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NewslettersLibertarians, their day is nigh
Submitted by adracer1 on Wed, 2008-09-17 18:35.
I used to believe that libertarians were republicans who liked weed, shrooms, and who never let morality get in the way of a good time.
But I now think these guys have it right. They are fiscally conservative, innovative, and believe the gooberment needs to stay out of your private life. In other words, be all you can be, enjoy yourself, just don't expect Uncle to pay for it. I think I may live to see them have their day.
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I'll tell you this: Every time a democrat or republican gets elected and screws things up, the libertarian's case is made stronger. The end of the two-party system is definitely on the horizon.
Yes, I'm afraid "unidentified" is correct, "the end of the two-party system is definitely on the horizon." In fact, it is practically a one party system already. The rest of the country is similar to Beaufort in many respects when it comes to old fashioned concepts such as "civic duty," "individual responsibility," "patriotism," etc. Those concepts exist in words, but not in deeds.
People criticize a government that intrudes in their affairs, but yet wants the government to take care of them with law enforcement, a strong military, laws, regulations, etc. People criticize our government for "give away social programs." Yet they insist on public schools, public libraries, Social Security, unemployment compensation, etc. People criticize our government for imposing taxes, yet they want good roads, fire departments, EMS, police departments, street signs, jails, courts, all of the above and more.
With a public that demands so much and wants to give so little, why bother to try to please them? It is an impossible task and one party is as good as the next. Financially things are going to worsen and the squeals from the public will be in vain.
It is kinda like a similar situation at the local level in Beaufort. That is the take-over of the town by developers with very little objection from the people until after it happened. Even in the fall, I doubt that the election turn out in Beaufort will improve much.
Ad, you know I am one at heart. It's not my job to tell someone else how to live, but it is my job to make sure that the budgets are balanced and spending is as small as it can possibly be. I want a strong military and weak central government.
Look when all these problems with the black community and crime and white teen pregnancy really started - it was after the Great Society program destroyed shame. If people have no sense of shame they have no sense of right and wrong.
Before 1964 if your company got into trouble you went out of business. No one was too big to fail. It is NOT my job as a taxpayer or a politician to be the financier of last resort. If you screwed up the business model and are so far in the hole then no one else is going to send good money after bad.
Criminalization of drugs has created a huge black market, huge profits for those black marketeers and crime to finance the trade and protect turf. Legalize it, and it will still be a social and public health problem, but it will not be a crime problem.
The problem with libertarians has been not only the public image but the image relating to whom their candidates have been. Most of the candidates were pretty weird ducks, if you know what I mean, with unusual personal histories and quirks who came across as looney. Ron Paul is the first who makes sense and he pretty much remained a Republican to try to be mainstream.
I think many centrist Americans are probably Libertarians if you asked them a series of poll questions with libertarian, republican, democrat and true liberal questions. I listened to what Ron Paul said during the Republican debates and truly found that I agreed with him more than any of the other Republicans.
That being said, the libertarians seem to attract a disproportionate number of the lunatic fringe types, the tin-hat brigade, the moon-landing hoaxers and the Sept. 11th government or jewish conspiracy types, which really turns off the mainstreamers which forces me to the republican camp most of the time. I have heard too many libertarian candidates in election forums and on newscasts that make me cringe when I hear them. They start out sounding normal and making sense on big issues and then they start explaining themselves and you soon start hearing about the trilaterialists or the conspiracies of big government and pretty soon they are so far off the reservation that no one can even seem them from reality.
If more of us who believe in the basic ideals but who have the common sense to understand that government could never keep a secret the size of the moon landings or organize September 11th and actually pull it off, and who look and act normal most of the time with normal lives, well, maybe we'd make better in roads into political thought because I see being a libertarian as being in harmony with the founding fathers. Take care of yourself, have charity for others, and maintain liberty by preventing anyone you do not know from having power over you. By keeping government local instead of central, you prevent the bureaucracy from controlling everything.
I am not saying that Washington DC is not necessary for the health of the Republic, but you could eliminate the jobs of two out of every three government employees and I dare say that few of us would notice the difference. When government has 'non-essential' employees it can send home early in a snow storm, then it has too many employees.
If a third party want to have even a remote chance gaining the presidency, they need to elect people to the US Congress and major state offices first.
A third party won't get a majority of votes in one state for a long time.
Therefore they won't get a single electoral vote for a long time.