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How did the Libertarian Party do this election?[W:89]

How did the Libertarian Party do


  • Total voters
    23
Better than expected in getting candidates on the ballot (in Texas) but also as expected when they got badly beaten by better funded (and incumbent) major party candidates.
 
Libertarian Election Results 2014

Link shows their numbers.

Clearly noone expected them to win any major races but they did ok in a few. Based on your expectations for the Libertarian party how do you think they did?

So, I see the libertarian candidate for land commissioner in Ark. garnered 6.2% of the vote.
Name recognition may have helped him.
His name is Elvis Presley.
On the flipside, the King-of-Rock-n-Roll only got 6.2% of the vote?
The King is truly dead.
 
The Libertarian Party is but a pimple on the ass of the body politic - a minor irritation that can be readily ignored as being of no real consequence.

It seems that a whole of people who proudly proclaim their libertarian ideology are more than willing to vote republican every election day. It reminds me of the cheapskate who claims they are a vegetarian but is willing to eat steak when somebody else is footing the bill. Elections are what counts in our political system and when the real stakes are on the line all these wanna-be pretend libertarians are more than happy to be right wing republicans.


oh - and yes, I know the difference in capital L and a small l. Apparently they do also as they constantly play that lame card instead of having the courage of their supposed convictions.
 
Who needs Libertarians when you can get pot legalized with a ballot initiative?
 
Libertarian Election Results 2014

Link shows their numbers.

Clearly noone expected them to win any major races but they did ok in a few. Based on your expectations for the Libertarian party how do you think they did?

Normally the Libertarian candidates for senate and governor get around 6-8% of the vote here in Georgia. This year their vote totals were way down. But when the two major parties dump in 70 million dollars and the Libertarians are only spending twenty thousand or so, what can you expect. They have no way of getting their message out or even letting the voters know who they are and who is running. It is more word of mouth.

I voted for Amanda Swafford in our senate election, she received less than 2% of the vote. But unlike the two major party candidates, she wasn't bought and paid for by special interests, corporations, wall street, lobbyists etc. with then tens of millions of dollars.
 
The Libertarian Party is but a pimple on the ass of the body politic - a minor irritation that can be readily ignored as being of no real consequence.

It seems that a whole of people who proudly proclaim their libertarian ideology are more than willing to vote republican every election day. It reminds me of the cheapskate who claims they are a vegetarian but is willing to eat steak when somebody else is footing the bill. Elections are what counts in our political system and when the real stakes are on the line all these wanna-be pretend libertarians are more than happy to be right wing republicans.


oh - and yes, I know the difference in capital L and a small l. Apparently they do also as they constantly play that lame card instead of having the courage of their supposed convictions.

That is a good point. It does seem that few Libertarians actually vote for their own candidates. Those who do vote for the Libertarian candidates are voters who are peeved at their choices the two major parties gave and are not Libertarian's themselves. This later category included me this year. I just got tired of hearing all the lies told by Perdue against Nunn and the lies Nunn told against Perdue. So to avoid having any part of sending a liar to Washington to lie to the people once he gets there, I voted Libertarian.
 
Who needs Libertarians when you can get pot legalized with a ballot initiative?
They're useful for hovering in the background threatening to take a few percentage points off the "big 2" parties?

Frankly...that's about it with most alternate parties.

Sadly.
 
Libertarian candidates give me a place to put a protest vote for those times when I despise both mainstream options. That's pretty much what it has come down to.
 
That is a good point. It does seem that few Libertarians actually vote for their own candidates. Those who do vote for the Libertarian candidates are voters who are peeved at their choices the two major parties gave and are not Libertarian's themselves. This later category included me this year. I just got tired of hearing all the lies told by Perdue against Nunn and the lies Nunn told against Perdue. So to avoid having any part of sending a liar to Washington to lie to the people once he gets there, I voted Libertarian.

I don't think the issue is that people vote republican, I think the issue is that people don't know what they're voting for. Actually, there's nothing wrong with a Republican candidate so long as their standings are good and valid, just as there's nothing wrong with a Libertarian candidate with good and valid standings.. Who cares what political party a candidate is in? I think people put too much weight on political affiliations. George Washington warned against this.
 
Political parties are sketchy, they are established many times with the idea of doing good, but soon degenerate to "what is good for the party?" not "what is good for the country?"
 
The Libertarian Party is but a pimple on the ass of the body politic - a minor irritation that can be readily ignored as being of no real consequence.

Sounds like you reserve even harsher words for the Libertarian Party than you do the GOP. Why's that?

I'd be interested to hear your feelings about the Green Party.

Partisan loyalists are interesting creatures.

It seems that a whole of people who proudly proclaim their libertarian ideology are more than willing to vote republican every election day. It reminds me of the cheapskate who claims they are a vegetarian but is willing to eat steak when somebody else is footing the bill. Elections are what counts in our political system and when the real stakes are on the line all these wanna-be pretend libertarians are more than happy to be right wing republicans.

So wait. You relegate the Libertarian Party to an ass-pimple but then pivot to deriding people who don't vote for the ass pimple party? Clearly you're just whipping out whatever insult comes to mind to fling at anyone who isn't a loyal supporter of your Democratic Party.
 
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I don't think the issue is that people vote republican, I think the issue is that people don't know what they're voting for. Actually, there's nothing wrong with a Republican candidate so long as their standings are good and valid, just as there's nothing wrong with a Libertarian candidate with good and valid standings.. Who cares what political party a candidate is in? I think people put too much weight on political affiliations. George Washington warned against this.

I agree.
 
The Libertarian Party is but a pimple on the ass of the body politic - a minor irritation that can be readily ignored as being of no real consequence.

It seems that a whole of people who proudly proclaim their libertarian ideology are more than willing to vote republican every election day. It reminds me of the cheapskate who claims they are a vegetarian but is willing to eat steak when somebody else is footing the bill. Elections are what counts in our political system and when the real stakes are on the line all these wanna-be pretend libertarians are more than happy to be right wing republicans.


oh - and yes, I know the difference in capital L and a small l. Apparently they do also as they constantly play that lame card instead of having the courage of their supposed convictions.
Do you get some sort of site notification alarm that goes off every time someone starts a thread about libertarians?
 
Normally the Libertarian candidates for senate and governor get around 6-8% of the vote here in Georgia. This year their vote totals were way down. But when the two major parties dump in 70 million dollars and the Libertarians are only spending twenty thousand or so, what can you expect. They have no way of getting their message out or even letting the voters know who they are and who is running. It is more word of mouth.

I voted for Amanda Swafford in our senate election, she received less than 2% of the vote. But unlike the two major party candidates, she wasn't bought and paid for by special interests, corporations, wall street, lobbyists etc. with then tens of millions of dollars.

That's complete bull****. Social media is quite literally the most ingenious way to get a message out. Obama figured it out. Even Romney's campaign figured it out. Social media campaign cost a fraction and don't require millions of dollars. This nonsense that people can't get their message out in the 21st century is just that. Nonsense. What Libertarians have failed to do is make it appealing. Hell, Ron Paul owes his entire popularity to his internet following. So what stops other parties from using social media to create campaigns attracting voters? Nothing.
 
Sounds like you reserve even harsher words for the Libertarian Party than you do the GOP. Why's that?

I'd be interested to hear your feelings about the Green Party.

Partisan loyalists are interesting creatures.



So wait. You relegate the Libertarian Party to an ass-pimple but then pivot to deriding people who don't vote for the ass pimple party? Clearly you're just whipping out whatever insult comes to mind to fling at anyone who isn't a loyal supporter of your Democratic Party.

Not at all. The blatant hypocrisy of so many self proclaimed libertarians is worth of insult and derision. We will never have a viable third party in this nation as long as they are only pimples on the ass off the body politic. Wallace and Perot demonstrated that you can create a viable party which can garner votes. But as long as libertarians hate the democrats more than they love their own ersatz ideology - that will never happen.
 
Do you get some sort of site notification alarm that goes off every time someone starts a thread about libertarians?

I read words on the screen.
 
Not at all. The blatant hypocrisy of so many self proclaimed libertarians is worth of insult and derision. We will never have a viable third party in this nation as long as they are only pimples on the ass off the body politic. Wallace and Perot demonstrated that you can create a viable party which can garner votes. But as long as libertarians hate the democrats more than they love their own ersatz ideology - that will never happen.
So much anger, so little substance. A separate libertarian party only becomes necessary when the party of limited government and individual rights--the republicans--start behaving like the party of state power--the democrats. Even then, though, there is no reason for a libertarian not to stay within the two party system and run as a republican
 
So much anger, so little substance. A separate libertarian party only becomes necessary when the party of limited government and individual rights--the republicans--start behaving like the party of state power--the democrats. Even then, though, there is no reason for a libertarian not to stay within the two party system and run as a republican

That is more of a concession of surrender that the Libertarian Party is going nowhere and your only hope is a takeover of the Republican Party than it is of anything else.
 
That's complete bull****. Social media is quite literally the most ingenious way to get a message out. Obama figured it out. Even Romney's campaign figured it out. Social media campaign cost a fraction and don't require millions of dollars. This nonsense that people can't get their message out in the 21st century is just that. Nonsense. What Libertarians have failed to do is make it appealing. Hell, Ron Paul owes his entire popularity to his internet following. So what stops other parties from using social media to create campaigns attracting voters? Nothing.

Everyone has their view. How many people get their news off the internet or check out all the candidates on the internet? Especially if they never heard of them and do not know they are running. Granted the internet is a helpful tool, but it can't compete against 70 million dollars of political advertising over TV and Radio, mailers, pamphlets, fliers and all the other stuff that comes with it.

Ron Paul has been known for 30 years or more, he has name recognition and he gets coverage by the national media, he is out there for people to see and and has been for a long, long time. Names like Hunt and Swafford has never been covered by the national media, names that mean nothing to no one. They are unknown whereas Paul is sort of a national icon and has been for many years.

Huge difference here. Give Hunt and Swafford 70 million and let the Republican Perdue and Democrat Nunn use only the internet and guess who wins? Nunn and Perdue also have the advantage of both party and name recognition.
 
I don't think the issue is that people vote republican, I think the issue is that people don't know what they're voting for. Actually, there's nothing wrong with a Republican candidate so long as their standings are good and valid, just as there's nothing wrong with a Libertarian candidate with good and valid standings.. Who cares what political party a candidate is in? I think people put too much weight on political affiliations. George Washington warned against this.

Welcome to the forum, Mishiko. :2wave: If this post is anything to judge by, you should be a welcome addition to DP.
 
That is more of a concession of surrender that the Libertarian Party is going nowhere and your only hope is a takeover of the Republican Party than it is of anything else.
That is how it should be in a two party system.
 
That is how it should be in a two party system.

Actually it is not. Pick a party - any party and work for it, do your best for it, and back it to the hilt. Pretending that you are a libertarian when you wear the halloween costume of the republican only betrays your own so called beliefs.
 
Actually it is not. Pick a party - any party and work for it, do your best for it, and back it to the hilt. Pretending that you are a libertarian when you wear the halloween costume of the republican only betrays your own so called beliefs.
No, you work within the system to bring change. The Pauls for example, have had much more influence and done more for libertarian ideas by working within the republican party than they would had they run as libertarians and lost.
 
No, you work within the system to bring change. The Pauls for example, have had much more influence and done more for libertarian ideas by working within the republican party than they would had they run as libertarians and lost.

We completely and totally disagree. Ron Paul was a libertarian who ran for president under their banner. He lost of course. He wanted a career and a paycheck so he went to the costume shop and bought a republican outfit.

I remember Norman Thomas who ran for president six times as a Socialist. Near the end of his life he was asked if he had wasted his life losing one election after the other by huge margins and never really having a chance. He replied that his long career was wonderfully successful as many of the issues he had advocated had come to passage over his long lifetime.

Of course, he was not concerned about a job or paycheck.

I strongly suspect that libertarians have come to the realization that despite all their bluster and bravado to the contrary that
1- they are actually very small in numbers compared to the general population who does not share their views
2- they have no real chance of ballot success having peaked in previous decades
3- the Libertarian brand on the ballot is akin to the skull and crossbones on a medicine bottle
4- they will never be able to complete money wise or work wise for votes
5- they only shot they have at getting their people in power is to infiltrate the most right wing party available - the GOP - and try and take over the infrastructure from within

Thus - we get the Ron Pauls of the world. And the whole time they will bitch, moan, whine and carp and cry and complain about the lack of a viable third party in America when it is they who help keep it that way.
 
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