Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Libertarian vote up for grabs?

Before I forgot, I wanted to link to this post a few days ago by Cato's David Boaz, which posits (among other interesting points) that the libertarian vote is up for grabs between the two major parties: "A candidate in either party who presented himself as a product of the social freedom of the Sixties and the economic freedom of the Eighties would be tapping into a market that both parties have yet to nail down." (Given the Libertarian Party's latest failure to attract a significant number of votes, I wonder if some libertarians might be searching for an alterative.)

I also like this comment about the Republicans and educated voters: "If conservative Republicans continue to respond to the loss of educated voters by declaring themselves proud to be 'real Americans' who don't care much for book learning and Darwinism and elite stuff, they will only accelerate the process."

1 comment:

Interrociter said...

Bearing on that quote from Boaz, you should check out the latest Lexington column in The Economist which expands on the pitfalls of Republican anti-intellectualism.
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12599247

The Republican embrace of idiocy has been American politics' not-talked-about-crazy-aunt-in-the-attic for years. It's only become a topic for respectable conversation as people toss up reasons for the drumming the Republicans took. The standup comics were there years ago when they started pointing out that George W. Bush was a moron.