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Ralph Nader Moderates One Last 3rd-Party Debate for 2012
Late Tuesday, both the 2012 U.S. election (the popular vote at least) and the 2012 campaign season should be over. Tonight, though, whatever your ability or plans to vote are (see the current poll for a peek at what other readers claim about their intentions), you've got the chance to see one more presidential debate, to be moderated by Ralph Nader, and featuring third-party presidential contenders Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Virgil Goode (Constitution) and Rock Anderson (Justice). Yes, the same ones featured in another debate a few weeks back. (We promise, this is the last debate of this go-round.) If you're voting (or would, if you could) for other than the Democratic or Republican parties' candidates this year, what drives that decision?
Technically, since the Republican and Democratic parties have taken turns, term by term, doing eventually, exactly the same thing the other would do, perhaps sooner, perhaps later, for around a century, we've no reason to consider them separate parties. Minor differences between them have supplied the illusion of a separate entity, all smoke and mirrors, this is a one party system: The Repubmocrats.
I believe you mean The Democratic-Republican Party. The party split into Democrats and Republicans because the Republicans opposed slavery and the Democrats supported it. Now that slavery's no longer an issue, they can be one happy party again (except the Dems still see racist bogeymen everywhere because they are still racist at heart).
paying taxes on working and subsidizing not working is counterproductive and the govt is not supposed to micromanage every detail of your life, what you eat, who you sleep with
They pretend to say that. Then in reality they mean: "I've got mine, now GTFO!". For instance, about your statement:
1) "Not working" includes children. Should we return to Dicken's Englang?
2) "Not working" includes veterans. Probably we just should let them die on the streets.
3) "Not working" includes disabled people. Natural selection FTW!
4) "Not working" includes retired people. Invisible hand of market wiped out your investments (remember, no FDIC!)? Tough luck.
also correlation is not causation - that the rich countries recycle huge part of their GDP through government channels doesn't mean the govt is the source of prosperity. It may as well be the other way around: prosperous countries can afford to blow money on fluff and would be more prosperous if they didn't.
In the absence of a single freaking example of a libertarian country that is not a hell-hole like Somalia, we are forced to conclude that the redistributionist government is necessary for a healthy society. The only question is the degree of redistribution of wealth.