<<OT* As a libertarian, all crimes should receive the exact
same treatment under the law, regardless of the race,
religion, sex, sexual preference, or any other personal
trait of either party involved. >>
OT(though there is a rather strong pro-gold wing of libertarians)
GOP will court its libertarian wing
By Ralph Z. Hallow
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The trick, they say, is to go back to the limited-government basics of the party´s libertarian wing without generating friction with social and religious conservatives.
"Our party´s broad center-right coalition includes social conservatives as well as libertarians, so it´s doable," Republican strategist Grover Norquist said.
He said that if Republicans had sought to win over even a tiny percentage of the Libertarian Party vote in Nevada and Washington state, it would have a 52-48 Senate majority instead of a 50-50 split.
Mr. Norquist notes that in Washington state´s Senate race last year, Republican incumbent Slade Gorton lost to Democrat challenger Maria Cantwell by only 2,229votes. Libertarian Jeff Jared gathered 64,734 votes in that race. If Republicans had grabbed only 4 percent of Mr. Jared´s vote, Mr. Gorton would be in the Senate.
Two years earlier, Republican John Ensign lost to incumbent Democrat Sen. Harry Reid in Nevada by a merely 428 votes, while Libertarian Michael Cloud took 8,044 votes. If Republicans had appealed directly to conservative-minded voters who went for Mr. Cloud and won just 6 percent of them, the Nevada Senate seat would have gone Republican.
And in New Mexico, Al Gore beat Bush by only 366 votes. "Bush could easily have peeled that many votes from the 2,058 that Libertarian candidate Harry Browne got, if Bush had only gone after that vote," said state Republican Chairman John Denhahl. "Democrats made the case that a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush, and we could have made the case that a vote for Browne was a vote for Gore."
To avoid such disasters, Republicans are pinning their hopes, in part, on something called the Republican Liberty Caucus.
"The most important thing is to get the libertarian-leaning voter to vote Republican," said Liberty Caucus National Chairman Chuck Muth. "To do that, Republicans can´t just say, 'Let´s slow the spending growth to just 4 percent, adjusted for inflation [as they did in the federal budget].´ Government is already too big and too intrusive."
(cont)
washtimes.com |
