an alternative to libertarian?
2000-11-01 05:00:40+00 by
Dan Lyke
8 comments
Sigh. Listening to Forum with the alternatives to Diane Feinstein. Feinstein is going to win, and has been blowing off any situation that might give legitimacy to other candidates, but she's still a raving idiot who espouses the worst traits of the Democrats with the fascist tendencies of the Republicans, including such lunacy as voting for a flag-burning amendment. A social conservative and fiscal liberal. Unfortunately, the Libertarian candidate, Gail Lightfoot, is also incoherent. Tom Campbell, the Republican is amazingly close to perfect, but he's the sort of old-school Republican![[Wiki]](/adbanners/lookingglass.png)
we haven't seen since Lee Atwater decided the Catholic vote was important. While I think the Libertarians are right in principle, too many of them seem to be rednecks who haven't really thought through the implications of their philosophy. Any chance there's a rational political party out there somewhere? I've yet to see it. Of course that'd assume a rational voting populace, and as this election winds down it sure seems that the "gimme gimme gimme and fuck the rest of you" destruction of the commons seems to be the norm among grasping greedy voters.
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comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:28+00 by:
Dori
I'm sighing here, too.
It looks like I'll be voting for Al Gore and Tom Campbell. I
won't respect myself in the morning, though.
The main reason I didn't vote for Clinton in '92 or '96 was
because I couldn't vote for a ticket with Gore. I'm still
disgusted by the PMRC. I hate the thought of voting for
Gore now, but I hate the idea of the Shrub in office even
more.
Yecch.
Dori
Backup Brain
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:29+00 by:
Dan Lyke
Yep, I wanted to vote for Browne, but given that California's becoming a swing state and getting reminded of Ed Meese yesterday I may have to hold my nose too.
Which really ticks me off, 'cause I've got all of your concerns about the PMRC and the "make all media safe for chilllldruuun" whining that's caused the current rash of films that show violence without consequences.
What I want is a party whose candidates are willing to
- take a stand against lax parenting rather than attack the symptoms that cannot be fixed
- who are willing to strengthen property rights laws so that property owners can sue polluters or those affecting the ecosystem for trespass (let's talk habitat preservation and zero emissions, shall we?)
- end the subsidies and legal structures that favor large corporations and the Ponzi scheme capital markets that support them (screw social security in the stock market, I want to see an end to IRAs and 401ks, or a change that lets that capital be used in small local investments)
- change the patent system so that I can't be denied the fruits of my efforts
- uphold my rights to free speech
- stop the stupid drug war and other attacks on activities undertaken by consenting adults
- pursue reasonable weapons policies rather than knee-jerk attacks against secondary symptoms
- recognize that there are no "entitlements", that taxes are taken by force, and that even if they're being spent of economic necessity (such as educating those whose parents won't take the responsibility, or pre-emptively on health-care to lower long-term cost) that's because the recipients of such aid are being lax in their own responsibilities
And a bunch of other stuff, but that's what comes to mind right now. I'm becoming more pragmatic than
Libertarian, I understand that we do occasionally need to use violence against the innocents to take responsibility for the guilty, but I want social welfare programs classed as such.
Sigh.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:29+00 by:
ebradway
I found out last night that my district votes overwhelmingly Republican. That means I'll vote for a third-party. Maybe I should vote for Dan...
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:29+00 by:
Larry Burton
You do know that protest votes only really make an impact on elections that are this close. Don't you? Think about it for a minute. Let's say that Nader recieves 15% of the vote but Gore still wins by 10%. All those protest votes for Nader, under this scenario, has little meaning to Gore because he can just say, "Screw 'em, I won without them and I've got my mandate." On the other hand, if Nader only gets 6% of the vote and Gore wins by only 0.5% of the vote he's lost his mandate and will bend over backwards to court the Nader voters for his second term. If he loses by 1% of the vote the entire Democratic party is going to go blaming Nader for the loss and begin campaigning the day after the election for those voters.
If you want to hit the democans with a 10lb. sledgehammer of a protest vote this is the election to do it. We're screwed regardless of the winner of the election.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:29+00 by:
ebradway
And since it's not a true 'majority wins' election, my vote for Gore will be wasted. The Electoral Candidate from my district will be voting for shrub. I can't change that but I can help the third parties become better established.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:29+00 by:
shad0w
It's amazing to me how many people will sell their freedoms in return for legislation on a single issue. Is it worth living in a totalitarian society, just so long as abortion is illegal? Or just so long as you get free medical care?
As I've said before, if it weren't for the libertarian alternative, I probably wouldn't even show up at the polls this year.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:29+00 by:
spink
The other option is to send a nice letter to everyone running in your area detailing why you aren't voting for them. I actually managed to send one to most of the senate canidates for kali. I'm still decided whether or not to vote on anything except a straight no vote on all the props.
#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:30:29+00 by:
DaveP
Two quick comments. The first is a suggestion that folks read Jesse
Ventura's essay at Jesse Ventura says to
vote your heart, conscience.
As for a rational political party out there, I think the closest is the
Minnesota Independence Party, which is what came out of the
Minnesota branch of the Reform Party when Buchanan seized control.