Politics
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Perfectly put
Don put it very well in his open letter to Lou Dobbs. Why he’s taken more seriously than Bill O’Reilly or Cynthia McKinney I’ll never know.
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More on the Libertarian Party
A very well written post on the LP over at the Volokh Conspiracy, to wit:
Some LP defenders argue that even if the Party doesn’t have any chance of winning, it can at least help educate the public about libertarian ideas. However, there is little if any evidence that the LP has actually had any success in this task over its 35 year history. Those libertarians who have succeeded in spreading libertarian ideas – people like Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, and the Cato Institute – have done so without any LP affiliations, and indeed have tried hard to work with the two major parties. Whether fairly or not, the mainstream media and academic world are not going to pay much attention to ideas emanating from a tiny third party that has no chance of winning any elections; therefore, the LP’s educative potential is unlikely to be much greater than its electoral potential.
If we had a proportional representation electoral system, like many European countries and Israel, a separate libertarian party would make excellent strategic sense. The party (if better run than the dysfunctional LP) could command 10-15% of the vote, thereby winning roughly that percentage of legislative seats, and would be a potential part of a ruling political coalition. A libertarian party might also make sense if one of the major political parties were on the brink of collapses and the libertarian party stood a chance of taking its place (as the Republican Party displaced the Whig Party in the 1850s). However, in the real world, the US is unlikely to move toward proportional representation and neither major political party is likely to collapse anytime soon. Therefore, the cause of libertarianism will be better off without a separate Libertarian Party.
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Thoughts
As it seems Allen is going to concede (in an unexpectedly classy move for him) it would seem that I was wrong on both counts in my predictions.
Quote of the moment, via Instapundit:
The Republicans lost and the Democrats won for the same reason — they distanced themselves from their base.
I think we’ll like divided government. And the anti-Kelo measure passed, which is an unalloyed boon to America.
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Just got back from voting
It wasn’t crowded at all. One thing that surprised me was the Kelo inspired eminent domain constitutional amendment, I hadn’t heard anything about that.
The statue above was outside the polling place.
Cynical quotes about democracy
Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.
H.L. MenckenBetter a third-rate fireman than a first rate arsonist.
Thomas SowellAh, elections, our biannual parade of tired whores.
Steve French -
My predictions – with no confidence
I’m honestly not sure of the outcome. Were I betting, I would say the consensus opinion is wrong, and the Republicans hold on to both houses by a tiny margin. If I remember correctly, the polls usually underestimate the effects of the Republican ground game. Also, widely held opinions on the future are usually wrong, most lately the 2006 hurricane season. The chattering classes have seen a gathering destiny over the Democratic party that I don’t think is there.
On another note, I am still quite please by the direction of the Dems this time around. Still very wrong with all the economic populism of course, but the baby boomer narcissism seems to be on it’s way out.
Speaking of that, John Kerry’s bit last week was (even if taken at face value) NOT insulting to the troops, it was condescending, which is why it had resonance as a criticism of him in particular and the Dems in general.
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Giving credit where credit is due
After the 2004 election I was quite vocal about wanting a viable second party. I will say the Democrats have come quite a long way since then. If you take the new blood on the scene in Jim Webb and Harold Ford you will find very little of the baby-boomer narcissism and navel gazing that affected most of the 2004 candidates.
There is starting to be a concensus plan on Iraq among Democrats as well, in the form of partition. I think that is the option we will take (along with looking the other way on ethnic cleansing) once all the others are exhausted, which should be in around 10 months or so.
All that being said, none of them are any closer to me ideologically (except for the partition, which I do like) than the Republicans but new blood will probably not be as talented at corruption as the current folks.
Not that I think the dems will take the House or Senate, but I do think they will take some seats.
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This took a while….
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Very well put
It’s not as if the opposition party has nothing to work with here. One might note the fiasco in Iraq, for example. Or OBL’s still-at-large status. Our bizarre herky-jerky stumbling into wider regional conflicts that will further take the focus off of al-Qaeda and others directly trying to kill Americans. This isn’t brain surgery.
On the other hand, it’s not so easy that voters are going to believe it if Democrats don’t even try to make the case. What’s more, ducking security fights looks weak. It looks weak because it is weak. It demonstrates a lack of confidence in the party’s own ideas and people. It re-enforces everything the GOP is trying to say. Democrats need to knock this off and engage with what’s pretty clearly the central issue of our time.
I think this is a good example of the Dems being more centralized (having a smaller collective brain if you will) than the Reps. Rather than picking on any of the weak points in the Republican platform, they charge groin first into the capable fists of the Republican party.
I’ve said this before, the Democrats have situated themselves so that they don’t have to win elections to make money.
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Quick rapid fire
- A company that makes secret passageways
- Electoral-Vote.com is back!
- Slate has an interesting article on survival in emergencies
- This is a very cool OSX simulator
- The American Scene is quite interesting sometimes
- Ultramarathoners
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Cynthia sings!