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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mama Bear who wrote (4179)	9/21/2000 8:40:24 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 13062

Barb, I really understand, but if Gore wins do you think he will even allow the Libertarian point of view be spoken aloud in the public venue? I put nothing past him.

To: Mama Bear who wrote (4179)	9/21/2000 10:57:54 AM
From: Jim S	Respond to of 13062

I'm really impressed with the eloquence of your post, Barb. Sincere compliments. But, as you may suspect, I still disagree. The idea of the LP running hopeless campaigns, year after year, just waiting for the opportunity to become the "swing vote" in a national election, seems to me to be less than an optimal strategy. Not much different, IMO, than the Mennonites waiting for the "Second Coming" to prove to all that they were right after all. I'm enough of a Libertarian to agree that anyone can do as they choose this election. I'm also enough of a pragmatist to realize that any pol who tries to scoop in a small group of hard-core people with any particular agenda is going to forget about them after the election (until the next election). IMO, the ONLY way to make our thoughts and opinions part of the mainstream is to be as much a part of it as possible. I think back to some other examples -- e.g., the "green" movement used to be a small group of whackos (well, ok, they still are), but now we know who they are and what they want. The so-called "Religious Right" is in the same catagory -- 20 years ago, Pat Robertson and Porter Waggoner were about the same -- Saturday afternoon TV personalities that only a small number of people paid any attention to. While Porter may have fallen off the edge of the earth, look at what happened to those TV evangelists. What both groups have in common is that they quit being "seperate fringe groups" and instead used a strategy of being "mainstream fringe groups." They haven't changed their ideas, they've just become an influential PART of the larger group. I respect the idealism of you and the others who will not compromise by voting for a "close as we can get" candidate. At the same time, I'm grateful that everyone isn't as dedicated as you, or we'd have 250 million political parties. <g> Again, Barb, excellent post. jim