The reason why Libertarians don't get elected into office is because...

[lew]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

The late 1800s were horrible because the entire nation was abusing drugs and alcohol. China in the 1800/early 1900s was a great time too. Nothing like the whole country stoned out of their minds


It is straight from their website.

open the borders, legalize all drugs,


Those two ideas alone will keep the LP from getting elected. Majority of Americans are pissed off the Dems and Reps refuse to close the border and you guys want to open it up more

Open borders is one area where I completely disagree with the LP.

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by Diesel66

The late 1800s were horrible because the entire nation was abusing drugs and alcohol. China in the 1800/early 1900s was a great time too. Nothing like the whole country stoned out of their minds


It is straight from their website.

open the borders, legalize all drugs,


Those two ideas alone will keep the LP from getting elected. Majority of Americans are pissed off the Dems and Reps refuse to close the border and you guys want to open it up more

as i said again, if you don't understand the reasoning is you wind up OMG IT IS SO FUCKING CRAZY!~P! ~!~~~~

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

Being an extreme position doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how reasonable it is. It's simply a title reflecting how few people ascribe to the position in our society. And when it comes to legalizing drugs, regardless of the merits of the idea, that's an idea that very few Americans believe in.

But I don't know why all the focus here has been on legalizing drugs. IMO, this is the least extreme of the Libertarian Party's ideas...there are actually a decent number of people who support ending prohibition. What's REALLY out there are their ideas about immigration and privatization...they want to let in every immigrant who's not a terrorist or diseased, which would mean half of the 3rd world coming to America. They also want to completely do away with all public schools and universities.

A party advocating such things has no hope whatsoever of being anything more than an irrelevant fringe group.

well maybe because they see the systems now as complete failures. i guess we can spend another 50 years trying to get one of the simplest things, teaching children, to work. i mean, it can't be that hard, spend enough money and you may be able to get it right. more legislation can fix those problems!

do you honestly think the border system we have now works? we let mexicans flood across the border, but we make it impossible for the smart people from india and china to come here to better this country.
no, lets build our own iron curtin around the border, THAT WILL SOLVE THE BORDER ISSUE!~~~

[motivez]

It's not that some of the ideas aren't good though, they are. It's the ones that the majority of the population is going to look at and say "Oh hellz naw" that are the problem.

If they abandoned those in terms of their policy platform and really pushed the ideas that are going to be widely accepted, there would be a lot more support.

Personally, I'm all for drug legalization. I favor personal responsibility over a nanny culture. I'm for doing away with censorship at the governmental level, because I believe in the ability to change the channel/station/whatever if I'm offended.

But, that doesn't mean that most of the country wants everyone to be able to go out and purchase heroin or crack, or that they want to see nudity / profanity on nightly television.. and the government is supposed to represent the wishes of the people.. and that's where they lose

The Republicans are entrenched, sure, but they have a populous message.. if the LP could find one too, they'd be getting elected at LEAST to state houses, state senates, etc..

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by hsmith

as i said again, if you don't understand the reasoning is you wind up OMG IT IS SO FUCKING CRAZY!~P! ~!~~~~

We know some people don't understand why so many people think it's crazy. Doesn't change the fact that many Americans do. In this thread Libertarians have come up with nothing but excuses as to why Americans don't vote for them and fund them and none if it is the fault of their ideology, it's the people who simply don't understand (sounds like the communists of the 50's).

People understand their ideology as much as the Green Party and the Reform Party. People don't support Libertarians because they simply don't want to.

If they said "hey we want smaller government" people would jump all over them. Especially with the amount of disgruntled Republicans. However, that's not their message. Their message is we want a smaller government to the levels you find absurd.

[JaJae]

For example:
They want to get rid of the DoE
Most people would find this absurd beyond belief.

from their website:
2. Deregulate the healthcare industry.
Most people would find this absurd beyond belief.

1. End Welfare
Most people want reform, most people wouldn't want to "end welfare"

Most people don't want law enforcement to be run by private companies.

etc etc.

While a lot of this sounds good on paper, so does communism. Too much government control is a bad thing. Too little is also a bad thing.

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by hsmith

do you honestly think the border system we have now works? we let mexicans flood across the border, but we make it impossible for the smart people from india and china to come here to better this country.
no, lets build our own iron curtin around the border, THAT WILL SOLVE THE BORDER ISSUE!~~~

No, I don't think the border system we have now works, but how does it follow from that it's a good idea to let half the 3rd world into America at once? Same with schools and drugs...that's not a policy argument you have. It's one big non sequitur.

[hsmith]

if it is so absurd why as it a cornerstone of the republican party 10 years ago? sorry, it is not an "absurb" belief. you can argue all you want, but when one of the two major parties argue the same thing it isn't

i have argued and so has ballz the reasons to deregulate the health care industry several times. the amount of regulation we have makes it so expensive the poor can't afford it.

how is the current police system a success? police get away with murder and nothing happens to them. take the case of the VA man that was shot dead by a swat team that was just coming to arrest him. NOTHING HAPPENED TO THE COP! militarized police is just another systemic problem that comes from big government.



you can't claim you are for smaller government then be against all things that would make government smaller. if your platform is "smaller government" then you need to actaully have plans to do something. Not be the democratic or republican parties that have no actual plans for what they say.

[hsmith]

the "quote" button is a piece of shit that doesn't work

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

No, I don't think the border system we have now works, but how does it follow from that it's a good idea to let half the 3rd world into America at once? Same with schools and drugs...that's not a policy argument you have. It's one big non sequitur.

oh it is a non-sequitor because it doens't jive with what you think

oh, ok

whatever.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by hsmith

the "quote" button is a piece of shit that doesn't work

seems to be working

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

seems to be working

i meant "quick"

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by hsmith

if it is so absurd why as it a cornerstone of the republican party 10 years ago? sorry, it is not an "absurb" belief.

The Republican party never wanted to legalize all drugs, open the borders and withdraw all our foreign-stationed troops, for example. Whatever principles Libertarians and Republicans once shared, Libertarians have taken them to an absurd degree. Small government turned into virtually no government. There's a big difference there.

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

The Republican party never wanted to legalize all drugs, open the borders and withdraw all our foreign-stationed troops, for example. Whatever principles Libertarians and Republicans once shared, Libertarians have taken them to an absurd degree. Small government turned into virtually no government. There's a big difference there.

none of those policies have been working out for us, so i guess we should keep doing them, right?

[SpicyMcVoodoo]

Originally Posted by hsmith

none of those policies have been working out for us, so i guess we should keep doing them, right?

They're working and they're not working. They certainly have problems. But you're advocating shooting the patient because he has a broken leg. You know there's a happy middle ground between completely abolishing the present system and maintaining it as is, right?

[lew]

Originally Posted by JaJae

For example:
They want to get rid of the DoE
Most people would find this absurd beyond belief.

from their website:
2. Deregulate the healthcare industry.
Most people would find this absurd beyond belief.

1. End Welfare
Most people want reform, most people wouldn't want to "end welfare"

Most people don't want law enforcement to be run by private companies.

etc etc.

While a lot of this sounds good on paper, so does communism. Too much government control is a bad thing. Too little is also a bad thing.

Libertarians are NOT for private police.

[lew]

Originally Posted by SpicyMcVoodoo

The Republican party never wanted to legalize all drugs, open the borders and withdraw all our foreign-stationed troops, for example. Whatever principles Libertarians and Republicans once shared, Libertarians have taken them to an absurd degree. Small government turned into virtually no government. There's a big difference there.

You have obviously no idea of the history of the Old Right.

[7960]

Originally Posted by hsmith

apparently it is a difficult concept

the concept is the reasoning behind the position.

legalizing drugs isn't an extreme. you have just bought into big government propaganda

the only thing being difficult here is you.

try this......... go find some friend of a friend and say "can I explain something to you and get your opinion?" Then give a 3 min lecture on how the govt should get out of everyone's lives. The person will probably agree. Then say "of course, one of the results of this is that heroin would be legalized. Would you vote for a candidate who supports all of this?" and see what s/he says. My guess, the person says something like "that all makes sense right up to the point where you want to legalize heroin. We don't really need that."

This has NOTHING to do being a cornerstone of either party and everything to do with common sense.... people will vote for a candidate who wants the govt out of our lives. People will not vote for a candidate who wants to legalize heroin. But keep believe it's about being brainwashed or some shit like that if it helps you sleep at night.

[AVengeance]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

This is the main reason why political parties need to be abolished.

How would the inner city people know who to vote for?