[extropy-chat] Buying votes. [Was: ... Vote Early!]

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Samantha Atkins
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Buying votes. [Was: ... Vote Early!]
> 
> On Sat, 2006-10-21 at 09:52 -0700, spike wrote:
> 
> > ...We could pair up people of vaguely opposite
> > political persuasions.  Samantha and I could watch a polling place
> together
> > for instance...
> >
> 
> I am a bit curious what you think my political persuasion is.


Libertarian from the left?  I am libertarian from the right.  We would make
a good poll watching pair because there are few libertarians on the ballots
that have much chance of being elected this time.

The political discussions this time around have me thinking of the many
paradoxes presented by democracy.  One such paradox is the fact that few
libertarians start out that way: most come in from one of the extremes.
Consequently the libertarian party is an odd mixture of voters with some
similar positions that they came at from opposite directions.

For instance, some libertarians started as traditional leftists who wished
to see all drugs legalized and the military draft illegalized.  Some
libertarians start as traditional rightists who become convinced that in
order to stimulate the economy (job one for legitimate governments) the tax
rate must be cut on business and the rich, reasoning that taxing business is
exactly equal to taxing the already tax-weary consumers, and that cutting
taxes on the rich encourage them to spend more, creating more jobs, etc,
(Reagan's trickle down economics.)

spike