Hey Libertarians, Think This Was Good?

[Annie]

Daily Kos: Libertarians provided the margin for Democrats in at least nine elections

Let's just say, the kos folks are laughing at you and conservatives:

As we've perused last week's election returns, we'd noticed a number of races where Libertarian candidates appear to have played spoiler for Republicans—certainly, more than we're accustomed to. While we haven't run a comparison with prior cycles, we've identified no fewer than nine contests in 2012 where the Libertarian received more votes than the difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates. What's more, none of these involved the typical 1 or maybe 2 percent you ordinarily expect a Lib to garner: Looking at the three-way vote, all but one were over 3 percent, and three took 6 percent or more, with a high of 6.5 percent in the Montana Senate race. These definitely seem like unusually high figures.

So what's going on here? I wouldn't want to speculate too much based on this limited data set. But I could easily believe that a growing proportion of conservative-leaning voters are too disgusted with the GOP to pull the Republican lever, but who won't vote for Democrats either, are choosing a third option and going Libertarian instead. This thesis dovetails with something else we saw this year: independents generally leaning more rightward simply because at least some former Republicans are now refusing to identify with their old party. It's not much of a stretch to imagine that some folks like that don't want to vote for their old party either.

The chart above summarizes our findings, based on preliminary data from the AP, with a big hat-tip to my colleague Jed Lewison. (Note that MI-11 refers to the unexpired term for ex-Rep. Thad McCotter's seat, not the full-two year term that starts in January.) It's too facile to say that without the Lib, every Democrat would have lost. But some very likely would have, so it's reasonable to conclude that the Libertarian Party gifted quite a few seats to Team Blue this year. Thanks, friends!

 

[Paulie]

I'm fine with it.

As soon as the GOP decides it's ready to accept some of our positions into their platform, I'll more than willing to consider them again.

 

[Annie]

I'm fine with it.

As soon as the GOP decides it's ready to accept some of our positions into their platform, I'll more than willing to consider them again.

Paulie, c'mon, We both know the question isn't 'some of' anymore than from the dems.

 

[Oddball]

Kos doesn't get to assign my vote to anyone, any more so than does any repub.

Who got my vote if I stayed home?

 

[dblack]

Daily Kos: Libertarians provided the margin for Democrats in at least nine elections

Let's just say, the kos folks are laughing at you and conservatives..

Hmm... I didn't really get a derisive tone from that. Apart from the usual mistake of trying to shoehorn libertarians into the left/right spectrum, it seems like a fairly accurate account of what is happening.

How do you figure they are laughing at us (libertarians)?

 

[del]

Kos doesn't get to assign my vote to anyone, any more so than does any repub.

Who got my vote if I stayed home?

were you mentioned by name in the article, asshat?

 

[Oddball]

I'm fine with it.

As soon as the GOP decides it's ready to accept some of our positions into their platform, I'll more than willing to consider them again.

They locked out both Dr. Paul and Santorum of the RNC, just to project the illusion of universal support for Vinnie Vitalis.

The GOP can suck a big fat chili dog.

 

[whitehall]

It's no secret. In my area former republican Virgil Goode persuaded a lot of republicans to throw away their votes for a stupid pie/sky lies. The dirty little secret is that "tarians" were infiltrated by dirty tricks democrats and the true believer huffers thought they were casting a vote to change the world. All in all it was a win win for democrats.

 

[Oddball]

It's no secret. In my area former republican Virgil Goode persuaded a lot of republicans to throw away their votes for a stupid pie/sky lies. The dirty little secret is that "tarians" were infiltrated by dirty tricks democrats and the true believer huffers thought they were casting a vote to change the world. All in all it was a win win for democrats.

Sucks that your guys have such a shitty product, dunnit?

 

[Paulie]

I'm fine with it.

As soon as the GOP decides it's ready to accept some of our positions into their platform, I'll more than willing to consider them again.

They locked out both Dr. Paul and Santorum of the RNC, just to project the illusion of universal support for Vinnie Vitalis.

The GOP can suck a big fat chili dog.

Let's figure this right now...

Romney lost women and minorities, and I'm sure a huge chunk of the youth vote.

Paul would have gotten all the Romney votes, especially the ABO vote, plus a lot of Romney's lost demographics...the people who were begging for someone better than Obama and didn't get that in Romney.

Yeah...Paul would have won.

 

[del]

I'm fine with it.

As soon as the GOP decides it's ready to accept some of our positions into their platform, I'll more than willing to consider them again.

They locked out both Dr. Paul and Santorum of the RNC, just to project the illusion of universal support for Vinnie Vitalis.

The GOP can suck a big fat chili dog.

Let's figure this right now...

Romney lost women and minorities, and I'm sure a huge chunk of the youth vote.

Paul would have gotten all the Romney votes, especially the ABO vote, plus a lot of Romney's lost demographics...the people who were begging for someone better than Obama and didn't get that in Romney.

Yeah...Paul would have won.

 

[Oddball]

I'm fine with it.

As soon as the GOP decides it's ready to accept some of our positions into their platform, I'll more than willing to consider them again.

They locked out both Dr. Paul and Santorum of the RNC, just to project the illusion of universal support for Vinnie Vitalis.

The GOP can suck a big fat chili dog.

Let's figure this right now...

Romney lost women and minorities, and I'm sure a huge chunk of the youth vote.

Paul would have gotten all the Romney votes, especially the ABO vote, plus a lot of Romney's lost demographics...the people who were begging for someone better than Obama and didn't get that in Romney.

Yeah...Paul would have won.

Don't know.

But I do know that the GOP did itself no favor, by flipping off a significant number of potential voters who supported one of their candidates in the primaries.

 

[Paulie]

They locked out both Dr. Paul and Santorum of the RNC, just to project the illusion of universal support for Vinnie Vitalis.

The GOP can suck a big fat chili dog.

Let's figure this right now...

Romney lost women and minorities, and I'm sure a huge chunk of the youth vote.

Paul would have gotten all the Romney votes, especially the ABO vote, plus a lot of Romney's lost demographics...the people who were begging for someone better than Obama and didn't get that in Romney.

Yeah...Paul would have won.

You can laugh, but there was plenty of unenthusiastic Obama voters who would have preferred someone else.

Romney was just THAT bad.

 

[Paulie]

They locked out both Dr. Paul and Santorum of the RNC, just to project the illusion of universal support for Vinnie Vitalis.

The GOP can suck a big fat chili dog.

Let's figure this right now...

Romney lost women and minorities, and I'm sure a huge chunk of the youth vote.

Paul would have gotten all the Romney votes, especially the ABO vote, plus a lot of Romney's lost demographics...the people who were begging for someone better than Obama and didn't get that in Romney.

Yeah...Paul would have won.

Don't know.

But I do know that the GOP did itself no favor, by flipping off a significant number of potential voters who supported one of their candidates in the primaries.

Yeah you'd think they would want to do what they could to secure all potentials.

I think the real freedom that comes with libertarian governing is just too much for the establishment to give.

 

[WillowTree]

It's no secret. In my area former republican Virgil Goode persuaded a lot of republicans to throw away their votes for a stupid pie/sky lies. The dirty little secret is that "tarians" were infiltrated by dirty tricks democrats and the true believer huffers thought they were casting a vote to change the world. All in all it was a win win for democrats.

Sucks that your guys have such a shitty product, dunnit?

Sucks that you chose Obama!

 

[dblack]

Don't know.

But I do know that the GOP did itself no favor, by flipping off a significant number of potential voters who supported one of their candidates in the primaries.

What's clear to me, is that they'd rather preserve the status quo, and wait for their turn to drive the bus, than get behind a real movement to change the direction of the nation.

 

[del]

Let's figure this right now...

Romney lost women and minorities, and I'm sure a huge chunk of the youth vote.

Paul would have gotten all the Romney votes, especially the ABO vote, plus a lot of Romney's lost demographics...the people who were begging for someone better than Obama and didn't get that in Romney.

Yeah...Paul would have won.

You can laugh, but there was plenty of unenthusiastic Obama voters who would have preferred someone else.

Romney was just THAT bad.

yes, he was, but ron paul would have lost too.

he just wouldn't have spent as much money doing it

 

[Oddball]

It's no secret. In my area former republican Virgil Goode persuaded a lot of republicans to throw away their votes for a stupid pie/sky lies. The dirty little secret is that "tarians" were infiltrated by dirty tricks democrats and the true believer huffers thought they were casting a vote to change the world. All in all it was a win win for democrats.

Sucks that your guys have such a shitty product, dunnit?

Sucks that you chose Obama!

I chose Johnson....Were he not on the ballot, I would've stayed home.

You don't own my vote.

 

[Montrovant]

So once again, someone tries to say that voting for your candidate of choice is somehow a vote for someone else. This time it goes further and assumes that, if those who voted Libertarian were forced to choose between Obama and Romney, that they would all have chosen Romney.

It's always good to know how little choice we actually have in choosing our representatives.

 

[sfcalifornia]

Daily Kos: Libertarians provided the margin for Democrats in at least nine elections

Let's just say, the kos folks are laughing at you and conservatives:

As we've perused last week's election returns, we'd noticed a number of races where Libertarian candidates appear to have played spoiler for Republicans—certainly, more than we're accustomed to. While we haven't run a comparison with prior cycles, we've identified no fewer than nine contests in 2012 where the Libertarian received more votes than the difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates. What's more, none of these involved the typical 1 or maybe 2 percent you ordinarily expect a Lib to garner: Looking at the three-way vote, all but one were over 3 percent, and three took 6 percent or more, with a high of 6.5 percent in the Montana Senate race. These definitely seem like unusually high figures.

So what's going on here? I wouldn't want to speculate too much based on this limited data set. But I could easily believe that a growing proportion of conservative-leaning voters are too disgusted with the GOP to pull the Republican lever, but who won't vote for Democrats either, are choosing a third option and going Libertarian instead. This thesis dovetails with something else we saw this year: independents generally leaning more rightward simply because at least some former Republicans are now refusing to identify with their old party. It's not much of a stretch to imagine that some folks like that don't want to vote for their old party either.

The chart above summarizes our findings, based on preliminary data from the AP, with a big hat-tip to my colleague Jed Lewison. (Note that MI-11 refers to the unexpired term for ex-Rep. Thad McCotter's seat, not the full-two year term that starts in January.) It's too facile to say that without the Lib, every Democrat would have lost. But some very likely would have, so it's reasonable to conclude that the Libertarian Party gifted quite a few seats to Team Blue this year. Thanks, friends!

I didn't get past the second sentence in the article:

While we haven't run a comparison with prior cycles.................

Kinda seems to me, it would be a good idea if they did.... before jumping to conclusions.

Libertarians could have just as easily voted for a Dem or a Rep instead of throwing their vote away on the Libertarian candidate. Everyone knows a vote for a third party is a throw-away vote.