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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Interesting Article on Libertarian Support for Republicans

The way I see it, it isn't going to last.

Kid H.

2 Comments:

Blogger The Management said...

Little "l" libertarians have often found the Republican party more of a haven for them than the Democratic party despite the liberal self representation that they are the "freedom" party (gays, security and use of the military being key problem areas with the Republicans).

Big "L" Libertarians, may never have enough votes to win a lot of elections simply because the institutionalized (official and unofficial) two party system. In my case, I knew Bush would never have a chance to carry Maryland, so I voted Libertarian. If the election was close I would have cast a vote for Bush. Since it wasn't I wanted the record to show that a whopping "less than 1%" of those in Maryland are Libertarians!

However, KH's view of it "not going to last" seems incorrect to me. While a Libertarian (big L) President might not be in the future, libertarian (little) thinkers seem to be growing and that influence seems to be like it would become a more permanent fixture for the next decade or so at least. Government has gone to far in one direction and people will and are reacting to it.
Since more Libertarians vote Republican in close elections, Republicans would do well to court even more Libertarians by shifting their political views more to a libertarian type of though. Since I see more Libertarians being "born" I think the trend would continue.

Otter

4:57 PM  
Blogger The Management said...

I disagree with Otter but only to the extent that he believes that little l libertarians would trend republican. My experience (meaning that I have no empirical evidence of my beliefs) is that libertarians are more than willing to vote for Democrats when they believe that important social agendas are being undermined by conservatives. For example, issues such as abortion, stem cell research, govt. law enforcement abuses, and more generally the growth of homeland security and the Patriot Act are already routinely criticized by prominent libertarians (including Boortz, Reynolds, Reason magazine, etc.). Recall that Reynolds voted for Democrats for president in the recent past, and while Boortz is unlikely to vote for a democrat his past interviews with Harry Browne DO indicate that he would vote libertarian if the right candidate came along (if he hasn't already).

Remember, a lot of current "l"ibertarians used to be called Reagan Democrats. If I were republicans I would be worried about losing an element of my voting bloc that is not as solid as the party seems to believe. Sure, maybe it's only 10% of the party's votes, but losing even 5% would be enough to turn the election - especially where democrats got a concurrent gain. I don't believe it would be too hard for the democrats to get a candidate to advocate fiscal responsibility as well as individual rights - Phil Bredesen from Tennessee comes to mind (Reynolds often touts him as a "good" democrat). Plus he's southern which seems to matter a great deal in recent presidential elections.

KH

6:33 PM  

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