Coat-Tails

November 5, 2008
10:10 AM CST

Good grief. I see that our own Congressman, Republican Sam Johnson (blessings be upon his name) was re-elected last night in a squeaker: 60% to 39%.

Just so we’re clear why I call this a “squeaker”: in 2006, when Congress moved into Democrat control, Sam was re-elected with 84% of the vote.

So it appears that The One’s election landslide carried quite a few Democrats along with it.

Oh, and while I’m still in a pissy mood…

To all the (large-l) Libertarians out there: fuck you.

Your no-hoper candidates like Bob Barr garnered 0.69% of the total vote, which makes you about as relevant to this process as a teaspoon during a hurricane. Your self-centered ideology sucks, and all the high-minded cant to the contrary, it’s unsurprising that the average person finds your silly Spoonerist/Randian nonsense about as interesting as a blocked sewer. Your main contribution to Election 2008 was that the candidacy of Dean Barkley (nominally “Independent”, but really a Jesse Ventura-style libertarian) may result in Al Franken (!!!!) becoming the junior U.S. Senator for Minnesota. (The final result may not be known until December, with all the recounts.)

So go back to your little usenet debate clubs and Internet websites, fret endlessly about the “tragedy of the commons” versus the “primacy of the individual”, and all the other angels-on-a-pinhead minutiae that fascinate you all so much.

Just leave us alone in future. We grownups have bigger issues to deal with.

Comments

Bottom of Comments | Original Post

To all the (large-l) Libertarians out there: fuck you.

+1 to that and to the next three paragraphs.

Author ID: 9305 | 11/5/2008 11:14 AM CST | #136932


And while we’re spreading around the Fuck-you’s, here’s a tidbit from Ed Morrissey:

“John McCain and the GOP didn’t get their turnout in this race.  They lost almost seven million voters from 2004, a rather stunning number. “

So, to all the Republicans and conservatives (many of whom have commented here) who sat this one out to “teach ‘em a lesson” - Fuck you. You effectively voted for Obama.

Kim, I’m a libertarian, and a pragmatist. I voted Libertarian in 2000 when it didn’t matter. I voted Bush in ‘04 because after 9/11, it mattered. And I damn well hiked my ass to the polls and voted McCain yesterday, even though I don’t like him and even though my state would go Obama in a landslide. So to all the Repub/conservatives who sat out in competitive states, please enjoy an extra-large helping of that Fuck-you. And don’t you dare complain for the next four years. You haven’t earned it.

Author ID: 1256 | 11/5/2008 11:17 AM CST | #136933


The news wasn’t all bad here in NJ either, our own Scott Garrett (a congressman from NJ with an A rating from the NRA) was also re-elected with a 15% lead.

Author ID: 5213 | 11/5/2008 11:20 AM CST | #136934


Yes, that’s the rant I was waiting for.  I live vicariously through your postings.

Bravo, sir.

Author ID: 8912 | 11/5/2008 11:20 AM CST | #136935


A-bloody-men, Kim.

I’m no fan of John McCain.  But I voted for him, donated money to the campaign.

Because I understand that the place for the intra-party debate is in the primaries.  When it comes to the general election, you may not have a choice between Good and Bad, but you ALWAYS have a choice between Bad and Much Worse.

Author ID: 200 | 11/5/2008 11:28 AM CST | #136938


Add Saxby Chambliss ( Senator, GA ) to the list of potential victims.  The libertarian in the race got 3.9% and Sen. Chambliss is about 10,000 votes short of a majority.

Author ID: 11791 | 11/5/2008 11:30 AM CST | #136939


Hear Hear.

I need to buy you a beer sometime for that one Kim.

Author ID: 9155 | 11/5/2008 11:33 AM CST | #136942


I voted Libertarian in 2000, at the tender age of 21. Never again.

Author ID: 11756 | 11/5/2008 11:38 AM CST | #136943


To all the (large-l) Libertarians out there: fuck you.

+1 to that and to the next three paragraphs.

and a big F***ing double-plus ungood to the Republicans who sat this one out (didn’t you learn after 2006?)
If this isn’t too much information here, I must confess that I have heard the siren call of libertarianism and voted thusly in two presidential elections, ceasing my childish infatuation in time to put the right man in charge on 9/11.
Libertarians have a limited world view with two major flaws that carry the principle of limited government too far.
1 is the mechanical way they analyze the political situation. It might as well be a computer simulation.
2 is the way they think the whole world is like the US. In this respect they are similar to the leftists who think every other government is formed like ours, and enjoys the consent of the governed. Exactly like leftists, they believe that governments are always what the people want, or else they would overthrow it. This infuses what is mis-termed their foreign policy.

Libertarians are no less ivory-tower egg heads than the worst of leftist professors. While libertarians have some interesting theories, some supported by evidence, real world realities and responsibilities have a way of skewing the results from what their simple and simplistic analysis would produce.

I guess you could say that he who is not libertarian in his youth has no sense of self and he who is not conservative after 30 has no sense of responsibility.

Author ID: 2303 | 11/5/2008 12:19 PM CST | #136952


I saw a cartoon once, in which “Libertarian Man” saw all the evil in the world but forbore helping anyone because “he had an important mission to accomplish—translating ‘Atlas Shrugged” into Klingon”.
That epitomises their usefulness to the real world.

Author ID: 2303 | 11/5/2008 12:29 PM CST | #136957


I see a lot of posts here blaming the MSM. In my view the Dems won by use of the internet. We have fallen hoplessly behind in this arena.
Over the past 90 days, leftist sites like Huffington, Kos and Talking Points Memo received more hits than Drudge. Urkel’s entire fund-raising and volunteer hurricane was also entirely web based.

Author ID: 11750 | 11/5/2008 12:30 PM CST | #136958


Me, too.
Libertarians have some important issues, but you’ll rarely find a viable turd party candidate, especially for president.  The Electoral College rarely has any votes for turd parties and all but guarantees a two party system.  Assholes who voted L or stayed home branded themselves as bitter, selfish bastards who hate McCain more than they love their country.  That’s it, pure and simple.  For some reason they brag about their turd vote, but never admit the real reason:  They cannot put country ahead of self.

Author ID: 11563 | 11/5/2008 12:56 PM CST | #136967


The problem that *I* have with the stupid party is that they’re just that:  Stupid.

They run on the mantra of “less .gov”, but I have yet to see it. 

They run on less taxes, and while the tax cuts offered were a good thing, the entire system is so convoluted, that I see it as effectively broken. 

Those are the two biggest things that make the stupid party stupid to me.  Among a myriad of other issues.  Run on fixing the two issues above, and I’d bet a lot of Libertarians would happily vote for the stupid party. 

One of the few upsides to the most recent result:  It should make for at least a few months of entertaining talk radio.  At least until someone tries to enact the “fairness doctrine” again.

Author ID: 10964 | 11/5/2008 01:33 PM CST | #136971


I don’t think many people sat this one out Kim. I had heard about record turnouts, but I was going to wait on checking the numbers until all the votes were in.

The Republicans earned this loss. If the results of this election doesn’t grab them by the shoulders and violently shake them, nothing will.

Hopefully they won’t choose to “Become even more like Democrats!” this time.

Author ID: 7654 | 11/5/2008 01:50 PM CST | #136975


I was flying a “Fuck it! McCain ‘08” bumper sticker the last few months on the car.

You gotta play ball when it matters.

Author ID: 7438 | 11/5/2008 02:04 PM CST | #136977


Fairness Doctrine: 1/21/09?

Author ID: 22 | 11/5/2008 02:14 PM CST | #136979


[deleted for assholery]

Author ID: 11792 | 11/5/2008 02:16 PM CST | #136980


If they’re irrelevant, why the vitriol?

From a Libertarian who voted Republican from McCain on down (including Gordon Smith, which was a real pain given his stabs in the back, but we need a Senate filibuster), from a conservative who arrived at conservatism from libertarian principles, I think you’re typecasting libertarianism as a whole from a particular type of libertarian.

George Will, among others, has pointed out that the nature of a republican, non-parliamentary democracy like ours is to make coalition building happen in the primaries, rather than during or after the general election.  Which is good to a point; it tends to keep single issue candidates out of the center of power.  It also means that third parties, whatever their merits or lack thereof, will not break into the mainstream without a realignment, or even a crackup, of the major parties.  Therefore, I neither hold the Libertarian Party’s lack of success against it nor am too surprised that it collects die-hards over pragmatists.

But it doesn’t change the fact that I am a conservative and vote Republican because I am a libertarian.

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

-Ronald Reagan

Who, to be fair, was talking to Reason magazine, and goes on to qualify that with a statement of legitimate functions of government.  Nevertheless, that last sentence quoted is the most important tie I have to Republican candidates or the conservative movement.

In any case, except for following this thread, I’ll take you at your word.

Author ID: 9368 | 11/5/2008 02:21 PM CST | #136981


To all the (large-l) Libertarians out there: fuck you.

Yeah well fuck you back. If .69% voted Libertarian then obviously they didn’t take shit from McCain. I played your God Damned game and voted they cynical ‘better a hated Fascist then a loved Communist’ and look where that got us. You conservatives ass monkeys want to keep voting increasingly left leaning politicians in because your afraid of change go right ahead. Keep living that pipe dream that they are going to not beat you like the pussy wiped bitch you are. Keep going back to you man. I am sure he means it THIS time when he promises to not give you a black eye ...

I played ball when it mattered because you wimps couldn’t control your fucking party and forced people like me to vote for State loving Fuhrer. You wana bitch and moan about something fucking yell at your own god damn party cuz yelling at the .69% who have the balls to vote their conciseness are not the fucking problem. You are. You and all your enablers.

Author ID: 10842 | 11/5/2008 02:23 PM CST | #136983


What makes anyone assume that a member of the Libertarian party, if not voting Libertarian, would vote for a Republican like McCain? 

It’s a pretty bold assumption that someone would be in your camp if he isn’t in his own. 

And for the record, I’d have voted for Ron Paul in a heartbeat.  Hell, I’d have voted for Fred Thompson in a heartbeat, too.  But McCain required a hell of a lot of thought and bullet biting for me.  This has been the most agonizing election that I can remember, quite frankly, because he was such a poor choice. 

And even assuming they would vote Republican, why are you pissed about .69%?

Author ID: 7719 | 11/5/2008 02:24 PM CST | #136984


“The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”

Yes, but that’s only the intercept of the two circles in the Republican/Libertarian Venn diagram.

The contents of the remainder of the circles are poles apart.

0 Author ID: 1 | 11/5/2008 02:26 PM CST | #136985


[this comment no longer needed]

Author ID: 10964 | 11/5/2008 02:28 PM CST | #136986


“And even assuming they would vote Republican, why are you pissed about .69%?”

Yeah, that’s the part I don’t get. It’s not the .69% of Libertarians who voted that hurt, it was the millions of Republicans/conservatives who didn’t.

Author ID: 1256 | 11/5/2008 02:34 PM CST | #136987


The .69 didn’t make a difference in the presidential election.  The people who voted third party in MN may have handed Al Franken *his* election.  That paragraph could’ve been a little clearer.

Author ID: 6518 | 11/5/2008 02:41 PM CST | #136988


And even assuming they would vote Republican, why are you pissed about .69%?

He did preface it with, “while I’m still in a pissy mood.”

It’s the .69% who won’t vote realistically.

And the conservatives who stayed home to “teach them a lesson.”

And the windsocks who wanted to be on a team the MSM told them was winning.

And the racist persons-of-color who overwhelmingly voted based on race only.

And the mutton-headed, bleeding-heart, hand-wringing nancies who said, “It’s a black man’s tuuuurn.”

And the people who want more handouts.

And the starry-eyed children over 21 who long for formless “hope” and “change” as if any change were better.

Barack Obama is an American Idol who inspired the people who watch reality TV to wander out during a commercial and vote.

And it’s going to screw the rest of us.

Author ID: 9305 | 11/5/2008 02:43 PM CST | #136989


The reason the .69% irritates me is that the Libertarians demand far more attention than what they bring to the process. They are an irritant, and… come to think of it, I’m spending too much time on this nonsense as it is.

Comments on this thread are now closed.

0 Author ID: 1 | 11/5/2008 02:45 PM CST | #136991