Hey Libertarians, Think This Was Good?

[jillian]

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.

paul would not have gotten all the romney votes... the neocons hate him....

 

[WillowTree]

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.

I don't pretend to own your voter, you chose Obama.

 

[Oddball]

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.

paul would not have gotten all the romney votes... the neocons hate him....

Neocons would've voted for a ham sandwich.

 

[Toro]

I considered voting for Johnson, but I wanted my first vote to count, so I voted for Romney.

 

[Toro]

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.

Ron Paul wouldn't have won. I don't think he would have gotten all of Romney's votes.

 

[AmyNation]

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.

^^^this

If Johnson hadn't been on the ballot, I would have stayed home, as I'm sure many Paul supporters did.

 

[Oddball]

I considered voting for Johnson, but I wanted my first vote to count, so I voted for Romney.

And he won by just that one single (1) vote!

Oh yeah....Never mind....

 

[del]

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.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmOrWG2FTbg]Lesley Gore- "You Don't Own Me" Live - YouTube[/ame]

tissue?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

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!

Sounds like Republicans should be asking themselves that question, since it was they who failed to nominate quality candidates.

 

[Dot Com]

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!

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

Romney was just THAT bad.

Ron Paul wouldn't have won. I don't think he would have gotten all of Romney's votes.

right. Because the Establishment Repubs are in bed w/ the defense industrial complex just as the Dem's are in bed w/ unions & trial lawyers. Dr. Paul isn't too keen on policing the world & all the "war corporatism" that goes along w/ it.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

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)?

Looks more like they're laughing at Republicans to me.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

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!

Sucks that you nominated him.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

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.

They'd rather preserve the status quo regardless of whether they ever get to drive the bus ever again. If they can't run the country again at least they'll get to keep their little fiefdom in the Republican Party.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

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.

paul would not have gotten all the romney votes... the neocons hate him....

So do you think they would have supported Obama over Paul? I don't think that'd be a stretch. The question is, how much sway do the hardcore neocons really have over the party in general?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

I considered voting for Johnson, but I wanted my first vote to count, so I voted for Romney.

Looks like your first vote counted for about as much as anybody's vote for Johnson did.

 

[WillowTree]

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

Sucks that you chose Obama!

Sucks that you nominated him.

Not me

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

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

Romney was just THAT bad.

Ron Paul wouldn't have won. I don't think he would have gotten all of Romney's votes.

You think the neocons would've supported Obama, and that they have enough influence in the party to get the average Republican voter to do the same? I don't think it's unlikely, but I'm curious if that's what you're thinking.

 

[Toro]

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.

paul would not have gotten all the romney votes... the neocons hate him....

So do you think they would have supported Obama over Paul? I don't think that'd be a stretch. The question is, how much sway do the hardcore neocons really have over the party in general?

Not every conservative who isn't a libertarian is a neocon.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

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.

^^^this

If Johnson hadn't been on the ballot, I would have stayed home, as I'm sure many Paul supporters did.

I had a great day too. No lines, no overpriced baked goods, and the delight of seeing the consternation in people's eyes when I told them I wasn't going to vote.

 

[Oddball]

Not every conservative who isn't a libertarian is a neocon.

Definitely not.

But the neocons, who are in control of the GOP establishment, detest libertarians almost as viscerally as do progressives.