Slashdot Mirror
Libertarian Badnarik an Election Spoiler?
Mr. Slippery writes "The New York Sun points out that Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik could tip the balance in this year's presidental election, like Ralph Nader is accused of having done in 2000. Bush's policies may be driving some traditional conservative Republican voters into the Libertarian camp. Rasmussen polls have put him as high as 5% in New Mexico and 3% in Nevada, which could make a difference in which major party candidate takes those states."
Depends- what kind of Lutheran are you? Do you accept the recent (well, 5 year old now) Joint Declaration with the Roman Catholic Church on Justification? If so- I would urge you to strongly consider changing from being legally pro-life to functionally pro-life legally pro-choice; in which case Kerry would fit your view (seeing as how Kerry believes that life begins at conception, and simply disagrees with the idea that legality will control, or even can control, how many abortions actually happen- and would instead seek other good works that would reduce abortion). The problem with Kerry's point of view though is that it's based on reducing abortion due to works (such as universal health care and other direct support of the mother) as opposed to reducing abortion based on faith in the goodness of the American People (to follow law regardless of where it leads).
Oddly enough, Kerry brought up the same faith vs. faith and works argument in the first debate on foreign policy- as a major difference between his strategy and the President's strategy on the War on Terror (it helped that the President kept repeating, over and over and over, that he had "Faith" that we will prevail in Iraq and elsewhere).
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Republican Bob Barr (of all people) just wrote this article here is the last couple of paragraphs :
"Bush's problem is that true conservatives remember their history. They recall that in recent years when the nation enjoyed the fruits of actual conservative fiscal and security policies, a Democrat occupied the White House and Congress was controlled by a Republican majority that actually fought for a substantive conservative agenda.
History's a troublesome thing for presidents. Even though most voters don't take much of a historical perspective into the voting booth with them, true conservatives do. Hmmm. Who's the Libertarian candidate again?"
If someone like bob barr endorses Badnarik, this could get REALLY interesting.
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
From my understanding, the electoral college is made up of electors from the Democratic and Republican parties, and the winner of a state gets to send its electors to vote.
How does this work with non-duopoly candidates? Do the Libertarian/Green/etc parties have their own set of electors too? What about "non-aligned" candidates like Nader, who claim no party affiliation at all? How would it work if by the grace of god one of them captures a state?
I will vote libertarian this year. I will vote libertarian and hope that the libertarian vote costs Bush the election. Why? For the same reason why not all Democrats were unhappy when Gore lost to Bush. The idea is that if you make the next closest guy to your ideals lose, then next time around they will lean more your way. If the libertarian vote was to cost the Republicans the election, it might very well get them to put forward a candidate who isn't as eager to spend my money as any other democrat. As far as I can tell, Bush is a democrat who is pro life. That sure as shit isn't going to get my vote.
West of the Rockies, and in the mountain West in particular, the core political ideology of the region tends to revolve around a small-government, non-interference, live-and-let-live perspective -- real believers in rugged individualism. There are many historical reasons as to why this is that go back a century or two. While the people that live there are often conservative as individuals, they generally are not socially conservative in that they try and legislate the behaviors of society. A built-in distrust of government is stronger than their desire to control what other people do. East of the Rockies, big government social conservatism is deeply embedded in the culture.
Libertarians and similar have long held relatively strong positions in the mountain West due to the fact that Eastern conservatives often control conservative politics, primarily because of population differences. People like Bush reflect only the conservative issues that are unique to Eastern conservatives while not reflecting the issues shared by Eastern and Western conservatives. When more extreme examples of this come down the road in the Republican party, it tends to lead to defections to the Libertarian party out West. It is an old political and ideological tug-of-war.
In fact, if you look at the core philosophical components of Western conservatism, it is essentially libertarian. Which is why there are far fewer restrictions on what you can do and what you can own in the "conservative" mountain West than in "liberal" states, ironically. Nevada makes California look like a socially conservative police state by comparison if you actually compare laws, and they are next door.
It's generally assumed that Libertarians draw from Republicans, but this isn't really true--I think they draw about 50-50.
I tend to doubt this. Some erstwhile Republicans will stray to the Libertarian party on account of the unlibertarian social policies of the Republicans... but that is because there were libertarians in the Republican party to start with. There has never been a big libertarian presence in the Democratic party. Their entire philosophy of government is diametrically opposed to the libertarian vision. There are libertarians that might vote on occasion for Democrats on account of social issues but they are not part of the Democratic base being lost to the Libertarian candidate... they are swing voters that just don't swing this time.
I figure the "lost" Democratic votes are probably no more than 25% of the Libertarian vote, another full 50% is lost Republican votes, the remaining quarter would just stay home if there wasn't a Libertarian candidate.
There has never been a big libertarian presence in the Democratic party. Their entire philosophy of government is diametrically opposed to the libertarian vision.
:) The philosophies are not diametrically opposed, even if Democrats and Libertarians disagree on some big issues.
I think you've been reading too much propoganda
Most Democrats are strong believers in civil liberty-- you are free to do whatever you want, as long as you don't infringe upon the rights of others. Practically every democrat will agree with the philosophy presented at the top of lp.org.
I think Democrats and Libertarians differ in the treatment of rights-- I belive that all people have an equal right to the basics -- food, shelter, health, happyness, love, others. A well-designed government can be used to promote equality for all people, but right now there are many problems getting in the way to achieve those goals.
Sadly, my experience with most people who call themselves "Libertarians" is that they care mostly about low taxes and want less government interference in their buisness affairs, and could care less if the government prevent homosexuals from marrying each other, or if a business business pays white workers more then black workers. I call these people "Business libertarians".
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act