3 Reasons 2014 Might Be the Most Libertarian Year Ever!
In many ways 2013 was a terrible year for libertarians and limited government.
Obamacare started signing people up, Democrats and Republicans rolled back sequestration, and we found out that the NSA was cataloguing every phone call, Tweet, and Snap Chat message ever sent.
But here are three reasons why 2014 might well be the most libertarian year ever!
1. Obamacare Agonistes
Last fall's rollout of Obamacare – complete with non-functioning website and irrefutable evidence that the president lied about your ability to keep your plan if you liked it – has helped wake people up to the inefficiency and dissembling nature of government. That will only get worse as the program actually starts providing healthcare.
2. F@$# the Government
Between Obamacare, ongoing and continuing NSA revelations, and so much more, mistrust of government is near record levels. And a record-high percentage – 72 percent! - agrees that government represents "the biggest threat to the country in the future."
3. Midterms Bloody Midterms
Congressional approval ratings are at or near historic lows, with some polls showing approvals ratings as low as 7 percent! Barack Obama's ratings are better but still terrible for any second-term president not named Nixon. Incumbents will be under attack in the midterms.
Successful candidates in both major parties have no choice but to rally around popular libertarian themes such as reducing government spending and power, drug legalization, marriage equality, and a restrained foreign policy.
Of course, if things don't pan out for libertarians, at least we can go to Colorado and Washington state and chill out in a way that is finally legal after decades of misguided prohibition.
About 2 minutes long. Written by Nick Gillespie and produced by Meredith Bragg.
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And here is one reason why the Libertarian Party may go the way of the whigs and know-nothings.
Check into the Facebook debate group "Libertarian Party USA". There you will find openly expressed feelings that anybody who doesn't agree with the person posting in that group should go elsewhere. That "principle", as defined by them, is more important than winning elections.
Really?
Yes, REALLY. If you care only about winning elections, there are two really big parties you can join and be assured of winning 99.999% of all political contests in the country (between the two of them).
Some things are non-negotiable.
Yep, I've run into the same thing on Freesteader.
It's pretty much the anarachists who are the problem. Sorry anarachists, I still love you, but you're about as pie-in-the sky as the Marxists. It really does a disservice to libertarianism if we allow them to control the debate.
*Gets ready to duck*
And here is one reason why the Libertarian Party may go the way of the whigs and know-nothings.
Check into the Facebook debate group "Libertarian Party USA". There you will find openly expressed feelings that anybody who doesn't agree with the person posting in that group should go elsewhere. That "principle", as defined by them, is more important than winning elections.
Really?
I rephrased the platform of the party from http://www.lp.org and saw it roundly rejected.
As Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and they is us".
Anyone who believes Facebook is a proper venue for reasoned and principled political debate deserves what they get.
In fairness, it is not exactly news that the Libertarian party is generally made up of yahoos looking to win meaningless arguments over who is the real true Scotsman.
Wow, that us the kindest description of what looks like a clown show in an insane asylum (LP national convention) I have ever heard.
INSANE CLOWN POSSE HAVE A POLITICAL PARTY! WHERE DO I SIGN UP?
/fucking reading comprehension: how does it work?
I hope it's not the most libertarian year ever. Also, I thought we were still celebrating gayest year ever.
Every year is the gayest year ever. It will always just keep coming up gay.
I don't know. You have a generation of 20 something suburbanite kids who in high school embraced everything gay as cool (particularly the girls who were all bi for at least a week) in a similar way white suburbanite teens a generation before embraced black "gang" culture (without quite the emulation). Be interesting to see what's next.
I think gay will get significantly less cool in the future, mostly because people will just get tired of hearing about it. Bitchy queens have a short shelf life.
Yeah, people will get bored with it I'm sure.
"They killed my son in cold blood. We called for help, and they killed my son."
Neither David nor the state Bureau of Investigation returned messages seeking comment Tuesday.
They are not coming out with the usual "procedures were followed" line of BS. I think perhaps that this is such a blatant case of murder that even the cops are hard pressed to explain it a way.
LWOP at least for that cop.
LWOP? How does paid administrative leave followed by a commendation translate into the acronym LWOP? Im confused.
Most Libertarian year EVAR! We will hit 2% in the elections!
Such the pathological optimist.
I think I've been hearing this one since about December 11, 1971. Anything new this time?
"...has helped wake people up to the inefficiency and dissembling nature of government. That will only get worse as the program actually starts providing healthcare."
No, as it 'actually starts providing healthcare' it will be showing people that government can provide for them something they did not have before. We get your predictions that this will be a disaster, but the only way it proves itself to be that is if it does NOT provide healthcare.
FTFY.
Well he did not say that. But that will in fact get sorted out one way or the other over the next 6 months or so. If 2M people have purchased healthcare through the program already, and more follow, it may just in fact provide affordable healthcare.
"Well he did not say that."
That's just complete bullshit. Obama certainly did claim it would be affordable. The name of the damn bill is the "Affordable Care Act". Furthermore Obama made this claim:
"I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year.""
http://www.politifact.com/trut.....-premium-/
Whoa, there jj. I was speaking of Nick. What he said was "That will only get worse as the program actually starts providing healthcare."
He made no use of the qualifier "affordable" like Brian suggested.
That's EXACTLY what he said.
Fuck is wrong with people?
There was NO nuance in his 'you can keep your plan' and this assertion. He used deliberate language to make his claim. NOTHING was left to spin.
Yet.
There they are.
Spinning like the asshole liars they are.
Maybe. If enough of them aren't old and sick. That is young, healthy people subsidizing the old and sick and loving it!
Exactly right, Brian. And that all remains to be sorted out. We will see over the next 6 months to one year. Like Mark Twain once said, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Same, at least to this point, for the ACA.
But we can safely say this, roughly 2M Americans have said the ACA presents affordable health care. How do I know this? They have afforded it.
Jackand Ace:
But, many of these people already had policies that were cancelled. This implies that they could afford it before. If they are not purchasing insurance, then this implies that Obamacare made their affordable insurance unaffordable. Where's your account of that?
Also, if some of the people with cancelled plans signed up for Obamacare at a more expensive rate, then both plans satisfied your bare minimum requirement for affordability, but Obamacare is less affordable than their previous plan. Where's your account of that?
Every policy has winners and losers. You can always just look at the winners and say "See? Working!"
Don't misunderstand me...I have no idea if it is working or not, and as I said before, it will all come out in the wash during the course of this year. We will see if many Americans deem it to be affordable. The death knells, or success knells, are all a bit premature to me.
The Government is not providing healthcare... Doctors do. What the government is providing is force.
Forcing people to buy something "they" deem is better than what they had.
Forcing doctors to take what "they" think healthcare is worth.
None of this will reduce costs or improve quality.
You may turn out to be right. We will see if it reduces costs or improves quality.
But you should know that for roughly 40M Americans, it is not "better than what they had." Because they previously had nothing...other than emergency rooms, which you and I paid for.
True, many people did not have health insurance. Some by choice, others because they could not afford it.
So is Obamacare the BEST way to solve that? I don't think so. I think other options were suggested but dismissed because the party in power want it THIER way... which includes more controle and bigger government.
It may not have been the best way. But it was a way. The number of uninsured Americans only increased each and every year, with no change to the dynamic in sight. Each side is circling the wagons. We all will have a better idea in 6 months or so.
I click on "marriage equality" and get this.
Reason, if you insist on using the politically correct term for gay marriage (or do a majority of Americans now support polygamy as well?), at least linkify that shit correctly!
These are things Reason and Nick struggle with...individual freedoms that alienate a portion of their audience. Note no mention of support for a woman's freedom for a right to choose. Nick will only talk about that parenthetically, if at all.
A woman's freedom for a right to choose what?
I thought that was self-explanatory...guess not...ABORTION.
Hey, you were the one criticizing Nick for talking "parenthetically".
Seriously. Pot meet kettle, kettle meet pot.
You must be new here...
At first I thought they meant a woman's freedom for the right to choose:
1) what health insurance she wanted
2) what chemicals to put into her body
3) to be armed with lethal force
4) when to terminate her own life
Then I remembered that "my body, my choice" only applies to certain Democrat-approved areas.
Looks like you people are going to have to pack up and go to Washington and Colorado. Big Government is here to stay, and you probably won't escape it there either.!
There are two parties that run the country, and the Libertarians aren't one of them. Dream on and good luck on your fantasies. Again, big Government is here to stay and it will probably get even bigger no matter who is sitting in the White House.
Sorry, but that's the reality of it. Good luck anyway. This is my final post on this site which I am sure will delight many. Thanks for the opportunity to express some of my own ideas.
However, the Libertarian point of view is just not my vision for the country. I sure don't care for the Republican or Democrat visions either, although I truly believe that in reality they are really one party (Call them the "DemoPublicans")
That's OK. The Road to Mandalay's vision isn't really for me.
There are two parties that run the country, and The Road to Mandalay' aren't one of them.
Dream on and good luck on your fantasies of finding an alternative to the DemoPublicans.
Brian,
Good Luck to you.
On The Road To Mandalay,
Good Luck to you.
You really think big government is going to just go on forever? You're an idiot.
When the dollar collapses, or is otherwise displaced as the reserve currency of the world, big government statism and leftism are *done*, GAME OVER. Believe it or not, the power to vote does not give one the power to vote on the facts of reality; there comes a day when the bill comes due.
It's all about the dollar, that fake money that is used to pay for fake-ass collectivism and statism.
This may be true, but when Big Govt starts its death throes, I'd like to be elsewhere. If you think that it will leave quietly, then you're the idiot. I hope you're right, and I'm working in that direction, but I think that the transition will be u-u-u-u-u-ugly.
There are two parties that run the country,
Actually, I think there's just one, with feuding factions.
R C Dean,
Good Luck to you.
R C Dean,
Your assessment is correct. There really is only one party with "feuding factions". Other parties are tolerated because the DemoPublicans will make sure that they never will obtain any real power. Good luck to you.
That read like a web page version of "I'm taking my ball and going home!". If you want to leave the site, that's your choice, but it seems to me that your tenure here hasn't exactly been marked by a legitimate desire to discuss your beliefs, rather it's just been an area for you to make proclamations and then become pissed when other people didn't agree or challenged your reasoning. I don't agree with everything posters here (who don't represent the Libertarian Party, by the way) say, but when I disagree it forces me to at least consider another viewpoint and figure out the flaws in my own arguments. It doesn't appear that you are interested in that sort of thing.
Contrarian P,
Good luck to you.
How many more "last posts" are you gonna make ?
He's a "last word" guy.
Brian,
You bet your life dip shit.
On The Road To Mandalay,
Good luck to you.
Hi There One Out,
As many as I want Asshole.
CONTRARIAN P
My "tenure" on this site has always been to express my opinions. I don't make "proclamations". However, I do "become pissed" when people who don't like my opinions insult me with one line moron type remarks instead of intelligent rebuttals.
(I'm sure you know very well that in real life, people who insult others first, normally provoke physical confrontations.)
The only alternative that I have been given is to be equally if not more nasty in my own defense towards those who want to insult me instead of exchanging civil opinions.
Generally, I have found that people posting on this site that don't like the opinions of others, but who are apparently to stupid to challenge or refute them, hide behind the cloak of cowardice by insulting others. I have defended myself from these attacks by returning nastiness with nastiness.
That's it. I probably wasted my time in explanation, but I wanted to leave that for the record. What the Hell! Why not?
You speak of animals who fail at controlling their emotional reactions to the point they physically lash out with their primate limbs, with the intent of causing bodily harm to others due to words.
It is not surprising that you seem to fall into this category:
The most libertarian year ever would have been 1776, no? Perhaps 1783?
R C Dean,
Make it before 1492.
R C Dean
Make it 1491 which was the last Native American year for true liberty and freedom, before the Asshole Europeans (followed by other Assholes) arrived to fuck the entire continent up and invent political philosophies such as Libertarianism. Goodbye All!!!
I'm almost positive that the native Americans were fans of big government. Probably somewhere on the trail of tears, they realized just how powerful democracy was, and what miracles a lumbering, oaf of a government could do. I'm sure they saw their relocation as a pure eminent domain issue, in which they had to relocate so their previous land could be put to "public use". And, they were compensated for it, so it's a win-win all around.
Thank god for big government. Who would relocate the indians without it?
It always will be has been the libertarian turning point -- soon, very soon.
Why doesn't everyone believe in freedom and liberty uncle?
When individuals are removed from reality, and shielded from the consequences they would face for their desires and actions through politicians whom write the law, they begin to become "conservatives" and "liberals" and argue over whose theft, force and coercion is better.
In other words nephew, once they find they can vote themselves cool $hit at the expense of others, whether it be military hardware, or healthcare, or new stadiums, and not get locked up, have the crap kicked out of them, or get shot dead they will always elect the giver of the cool $hit they want. The remaining individuals whom wish to be free will be labeled as crazy. The weak people will want the free people to be weak and defenseless like them, so they will hide behind the politicians and have them rob and steal on their behalf, while at the same time calling themselves compassionate, moral, and holier than thou. :0P
I'd like to ask the writers:
The still for this video, the black and white photograph of the woman celebrating - where is this from? It seems familiar to me but I cannot recall the movie or television show where I have seen it and it does not state this information on YouTube.
Sorry, I can't look at these things as "most libertarian", these kinds of things go back and forth every year.
Yes legalizing gay marriage and dope will have an amazing impact on the average American. We have finally turned the corner. I think I will go out and start a business now that I know pot is legal.
up to I saw the check of $8495, I did not believe ...that...my best friend actualy earning money part time from their computer.. there friend brother started doing this 4 only fourteen months and as of now cleared the dept on there appartment and got a top of the range Ariel Atom. website here
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Take your Spam somewhere else.........loser.
Libertarians missed the boat in 2008 and will watch it sail off into the horizon yet again in 2014 because they lack a strong platform that would include disgruntled and unhappy Dems, Repubs, Independents and others. Too bad, so sad. It's all Bush's fault anyway, right?
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Tow Jam,
How right you are. Thanks for reminding me.