If The Libertarian Party Couldn’t Cut It In 2006, When Are They Ever Going To Be Able To Make A Go Of It?

by John Hawkins | November 14, 2006 11:34 am

Oddly, Neal Boortz was talking about these election results[1] from Georgia as if they were good news for the Libertarian Party:

Georgia LP Election Results

November 7th, 2006 was an historic night for the Libertarian Party of Georgia!

Garrett Michael Hayes received over 77,000 votes for Governor — more votes than any Georgia Libertarian gubernatorial candidate has ever received!

Allen Buckley received 20,000 more votes in his race for Lt. Governor than did the 2002 Libertarian candidate for Lt. Governor.

Kevin Madsen received over 81,000 votes for Secretary of State — the most votes any Georgia Libertarian running for Secretary of State has ever received!

David Chastain received over 103,000 votes in his race for State School Superintendent. That’s over 5% of the vote — almost double our 2002 vote total in the State School Superintendent race!

Paul MacGregor pulled 4.87% of the vote in Public Service Commission District 3 which forced the race into a run off between the Democrat and Republican.

Let’s see, in an election where the voters overwhelmingly rejected the GOP and didn’t seem to be wild about the Democrats either, you have someone bragging that a Libertarian candidate got 5% of the vote in a race for State School Superintendent?

Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know about the future of the Libertarian Party? In other words, they have no future. They’re always going to be a pissant, gadfly party that the public doesn’t consider to be a viable alternative, no matter how screwed up the Democrats and Republicans may become?

What’s the real point of being part of a political party that is, under the best circumstances, never going to get more than roughly 5% of the vote for just about anything, anywhere? Since the Libertarian Party is such a complete and utter, hopeless failure, wouldn’t it make more sense for Libertarians to join the GOP and Democratic Party and try to reform them from within rather than continue wasting their time voting for Libertarian candidates who probably have about the same chance of winning an election as Michael Jackson does of becoming the next Ultimate Fighting Champion?

In my book, there’s no difference whatsoever between staying home, voting for a Libertarian candidate, and doing a write in vote for Mickey Mouse. Any way you slice it, your vote was wasted.

PS: This is a slap at the Libertarian Party, not at Libertarians, because there are quite a few Libertarians that I like and respect, even if I think the Libertarian Party is a bad joke.

PS #2: I know some people might say that if the Libertarian Party gathers a high percentage of the vote, it forces the two mainstream parties to try to go after their voters, but that’s not true, because Libertarians have beliefs that are so far out of the mainstream that it’s impossible to try to cater exclusively to them. When you’re talking about people (many of them at least) who favor legalizing crack and prostitution, favor open borders, favor abortion without restriction, gay marriage, essentially oppose any and all government intelligence programs designed to stop Al-Qaeda from killing Americans, then it’s practically a given that no politician can make them happy on most issues without alienating 90% of the general public at the same time. Since, as a politician, you know going in that you can’t truly make Libertarians happy, all you can do to reach out to Libertarians is emphasize any parts of your platform where you happen to agree with them and hope they don’t notice everything else.

Endnotes:
  1. these election results: http://boortz.com/nuze/200611/11132006.html#libertarian

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