Zippy

And now for a real answer. I like jedwards consider myself a pragmatist (I wish it were a party.)

I find many of the Libertarian ideas to be quite intriguing. I personally believe in personal freedoms and fiscal responsibility, but libertarianism in it's extreme is very scary.

I looked at party a few years back and in my search I came up with an author that was lauded by the Libs. as a visionary. L Neil Smith, is a fiction author that has done a couple books on an alternate history where in fact the libertarians became dominant here and inthe world. The book is entitled The Probability Broach. It is a very good read (especially if you are a SF geek ) but it portrays a country run by libertarians as a "business anarchy", where business is in charge of all infrastructure, and "arbitrators" are in charge of any and all Justice. I hate intrusion by the government, but I enjoy protection of the government.

I heard a local Lib on NPR a number of weeks back and he really scared me (more than Tom DeLay). He platform was to remove government from ALL aspects of life. Meaning the end of all entitlements and protections. Nice sounding, but what do we tell retired people that live on Social Security, what about health care for the working poor.

The libertarians like all the other parties are scary in the extreme, and any party that is in power tends to be extreme IMHO. I'm just not sure I would want Libs in power.

Zippy

Only in the papers.

mikegarrison

The system in the USA is designed to be "winner take all". That tends to reinforce a two-party system. When the system is designed more for power sharing coalitions, you tend to get more small parties.

As to why the Libertarians aren't one of the two main parties, I think it is because they aren't appealing enough to established special interests. That, plus some of their party planks are unworkable. Politics is generally about compromise, and Libertarians are usually not big on compromise. If they ever became a big power they would have to become more centrist.

lig

Sad, but true fellas.

Even my pops thinks I am wasting my vote.

This year I had to be more pragmatic though...

tomcatt

Actually Monrovia is in California, just east of Pasadena. And isn't Liberia best known as the registeration entity for most ships roaming the world nowadays, like freighters and oil tankers?

jedwards

You're scaring me . I was only kidding. There are actually 6 Monrovia's in the US that I could find. There are Monrovias in: CA, IN, AL, KS, MD and VA.

But your message made one thing clear... those Liberians are sneaky devils. They could be *anywhere*!

valentine

From the Libertarian Party website: "The Libertarian Party is your representative in American politics. It is the only political organization which respects you as a unique and competent individual." My thinking is there aren't more libertarians because we are like sheep and do not wish to be unique. We need to be told what we want. We further are rather lacking in the competent individual category -- other than yourself, how many competent individuals do you know?

lig

That competence thing is a rather silly statement - but honestly - there are a lot of dumb Americans.

Nearly 1/3 of Americans polled believed that we found WMDs

Roughly the same percentage believed that Saddam used them on our troops during the war.

Sad.

JonasM

[QUOTE]I find many of the Libertarian ideas to be quite intriguing.

JonasM

I think that's a big part of it. The other reason is that our country has had government meddling for so long that people can no longer see that there's an alternative: "If government didn't provide X, who would provide it?"

JonasM