recent study called "The Libertarian Vote", David Boaz (Cato Institute) and David Kirby (America's Future Foundation) discuss the growing number of American libertarians, the growing dissatisfaction among them (including me) with the GOP, and the continuing shift in voting patterns caused by that dissatisfaction. Tuesday held the obvious conclusion of this shift.
The party which went from reforming welfare to banning internet gambling by sticking the ban inside a port security bill, the party which went from Social Security reform to trying to amend the Federal Constitution to prevent gay marriage, the party which went from controlling the size and scope of government to banning horse meat became a party which libertarians and Republicans alike could not stomach.
The Democrats are a disaster, though they probably realize they need to move to the center. The Republicans have just been taught a brutal lesson that they also need to move to the center (on social issues) and back to fundamental principles of our Founders on issues of economics and basic liberties. No party can rely on the unappealing nature of their opponent to be a strong enough motivation to win elections, nor should we let them win if being just a bit better than the other guys is all they aspire to.
What I love about libertarian voters is that they vote on principle, not on party. The GOP might not like it, but politics should not be about blind loyalty if your party has lost its way. So, I disagree with suggestions that libertarians are fickle and unreliable voters. Instead the Republicans became an unreliable party. The Democrats on the other hand are extremely reliable -- they will always raise spending and taxes, get government involved where it doesn't belong. But other than the tax cuts of several years ago, the Republicans have been no different other than choosing different areas of our lives to intrude upon.
I hope that the result of the Libertarian Effect, particularly on the GOP, will be that the next election may provide us an opportunity to replace this batch of Democrat placeholders with Congressmen who not only have read the Constitution, but respect it. Congressmen who understand that Republican voters do not elect politicians to have them impose their (or our) morality on the people, but rather to keep government from interfering in our lives and leaving us, in the immortal words of Milton Friedman, "Free to Choose".
A "libertarian", in the shortest definition I can muster, is someone who is fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
Uh, no. That's false. I'm a libertarian and I will never, ever accept the label "socially liberal."
In other words, it is someone who wants the government to perform a very small set of legitimate functions and otherwise leave us alone.
Better, but that's not the same thing at all.
No, the Democrats are not that government. They believe in anything but limited government, and they only believe in liberty in one's personal life, but not in one's economic life.
Again, simply untrue. The Democrats do NOT believe in personal liberty. If they did, they'd hold conservative positions on firearms, tobacco, seat-belt laws, etc. They don't because they are totalitarian on both 'social' and 'economic' issues -- which is a false dichotomy anyway.
Ask JimRob.
But, again, look how you've changed the subject after you have been shown to be pig ignorant about your own "principals."
Anybody can go through you posting history and see what you do on this site.
It's called trolling. You are doing it on the Rudy Giuliani threads. (Where, ironically, you are excoriating him for being pro-abortion.)
You do it everywhere.
Soros/Moby must be proud.
Actually, I've stated my position and corrected your mis-representation of the LP party plank. You refuse to admit your "error". Which means, you are an outright liar.
And no, it's called "posting". Further, if I were a Soros/Moby plant as you assert, I'd be pushing LIBERAL positions instead of conservative positions. I'd be rooting FOR your liberal RINO's instead of pointing out how LIBERAL they are.
So yeah, between the two of us... you are the more likely "plant".
You can't argue, you ignore facts, and your logic sucks. Are you still in high school by any chance?
Your references to the Constitution are risible.
Name one thing that the current administration did that was un-Constitutional?
You won't, because you can't.
You read comic books and quote Jefferson (who would have hanged most libertarians) and think you are intellectual.
It's sad, really. But also laugh out loud hilarious.
REPUBLICAN LIBERTY CAUCUS POSITION STATEMENT
posted by Jim Robinson
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-rlc/721810/posts
As a libertarian, I disagree. In fact, I am mostly a 'one-issue' voter on the topic of abortion. I simply will not vote for a pro-abortion candidate (Giuliani, Rice) or a candidate who seems to have adopted an anti-abortion stance only for political convenience (McCain, Romney).
But that doesn't change the fact that constitutionally, the issue belongs at the state level, not federal.
"Actually, I've stated my position and corrected your mis-representation of the LP party plank."
You are a liar. The Libertarian party platform says NOTHING about abortion being decided on the state level or by a Constitutional amendment:
Official Website of the Libertarian National Committee
I.8 Reproductive Rights
The Issue: The tragedies caused by unplanned, unwanted pregnancies are aggravated and sometimes created by government policies of censorship, restriction, regulation and prohibition.
Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on both sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration.
The Principle: Individual rights should not be denied nor abridged on the basis of sex, age, dependency, or location. Taxpayers should not be forced to pay for other people's abortions, nor should any government or individual force a woman to have an abortion. It is the right and obligation of the pregnant woman regardless of age, not the state, to decide the desirability or appropriateness of prenatal testing, Caesarean births, fetal surgery, voluntary surrogacy arrangements and/or home births.
Solutions: We oppose government actions that either compel or prohibit abortion, sterilization or any other form of birth control. Specifically we condemn the practice of forced sterilization of welfare recipients, or of mentally retarded or "genetically defective" individual. We support the voluntary exchange of goods, services or information regarding human sexuality, reproduction, birth control or related medical or biological technologies. We oppose government laws and policies that restrict the opportunity to choose alternatives to abortion.
Transitional Action: We support an end to all subsidies for childbearing or child prevention built into our present laws.
http://www.lp.org/issues/platform_all.shtml#reprodright
I can answer that. There are several things, but the most egregious was Bush signing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
What a party of principals. One could easily substitute this:
"Recognizing that [sex with underaged boys] is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on both sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration."
Changing the topic again? Fine. Signing McCain-Feingold. Prescription Drug give-away. Not securing the Borders and purposing an Amnesty (it wasn't right when Reagan did it, it's even less right now). There's more by why bother?
As for my reading habits, my tastes are wide and varied, from Aristotle to Zelman. Yours apparently, are limited to "See Jane run..."
Is this all you have left? Insults? Figures.
Using that as the basis to figure out what libertarians are about is like reading the Republican Party platform to figure out what a republic is.
But, if you had even so much as a minuscule clue about what you were talking about, you would have known that.
Nice going troll... Showing your ignorance like this with these utterly moronic strawmen is just too easy.
I tend to agree with you on that one. But technically, the Supreme Court has upheld it.
Supposedly to Bush's surprise and disappointment.
"Prescription Drug give-away. Not securing the Borders and purposing an Amnesty (it wasn't right when Reagan did it, it's even less right now). There's more by why bother?"
Maybe you should go back and re-read the Constitution.
Anyway, I've wasted more than enough time on you. You are obdurate in your stupidity.
Enjoy your comic books and the next forty years (at least) of Democrat rule.
Same here. There's an organization named Libertarians for Life that believes in the following principles:
1. Human offspring are human beings, persons from fertilization.
2. Abortion is homicide -- the killing of one person by another.
3. There is never a right to kill an innocent person. Prenatally, we are all innocent persons.
4. A prenatal child has the right to be in the mother's body. Parents have no right to evict their children from the crib or from the womb and let them die. Instead both parents, the father as well as the mother, owe them support and protection from harm.
5. No government, nor any individual, has a just power to legally depersonify any one of us, born or preborn. 6. The proper purpose of the law is to side with the innocent, not against them.
You too are a perfect example of what I've been saying.
I posted what the LP position on abortion is. The previous poster said I was wrong and "corrected me."
When I then post the exact words, you say that it is wrong to use that as a basis.
No wonder you people never get anything done. Words have no meaning to you. Nothing does but your bongs.
"Children cannot give consent to such acts. Nor can animals."
But fetuses can?
LOL!!!!!
Again, you can't argue with stupidity. You've proved that.
You can save the insults. I'm not contributing to your little flame war.
Still waiting on you to show me where in the Constitution you find authority for the FedGov to "regulate" the abortion/medical care industry. You know there is nothing there, but admitting this would make you seem like the trolling like fool you are.
Run along now... try not to pee on the floor on your way out the door.
Have you been drinking?
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