libertarians (small and big L) got 0.08% of the House vote, Dems got 51.2%

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by Publius

Also, while LP candidates may not have done well in the House, many INDIVIDUAL candidates received over 800,000 votes in their races here in Texas. Just adding up a few of the many races, I already have over 6 million votes cast for LP candidates in Texas alone:

2006 GENERAL ELECTION - RACE SUMMARIES

Just the House of Rep?

SEN: Scott Lanier Jameson LIB 32,813 1.94%

GOV: James Werner LIB 26,726 0.61%

I like your numbers though, considering they have zero context...6 million libertarian votes in Texas...compared to what...about 40 million people in the ENTIRE COUNTRY voted, and yet there were 6 million libertarian votes in one state?

I guess you mean when someone votes all libertarian, you count them down for 6-10 votes or whatever, or maybe more

That would be funny if we used that math for the Republicans "We may have lost, but we recieved more votes than their are people in the entire country, success!"

[Publius]

Did I say "6 million people voted for the LP here in Texas!" ? No, I said 6 million votes for LP candidates.

Like I said before and like you sidestepped in your reply: for a party that matters so little, you sure do think about us a lot and expend a lot of energy trying to belittle us.

[TheScatman]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

Just the House of Rep?

SEN: Scott Lanier Jameson LIB 32,813 1.94%

GOV: James Werner LIB 26,726 0.61%

I like your numbers though, considering they have zero context...6 million libertarian votes in Texas...compared to what...about 40 million people in the ENTIRE COUNTRY voted, and yet there were 6 million libertarian votes in one state?

I guess you mean when someone votes all libertarian, you count them down for 6-10 votes or whatever, or maybe more

That would be funny if we used that math for the Republicans "We may have lost, but we recieved more votes than their are people in the entire country, success!"

its thoughts like this why our country is in such bad shape. political discourse isnt about who has the best ideas, its who can run ads and convince the idiot masses to vote for them to gain power. but since politics has just become about the exercising of power over others I guess we all can't be suprised at the massive regulatory/welfare/warfare state we have today

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by Publius

Did I say "6 million people voted for the LP here in Texas!" ? No, I said 6 million votes for LP candidates.

Like I said before and like you sidestepped in your reply: for a party that matters so little, you sure do think about us a lot and expend a lot of energy trying to belittle us.

I am not belittling, I am trying to understand, you didn't respond to anything in my post except admit that you posted the numbers to sound really high without any context

[TheScatman]

Originally Posted by Publius

Did I say "6 million people voted for the LP here in Texas!" ? No, I said 6 million votes for LP candidates.

Like I said before and like you sidestepped in your reply: for a party that matters so little, you sure do think about us a lot and expend a lot of energy trying to belittle us.

It may bother him that its the only logically consistant party out there

I'd think to see either major party defend why liberty should be split in two areas (economic and personal) with each only defending one

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by TheScatman

It may bother him that its the only logically consistant party out there

I'd think to see either major party defend why liberty should be split in two areas (economic and personal) with each only defending one

Actually I think that bothers a lot of people. I know I'm pretty libertarian on a lot of issues because I see both parties as horribly inconsistent. It pisses people off in my family (staunch republicans) that libertarians are gaining traction. It pisses them off that I agree on a lot of issues with democrats and/or libertarians. I think its because of their own inconsistencies and not wanting to face them.

This happens on both sides of the isle and I believe its a big cause in the disdain factor for libertarians. It makes both parties have to look at their own inconsistencies.

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

Actually I think that bothers a lot of people. I know I'm pretty libertarian on a lot of issues because I see both parties as horribly inconsistent. It pisses people off in my family (staunch republicans) that libertarians are gaining traction. It pisses them off that I agree on a lot of issues with democrats and/or libertarians. I think its because of their own inconsistencies and not wanting to face them.

This happens on both sides of the isle and I believe its a big cause in the disdain factor for libertarians. It makes both parties have to look at their own inconsistencies.

If people in your family consider themselves "conservatives" then they should be voting LP, neither the R or D's come anywere close to conservative values.

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

Actually I think that bothers a lot of people. I know I'm pretty libertarian on a lot of issues because I see both parties as horribly inconsistent. It pisses people off in my family (staunch republicans) that libertarians are gaining traction. It pisses them off that I agree on a lot of issues with democrats and/or libertarians. I think its because of their own inconsistencies and not wanting to face them.

This happens on both sides of the isle and I believe its a big cause in the disdain factor for libertarians. It makes both parties have to look at their own inconsistencies.

I've thought for a while that this is the main issue. People HATE to admit that they might be wrong or inconsistant in their thought process. Personally, I see the libertarian party gaining more and more support as the two main parties increasingly screw the pooch on practicing what they preach. I mean, you hear BOTH parties talking about how the other threatens liberties... the funny thing is, they're both right: they both do!

This doens't mean I want the LP to wait for reps and dems to dig themselves into such a deep grave that no one has any other choice but to vote for LP candidates... that's silly (and will probably never happen because one party usually feeds off the failures of the other). But I do think within the next 10-20 years, that will be an increasing factor in people actually paying attention to what the LP has been saying for a while.

[6SpeedTA95]

Originally Posted by hsmith

If people in your family consider themselves "conservatives" then they should be voting LP, neither the R or D's come anywere close to conservative values.

You dont think I've said that?

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

[edit] Libertarian Republicans in 109th Congress

The following members of the 109th United States Congress may be broadly classified as libertarian Republican in their philosophy. The classification is based on the following system: The member had to 1) vote for the conservative Hensarling budget substitute, vote to reduce NEA funding, vote in favor of reducing highway pork spending, AND/OR 2) Have a lifetime "libertarian" record as defined by the Republican Liberty Caucus, AND/OR 3) Vote against one or both of: USA Patriot Act renewal, Medicare prescription drug benefit.
By state:
Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake (R) Rep. John Shadegg (R) Rep. Trent Franks (R) Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R)
California Rep. Ed Royce (R) Rep. Gary Miller (R) Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R)
Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R) Rep. Tom Tancredo (R)
Florida Rep. Jeff Miller (R) Rep. Tom Feeney (R)
Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston (R) Rep. John Linder (R) Rep. Charlie Norwood (R) Rep. Nathan Deal (R)
Idaho Rep. Butch Otter (R)
Illinois Rep. Donald Manzullo (R)
Indiana Rep. Mike Pence (R)
Kansas Rep. Jim Ryun (R) Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R)
Maryland Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R)
Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra
Minnesota Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R)
Missouri Rep. Todd Akin (R)
North Carolina Rep. Sue Myrick (R)
Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot (R) Rep. John Boehner (R)
Tennessee Rep. John Duncan (R) Rep. Zach Wamp (R)
Texas Rep. John Culberson (R) Rep. Sam Johnson (R) Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R) Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R) Rep. Ron Paul (R)
Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor (R)
Washington Rep. Doc Hastings (R)
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan (R)

were any of these guys included in your tally for the libs? (I don't know how many of them survived, but I assume most ran again)

[lew]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

In less than 2 years, they completely regroups, changed up their entire tactics, and even a week before the election, many people were all over cable news saying "i think they don't have a real shot at the senate, but they'll probably barely win the house...18 seats" you had Karl Rove saying he had "THE math" which showed 14 seats at most going Dem, and what happened?
30 seat pickup in the house, we take the Senate against all odds in a total sweep

It's just an anomaly

Democrats didn't win this election.

Republicans lost it. There's a difference.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by lew

Democrats didn't win this election.

Republicans lost it. There's a difference.

I'd really like to know what slip-ups Mike DeWine, Rick Santorum, Jim Talent, or Lincoln Chafee made to lose their races?

What about
J.D. Hayworth
Rob Simmons
Nancy Johnson
Clay Shaw
Chris Chocola
Anne Northup
Gil Gutknecht
Charlie Bass
Jeb Bradley
Jim Leach
Mike Fitzpatrick

Just to name a few...what did they do that "lost them the election" more than their strong democratic candidates and machine won it?

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

I'd really like to know what slip-ups Mike DeWine, Rick Santorum, Jim Talent, or Lincoln Chafee made to lose their races?

What about
J.D. Hayworth
Rob Simmons
Nancy Johnson
Clay Shaw
Chris Chocola
Anne Northup
Gil Gutknecht
Charlie Bass
Jeb Bradley
Jim Leach
Mike Fitzpatrick

Just to name a few...what did they do that "lost them the election" more than their strong democratic candidates and machine won it?

I don't think that's what he means. It's their party that lost their election, not necessarily the individual.

[Thorgrim]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

I don't think that's what he means. It's their party that lost their election, not necessarily the individual.

Somehow I don't think 12-year senator Rick Santorum lost in a 20pt landslide because people were upset with Republicans

Or that conservative Kentucky was going to throw out a powerful 5-term incumbent with no scandals...just cuz they weren't hot on Republicans that year

Give credit where credit is due, the Democratic party took loans, put itself into heavy debt this election, and did the best operation I've seen in my entire lifetime

The conservatives at the Townhall:
3) And Kos is different?

Yes. Although he rips Democrats when he’s of a mind to do so, he also brings something else to the party. He brings volunteers and money and buzz. Although my modem might well explode as I type these words, Jon Tester would not be a senator starting in January if it weren’t for the Daily Kos. Same for Jim Webb. He never would have made it out of the primary.
Townhall.com::Blog::Blog

[lew]

Originally Posted by Thorgrim

Somehow I don't think 12-year senator Rick Santorum lost in a 20pt landslide because people were upset with Republicans

Or that conservative Kentucky was going to throw out a powerful 5-term incumbent with no scandals...just cuz they weren't hot on Republicans that year

Give credit where credit is due, the Democratic party took loans, put itself into heavy debt this election, and did the best operation I've seen in my entire lifetime

The conservatives at the Townhall:
3) And Kos is different?

Yes. Although he rips Democrats when he’s of a mind to do so, he also brings something else to the party. He brings volunteers and money and buzz. Although my modem might well explode as I type these words, Jon Tester would not be a senator starting in January if it weren’t for the Daily Kos. Same for Jim Webb. He never would have made it out of the primary.
Townhall.com::Blog::Blog

That's exactly why they lost.

Democrats do deserve credit. For example, Libertarians or other third party candidates didn't win. Democrats did. So, sure, they spent a lot of money (AND I MEAN A LOT), and got their names out.

But by far, this election was much about the Republicans losing than the Democrats winning. People have been sick and tired of Republicans for years. People voted more against Republicans than for Democrats.

[TheScatman]

and Thogrim how do you have any respect for DailyKos? I have seen people post on there that they would vote for Hilter if he was pro-choice over a pro-life candidate. The place basically sackrides every Democrat blindly (with Joe Liberman being one exception, but they would have ridden whoever won the primary).

And as for DailyKos' electoral success, Im pretty sure it was dismal up until this year, which leads me to believe it was other factors besides them.

[Ardentfrost]

I do hope dkos gets a lot of credit for all this. I'm ready for more internet political activist groups to start up to try to make a difference.