Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

The following is a comment I posted on Townhall.com in response to an article entitled "Republicans Really Are the Stupid Party". The author of the post, John Hawkins, makes a few good (although sort of obvious) points about how bad the GOP has been in recent years, but then goes on to criticize people who vote for a Libertarian or Constitution candidate, saying that is a wasted vote. I disagree.

It's true: The Libertarian Party will probably not win anything beyond maybe one seat in Congress during my lifetime, and even that is less than 50/50.

But that doesn't mean voting Libertarian is a waste for a Republican who is disgusted with the behavior of the GOP currently.

In both the Montana and Missouri Senate races (and in one House race in Indiana, I believe), the Republican lost by fewer votes than the Libertarian received.

So, if you believe that most of those votes would have gone Republican had there been no Libertarian candidate, the GOP would still have a majority in and control of the Senate.

I can't stand the Democrats' socialist and consistently unconstitutional positions on most issues. But if the Republicans are going to govern like Democrats in terms of spending and corruption, then having the GOP lose because Libertarians got votes is a very powerful lesson - much more powerful than the lesson of simply losing to a Democrat.

So while I would prefer to see Republicans win (because that really means we get Democrats, not Libertarians), it's not at any cost...not at the cost of bad government. Since the Democrats, by their very nature (anti-capitalist and owned by unions) can never be the party of good government, Republicans are going to have to take enough pain to realize that in order to win they need to return to our founding principles of liberty and limited government.

A vote for a Democrat can never send a message to the GOP that people yearn for those founding principles, but a vote for a Libertarian or Constitution Party candidate certainly can.

Therefore, I have no problem with people voting Libertarian, even if it causes Republicans to lose, until such time as the Republican Party returns to being something that Reagan and Goldwater would be proud of.