[ExI] What Makes People Vote Republican

[Kevin Freels]

----- Original Message -----
From: samantha <sjatkins at mac.com>
Date: Friday, September 19, 2008 10:08
Subject: Re: [ExI] What Makes People Vote Republican
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>

> Kevin Freels wrote:
> >> 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."
> >   
> 
> The LP needs the stand 100% and loudly for the principles it 
> claims.  It 
> has been making mealy mouthed gradualist political aspirations 
> known for 
> some time now.  That will not make the least bit of 
> positive 
> difference.  If the LP does not clearly stand for something 
> then it 
> deserves to die.  You can't "gain support" by just stating 
> a goal to 
> gain support.
> 
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But as long as the LP thinks this way they will continue to lose. A play from the Repub and Dem playbook ------- "speak moderatly but push an extreme agenda"....... If they can't win elections and gain positive press, their "standing for something" doesn't even matter and they deserve to die as well. Unless ou want to tell me that the LP has no intention of ever actually winning. This just makes them another political organization, not a true party. With that attitude we'll probably see a PETA party president before an LP president.