Thoughts

[psych0squirrel]

It was more interesting to see the GOP unravel because it was newer, the Democrats have had troubles for years but I think they are going to recover faster and the Libertarians are a wild card. It's hard to tell and anyone who thinks they know the answer is lying, or a consultant.

The Major Players:In the GOP, you have a new criminal political

Comments

[thesandsabrase]

the Libertarians are a wild card

Aren't we? I am not a big l-libertarian, but I can go in either direction and while the republican hold the the libertarian moderates was pretty firm in 2000, it seems almost gone at both CATO and Von MIses. Libs will probably vote without regards to party or not vote at all.

[psych0squirrel]

Well some of the older founding members of the Libertarians are stranger, the ones who are more Republican and less hippy. I think it's going through a generation change of sorts, as disatisfied Democrats and moderate Republicans seem to be the groups that they are recruiting from these days moreso then anti-tax crusaders.

We get some odd rhetoric this close to the capital and most of it is in Virginia as we have lower taxes and a more Libertarian friendly government then DC or Maryland; but the popular culture is pretty moderate and endorses more of the "ooh sparkly" version of capitalism then some of the more serious members of the party.

[ratspy]

"and an idiotic base."

Because the Democratic base is a gaggle of well-informed smarties, eh?

Right.

[psych0squirrel]

I'm finding more demoralized moderate republicans then democrats, they've known there was a problem for awhile.

[ratspy]

Democrats will always dislike Republicans, in general. It's rather essential to the system.

As to the growing disillusionment, the Republicans have been in control for over six years now. One doesn't progressively get more fond of a static system as time goes on.

[psych0squirrel]

Are the republicans different there? A lot of the younger republicans I meet, don't like the republicans in power. There are very few religious republicans here, it's more of a tax and political policy that they support. So all the focus on values gets under everybody's skin.

Besides. I pick and choose different things from different platforms. I'm probably more of an independant.

LP Changes

[mpeg2tom]

The Libertarian Party just had a major change. They just killed most of their platform planks to adopt a more nimble political stance:

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002176.html

"Libertarian Party Focus Shifts from Philosophy to Politics

(Washington, DC) By the close of the 2006 Libertarian National Convention that took place in Portland, Ore. on July 1 and 2, it was clear that history had been made...a significant statement was made by the delegates when it came to changing the Libertarian Party platform. There are now 15 planks to the new Libertarian Party platform, as compared to the 61 planks it used to have."

BTW, the new platform is here:

http://www.lp.org/issues/platform_all.shtml

Re: LP Changes

[psych0squirrel]

I am more into the personal freedom aspects of Libertarianism more then anarchy honestly. Some of the anti-tax movement is pretty obsessed only with that one bias and I'm more into the philosophy then the economic freedom to do anything. But political parties are full of people who do actually affect the way the platform comes out. :D