[ExI] What Makes People Vote Republican

Kevin Freels kevinfreels at insightbb.com
Thu Sep 18 16:05:10 UTC 2008


> 
> One of the major problems that the libertarian movement has is the
> number of people who call themselves libertarians yet 
> fundamentally do
> not understand it and really are just conservatives.  These 
> people are
> not libertarians they are just poseurs.
> 
> Fred
> 

True. But I think more common are the people who have libertarian values, but vote republican or democrat based on the hot-plate issues at the moment. For example:
A couple I know have voted Republican in the last 6 elections. They are avid gun-owners. But at the moment, Obama does not present a threat to their guns while Bush is a threat to their secular nature. So this election they will vote Obama. If Obama leaves their guns and their pocket-book alone, they will vote to re-elect him. If he goes on a gun and money grabbing rampage they will support a candidate that can defeat him. On and on it goes. If Obama is re-elected, I bet by then the republican candidate will have toned down the religion while the democrat candidate will be looking to appeal to their base. It's the pendulum of american politics. The majority in this country are mostly libertarian, but they have things that are important to them and they will support the candidate most likely to defeat the threat to those things. The libertarian candidate is almost never positioned to be that person. 

The Libertarian party needs a stated long-term goal; something like "we are committed to building a much larger base and winning the 2016 election." along with some simple press statements such as "Most people are somewhat libertarian and don't even know it. We feel that if we can just get that message out and educate people about what we are really about, we can gain enough support for a landslide victory in 2016."

I wouldn't even run a candidate in 2012 - instead remaining focused on the goal. 

This is a winning long-term strategy that I think would earn a lot of support and more importantly, some valuable press. I would start on this immediately following this election - maybe the day after the inauguration speech.

This is how the libertarian party can win. 



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