Tag: Libertarian

Why Democrats should vote Libertarian

Dear Democrats,

Let’s talk about who you are voting for.  I’m not going to try to convince you to vote Republican.  Lower taxes, economic freedom, equal opportunity, national security and all that isn’t for everyone, and I get that.  Seriously though, we have many of the same goals.  Lowering healthcare costs without destroying our healthcare system, helping people rise up out of poverty, keeping the country safe, keeping our neighborhoods safe, an end to racism, proper management of government with cuts to wasteful spending, these are all goals of both Democrats and Republicans.  We just have different ways of getting there.

But the Democrat party isn’t run by moderate Democrats anymore.  You have not one, but four Democrat Senate candidates who have been caught on hidden camera telling people they are far more radical than they can publicly admit.  They said on these hidden videos that they are hiding their agenda to try to get moderate votes.  We have Beto O’Rourke in Texas who wants to import cheap labor illegally so that America’s poor don’t have to work.  Instead, he wants to give them universal guaranteed income.  It would basically turn our country into a slave/welfare state.

Andrew Gillum was on staff with a radical activist group YP4 that wanted to defund police and end prisons.  You may agree with portions of their manifesto, but I’d imagine you’d be a little uncomfortable with their stances on ending capitalism, opening borders, and their dedication to liberation theology which is an ideology of racial supremacy.  You might have liked Obama, but you probably wouldn’t sit and listen to a sermon by Jeremiah Wright.

And then there’s Ocasio-Cortez.  The question Democrats have to ask themselves is if they really support unfunded economic programs like universal income and universal healthcare if they are going to cost $3.2 trillion a year and require massive tax hikes on the poor just to be sustainable.

You’re still a liberal, but you’re not quite as radical as your party has become.  You also don’t like the rhetoric.  You hate Trump, you hate what he says, you aren’t particularly fond of his followers.  But you don’t think we should attack his supporters.  You don’t agree with Maxine Waters that you should show up at restaurants and chase people like Mitch McConnell and his wife out.  You aren’t into the radical hatred stuff so much, you really just don’t like Trump.  You don’t even really hate your friend who voted for Trump.  So some of the leftist rhetoric, like Hollywood actors calling for a bloody revolution if Democrats lose the election isn’t your cup of tea.  You really just want to return to that mythical time when the two parties acted with civility.

Here is why the Libertarian party is for you:

  1. They support legalization of recreational marijuana.  Like you, they don’t think the government should decide what you put in your body.
  2. They support prison reform.  Not “cops are white supremacists we need to shut down all prisons and let the inmates go wild” radical Democrat prison reform.  But real prison reform where people aren’t locked up for victimless crimes.
  3. They, like you, are most often pro-choice.  They aren’t going around talking about how they are so happy they had abortions and telling people to get their abortions while they still can.  They aren’t dressing up in vagina suits and throwing menstrual blood at cops because a 13 year old might have to tell the authorities when someone illegally gets her pregnant.  But they do consider abortion to be a private choice between a woman and her doctor.  I disagree, but hey I’m not a Democrat.
  4. They hate government corruption.  You hate government corruption.  And many of the candidates in your party are corrupt.  Senator Bob Menendez went to the Dominican Republic on a lobbyist’s dime to rape underage prostitutes.  Andrew Gillum accepted bribes from undercover FBI agents.  Libertarians haven’t been to DC yet, so they are still pure and innocent.  They can’t even get a lobbyist to buy them a cup of coffee.
  5. They are fiscally responsible.  Now you might not agree with their reductions in social programs, etc.  But take heart, chances are none of them will actually win, much less get enough power to actually do something like reform Social Security with higher performing private accounts.  So you can rest easy that the government will still hold that leash.  But you can personally vote with a clean conscience.

So if you want to vote against Republicans, but you’re no longer comfortable with the crazy that your party has become, consider voting for Libertarians.  Check out their platform.  I think you’ll see a lot of things you agree with, and not too many you don’t.  Their 2nd amendment views will make you antsy.  But more antsy than the idea that the government should ban most hunting and sport rifles, and then confiscate them?  Because that’s where the DNC is today.

Sincerely,

Your friends at Political Brief

Need to Know 8/7/18

Yesterday we wrote about a California politician saying the state needs to regulate every aspect of our lives.  Today it’s Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy applauding the removal of Alex Jones from the internet.  I’m not an Alex Jones fan, I think half the stuff he puts out is fake news and the other half is sensationalized news.  He’s on par with CNN.  But Murphy went on to say something scary.  Murphy tweeted that the censorship of internet sites by the major corporations like Facebook and Youtube is what our democracy depends on.

I’m going to disagree with Murphy and suggest that freedom of speech, political expression, and freedom of association are what our democracy depends on.  Our founders seemed to agree when they wrote the bill of rights.  Companies can do whatever they want with their own internet platforms.  But it’s scary to see a US Senator cheer on big corporate censorship of political views.

Democrat Senator suggests internet censorship will save our democracy

It’s always fun to go back and read the climate change predictions from the past and see how they have failed to materialize.  On the first Earth Day, everyone figured climate change would wipe out the planet by 2000.  Obviously that didn’t happen, but the predictions went on.  Climate change predictions have become a great way for one side to use fear mongering to pass their agenda.  Republicans have been wrongly accused of wanting dirty air and dirty water.  Here’s a link to an article highlighting some of the failed predictions since 2000.

2018 and the planet is still here

We are back to not accepting a nuclear Iran.  After canceling the Iranian nuke deal made by Obama, without congressional approval, Trump gave Iran months to come to the table and renegotiate.  After Iran’s refusal, Trump is now reinstating the Obama era sanctions in two stages.  the first stage went into effect yesterday, the second is coming in November.  Trump has also issued an ultimatum to our trading partners that the US will not deal with countries who deal with Iran.  The pressure is back on for Iran to abandon their nuclear ambitions, although they now have billions more to work with thanks to Obama’s attempt at a legacy.

Trump reinstates Iranian sanctions over Iran’s refusal to negotiate new nuke deal

Several states go to the polls today for the midterm primaries.  Media outlets like CNN have chosen a special election in Ohio to focus on as their indication of how the blue wave is doing.  The special election is for a state senate seat and will be re-decided in November, so frankly we don’t care.  I’m looking more closely at the Missouri primary.  This will be an indication of any strides made by the Libertarian party in influencing the future of conservative politics.  Libertarian-turned-Republican Austin Petersen chose to run within the Republican primary rather than as a third party candidate.  A long shot win by the champion of liberty could set the tone for future incursions into the GOP by Libertarian hopefuls.  The Freedom Caucus has shown it can be done, and many Libertarians have grown wary of their own party that nominated perpetually high Gary Johnson and old school RINO Bill Weld in the 2016 Presidential race.

Libertarian candidate hopes for upset in GOP primary

How Trump won and Clinton lost

The question has been asked and answered several times.  In an attempt at self-diagnosis, the media has theorized about why the perfect, most qualified candidate in history lost to a racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic deplorable.  They are still missing the correct answers.  Here are five facts and perceptions the media continues to overlook.

The Black Vote

One of the biggest aspects of Hillary Clinton’s loss that the media is only now recognizing is the million or so African Americans who stayed home.  Barack Obama won 93% of the black vote in 2012, Hillary received 88%.  That was the lowest percent in this demographic since the last white Democrat to run and lose in 2004.  An inconvenient truth for the DNC is that after losing two elections in a row against Bush, about 1 million new African American voters came out to vote for the first African American candidate. Then they disappeared. It was the largest demographic shift from 2012 to 2016. Nothing significant has changed in the DNC platform in 20 years.  Obama successfully played the race card, Clinton had no such luck with the gender card.

A Flawed Candidate

Part of the reason the gender card did not work is that Hillary Clinton was not what many women wanted to be representative of the historical first female President.  Clinton was flawed from the start.  Anyone looking at the email scandal could see that she had violated the law.  Democrats could justify voting for Clinton because the FBI refused to recommend an indictment, but even then Comey’s statement was basically that Clinton was too incompetent to be a criminal or hold a government job.

Clinton was the chosen one.  But unlike Obama, she knew it and ran on it.  Obama at least bothered to have a message.  Even during the debates, Hillary seemed to be scared to stray from memorized platitudes and applause lines.  It didn’t help when she experienced public health issues or lashed out at critics.  Throughout the whole thing she acted as though she was entitled to the Presidency and offended if anyone didn’t agree.

Of course, most people who would be discouraged to vote for her because of her criminality or entitlement were already #neverhillary.  Cheating in the primary, controlling the media, and all of the filth that came out of the Podesta emails swayed independents more than the blind DNC is willing to admit.  Even when Sanders came out and endorsed Clinton, it was not enough to change the fact that she had canceled the revolution.  More people stayed home in 2016 than voted.  The crowds that belonged to Bernie Sanders did not follow Hillary Clinton.

Third Parties Failed

The Clinton campaign has lashed out at third party voters since the end of the campaign. But Gary Johnson voters did not have a significant effect on the election.  If you think Gary Johnson’s 3% was anything significant, I would remind you that third party votes have been 2-3% since the last Clinton era when third parties took 10% in ’96 and almost 20% in ’92.  2016 should have been the best opportunity for a third party to make an impact because nobody liked the two main choices.  Consistently in polls, Gary Johnson pulled from both parties.

Gary Johnson was a flawed candidate.  A liberal Republican pretending to be a Libertarian, Johnson was joined by liberal Republican Bill Weld who spent more time praising and defending Clinton than advancing Johnson.

Gary Johnson himself was a clown who demonstrated often that he had no foreign policy intelligence and was probably high during the entire campaign.  Libertarians selected Johnson and pressed forward with no intention of winning, but hoping and praying that someone would realize they existed.  2020 may change their fortunes, but 2016 can objectively be seen as nothing other than a massive failure.  They gave it a Ralph Nader effort and walked away with the same result.

Not All Republicans Are Alt-Right

When Hillary Clinton labeled a large portion of Republicans as “deplorables”, I called that her “47%” moment.  Democrats made a huge miscalculation when they tried to substitute substance with sectarian attacks.  The problem is most Republicans do not believe that they are racist, sexist, bigoted, and many do not even consider themselves homophobic. That is probably because they aren’t.  Sure, some are.  The KKK, who Trump denounced 14 times, are all those things.  But the vast majority of Republicans view the KKK through the historical lens of their past involvement with the Democrat party.  The vast majority of Republicans feel no connection to the KKK and are offended when they are lumped together.

The vast majority of Republicans are also smarter than the media thought.  When Trump said Mexico was sending rapists and murderers, Republicans understood that he was talking about illegal immigrants and simply making the point that scientists, doctors and engineers are not crossing our border illegally.  Republicans also read through his poor communication skills to understand that he was talking about illegal immigrants and not Mexicans in general.  When celebrities called Trump Hitler, many Republicans rolled their eyes remembering they said the same thing about Romney, Bush, and others.  Trump was the beneficiary of generation so over inundated by superlatives and hyperbole that it has lost any affect.

When Democrats even today toss out insane metaphors and analogies, most recently how Trump’s cabinet selection has been Stalin-esque, sane people roll their eyes.  That is a big part of why Trump won.

The “Alt-Left” and Right Anger

What do you call it when someone refuses services to a particular group based on their beliefs?  What do you call it when one group that hates another group takes to the streets and destroys private property whenever they don’t get their way?  What do you call it when it is OK for one group to discriminate, but not the other?  These are the perceptions that drove the angry vote.  When celebrities, professors, and Wall Street try to marginalize conservatives or label them as dangerous, that drives conservatives to the polls.

The anger vote has been a narrative in the media since Trump won the primary.  The anger vote was significant, but the causes have been misdiagnosed.  The media narrative seemed to equate the anger vote with white supremacists and fringe members of the Right.  Even now, leftists like Jon Stewart and Michael Moore are correcting the Left’s perception on what drove rightwing anger.  It wasn’t simply a case of a bunch of racists not wanting a black or female President.  It had very little to do with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage.  It had far more to do with reaction to destructive policies hurting our country and the “Alt-Left”, AKA SJWs.

Republicans voted for Trump mainly because of failed policies.  Obamacare drove insurance rates through the roof.  After 8 years of reported national recovery, people were still waiting for their own recovery.  Hillary Clinton listed two litmus tests for Supreme Court justices. They amounted to invalidating the 2nd amendment and legalizing all forms of abortion at all stages of a pregnancy.  We lost ground in every foreign engagement we involved ourselves in, including making ridiculous deals and ransom payments to Iran, consistently being embarrassed by Russia and China, losing in Iraq and Afghanistan, and rushing head first into messy entanglements in Syria, Libya, Egypt, and wherever else we could arm terrorists.

Perhaps the most Republican anger came at SJWs (Social Justice Warriors).  Again, these are just observations of the sentiments that were expressed by the Right.  The feeling was that professors created safe spaces to protect primarily liberal students from primarily conservatives students.  Conservative views were oppressed in Universities in demonstrable ways.  Anyone who disagreed with Obama or Clinton were too quickly labeled racist.  Eventually, the term “Alt-Right” was coined and used as a catch all to quickly dismiss anyone who was angry at the Left.

For every 100 sincere Black Lives Matters protesters attempting to bring light to police brutality, there were another 100 paid by George Soros to smash windows and set cars on fire.  In fact, many BLM protesters turned out to be Occupy Wall Street protesters recycled.

It seemed as though the entire race war was scripted.  While black protesters hugged police officers in the streets and people sought healing, bussed in groups of community organizers chanted “Pigs in a blanket, fry ’em like bacon” and called for violence against police.  The angry Republicans were the ones sitting in their cars stopped on the highway by Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter protesters.  Angry voters were driven by what should have been a charge of indifference, but was instead over-inflated into a charge of all historical racial and financial injustice.

Occupy Wall Street, the original Soros funded mob, was no better.  Americans across the country who still believe in the American Dream were being accused of hoarding and oppressing these liberal tent dwellers. Yet the movement collapsed in on itself and the DNC put forward a candidate who made $500,000 an hour giving speeches to Wall Street. It is no wonder American workers voted for Trump.

The Result

In the end, the election came down to two candidates who were so scary that neither side could afford to back down.  Trump didn’t win because half the country is racist.  He won because half the country was scared of Hillary Clinton, scared of her policies, and scared of how the SJWs already viewed them.  Desiring everything Hillary Clinton did not represent, and regardless of what Trump did represent, half the country voted #neverhillary and for the only viable alternative they had.  Trump wasn’t a great communicator.  He didn’t have to be.  All he had to say was “I’m going to make America great again, and I’m not Hillary Clinton”.