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Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the year?

Is now the time for people to vote Libertarian?

  • No. The stakes are still too high to gamble with your vote.

    Votes: 4 14.8%
  • Yes. Too few people like the Dem or Rep candidates. Perfect time.

    Votes: 10 37.0%
  • I don't want to see the Libertarians becaome mainsteam.

    Votes: 7 25.9%
  • A major third party is setting up American for a minority supported executive branch. Bad idea.

    Votes: 2 7.4%
  • other

    Votes: 4 14.8%

  • Total voters
    27

Smeagol

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I know people who want to see the Libertarian party become as mainstream as the Republicans and Democrats but always felt the stakes were too high to "throw away" their vote on an unelectable candidate. At the same time, part of the reason a third party isn't emerging is because none have proven to be significantly popular enough to gain traction and interest. With the unfavorable numbers in both the likely Republican and and Democrat nominees so high, is this the year we should start making the American people consider a third option?
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

If the Libertarian want to become relevant I believe they should work on being elected to the House or Senate first.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I know people who want to see the Libertarian party become as mainstream as the Republicans and Democrats but always felt the stakes were too high to "throw away" their vote on an unelectable candidate. At the same time, part of the reason a third party isn't emerging is because none have proven to be significantly popular enough to gain traction and interest. With the unfavorable numbers in both the likely Republican and and Democrat nominees so high, is this the year we should start making the American people consider a third option?

I'm voting Democrat no matter what so you can take this with a grain of salt. Obviously if you'd normally vote Republican and hate Hillary I think you'd be wise to vote libertarian instead of Trump. If you'd normally vote Democrat though I'd say you should stick with Hillary since she's the only candidate that can realistically defeat Trump.

All kidding aside though.... If the libertarian party would like to attempt to force it's way into the big time this is the time to do it. I've long predicted that the Republican party had to eventually fracture. It's happening sooner than I thought, and not exactly along the lines that I thought, but it's close. If Gary Johnson can get even 5-10% of the vote you'll at the very least force republicans and democrats to take you a bit more seriously in 2020.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I'm voting Democrat no matter what so you can take this with a grain of salt. Obviously if you'd normally vote Republican and hate Hillary I think you'd be wise to vote libertarian instead of Trump. If you'd normally vote Democrat though I'd say you should stick with Hillary since she's the only candidate that can realistically defeat Trump.

All kidding aside though.... If the libertarian party would like to attempt to force it's way into the big time this is the time to do it. I've long predicted that the Republican party had to eventually fracture. It's happening sooner than I thought, and not exactly along the lines that I thought, but it's close. If Gary Johnson can get even 5-10% of the vote you'll at the very least force republicans and democrats to take you a bit more seriously in 2020.

If the LP gained that much, the Republocrat party would work harder to suppress the third parties.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

If the Libertarian want to become relevant I believe they should work on being elected to the House or Senate first.

I disagree. That would be harder because a handful of Libertarians can do nothing in the Senate or House. They would need enough to be able to spoil either party's plurality and that's harder to do. President is a different matter.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I disagree. That would be harder because a handful of Libertarians can do nothing in the Senate or House. They would need enough to be able to spoil either party's plurality and that's harder to do. President is a different matter.

But then people might actually know what they stand for.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I know people who want to see the Libertarian party become as mainstream as the Republicans and Democrats but always felt the stakes were too high to "throw away" their vote on an unelectable candidate. At the same time, part of the reason a third party isn't emerging is because none have proven to be significantly popular enough to gain traction and interest. With the unfavorable numbers in both the likely Republican and and Democrat nominees so high, is this the year we should start making the American people consider a third option?

I'm not a Libertarian and don't want to see a third party gain traction just because its a third party. I do not want them to be successful anymore than I want my other political opponents to be successful.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

It's never the right time to vote right-libertarian, it's never the time in general.

I trust the American people will never be that dumb and that cruel.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I know people who want to see the Libertarian party become as mainstream as the Republicans and Democrats but always felt the stakes were too high to "throw away" their vote on an unelectable candidate. At the same time, part of the reason a third party isn't emerging is because none have proven to be significantly popular enough to gain traction and interest. With the unfavorable numbers in both the likely Republican and and Democrat nominees so high, is this the year we should start making the American people consider a third option?

In local elections absolutely. but in order to make it more mainstream you cant start with national elections it just isn't feasible. YOu have to make '3rd parties' more common in city , county and state governments before they will have a practical chance of becoming mainstream on the national scene.
its a problem however that most people don't pay attention to anything except presidential elections. On average maybe half the people or so vote during those elections. during midterm national elections its more in the mid 30%.
State an local elections vary but in the few states I could find data its often less than 10% on state elections.
I also came across data that shows that this has dwindled significantly over the years. in the 1950s about ~15% more people turned out to vote than do now. and slowly declined since.

If you get more 3rd party in your city county and state offices.. and they perform well then they have a decent chance in a congressional election should they decide to run for office on the national scale. get one in the house they represent well they move to senate etc.. over a several election cycles they become mainstream. wont happen overnight and wont happy from the top down .
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I know people who want to see the Libertarian party become as mainstream as the Republicans and Democrats but always felt the stakes were too high to "throw away" their vote on an unelectable candidate. At the same time, part of the reason a third party isn't emerging is because none have proven to be significantly popular enough to gain traction and interest. With the unfavorable numbers in both the likely Republican and and Democrat nominees so high, is this the year we should start making the American people consider a third option?

Are you serious? Both Bernie Sanders and Trump are more libertarian than any other candidate in modern history. Together form the bulk of the Libertarian Platform. There is also no better time to be a pissed off citizen or disenfranchised voter. Which also happens to make up a good chunk of the Libertarian base. I don't want to see Libertarians gain power because frankly I just don't agree with their misplaced Utopian daydreams.

So another question one must ask oneself here about the legitimacy of the libertarian movement circa 2016. I ask this: Can you trust the people you would be voting with? That means, you have to not like Trump and not like Sanders and not like Clinton! I am one of those people. Yet I don't share any of the Libertarian Principles that were fought over to the death on the internet in 2008 and 2012. I also don't want to vote for the libertarian ticket because of the weirdo candidates that they also put up!

I find it hard to justify Gary Johnson getting 10% of the vote and feel that as Donald Trump has turned the political world upside down the majority of his (johnson's) support has converted some of the normal party goers/status quo people over to the ticket. Principles have seemingly gone out the window in this election and I would find it extremely hypocritical if Libertarians couldn't find a reason to vote for Trump or Sanders, depending if they are right or left libertarian. Why wouldn't they?
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

Are you serious? Both Bernie Sanders and Trump are more libertarian than any other candidate in modern history. Together form the bulk of the Libertarian Platform. There is also no better time to be a pissed off citizen or disenfranchised voter. Which also happens to make up a good chunk of the Libertarian base. I don't want to see Libertarians gain power because frankly I just don't agree with their misplaced Utopian daydreams.

You are conflating being perpetually and hopelessly pissed off with being a Libertarian. Libertarians tend to be perpetually and hopelessly pissed off people, but they tend to not agree with other people who are perpetually and hopelessly pissed off.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

You are conflating being perpetually and hopelessly pissed off with being a Libertarian. Libertarians tend to be perpetually and hopelessly pissed off people, but they tend to not agree with other people who are perpetually and hopelessly pissed off.

Then why don't I see the pissed off Jeb Bush conspiracy kooks saying that Jeb Bush was supposed to win such and such state? I only saw that against the Cruz campaign and that was not on the same level as the Ron Paul people or the Santorum people against Romney and his supposed inside track. You see a similar pattern of pissed off people agreeing with each other that Bernie Sanders (even though he has mathematically no shot and the rules have been in place for decades) should be winning. Those same Ron Paul people are happy that the Sanders people are spreading their message! Populism doesn't stay inside party lines. At least, not anymore...
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I know people who want to see the Libertarian party become as mainstream as the Republicans and Democrats but always felt the stakes were too high to "throw away" their vote on an unelectable candidate. At the same time, part of the reason a third party isn't emerging is because none have proven to be significantly popular enough to gain traction and interest. With the unfavorable numbers in both the likely Republican and and Democrat nominees so high, is this the year we should start making the American people consider a third option?

I picked other.Every election is the time to vote 3rd party or what ever candidate it is you want to vote for. As long as people settle for the lesser of two evils, then evil always wins. People let themselves every election be intimidated by the die hard party-tards who claim that if you vote 3rd party then you are throwing you vote away or voting for the opposition.Party-tards always want their party to win,so of course they are going to say if you vote 3rd party then you are really voting for Clinton if you vote 3rd party then you are really voting for Trump.So as long as people fall for that bull**** a 3rd party president will never happen.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

Considering that we are having two utterly anti-libertarian and utterly unpopular major candidates, the moment is now. If the double-governor Johnson/Weld ticket materializes, it even could lead somewhere - for example, to capturing a few states and denying 270 electoral votes to either abomination. A responsible voter, in my view, should watch the polls closer to the election, and vote Libertarian if there is a realistic chance of winning the state, and for the Robot-Lizard Lady, as a lesser (though still serious) evil, otherwise.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y


Gary Johnson isn't the nominee yet - we'll find out this weekend. Libertarian polling has Austin Petersen beating him. Petersen has greater ability to appeal to disaffected Republicans, and greater presence while speaking, but is young, and has never held government office.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

Are you serious? Both Bernie Sanders and Trump are more libertarian than any other candidate in modern history.

.... this is sarcasm, yes?
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

.... this is sarcasm, yes?

Tell me how Gary Johnson is any different than the others and I'll give you just as much evidence that he is exactly the same!



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Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

Tell me how Gary Johnson is any different than the others and I'll give you just as much evidence that he is exactly the same!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gary Johnson =/= Libertarian, any more than "Donald Trump" = "GOP".


Both Sanders and Trump want to vastly increase the size and scope of the federal government, to include its ability to control and steer our lives. That's not exactly whatcha call "Libertarian".
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

So suppose a Libertarian candidate was elected President. How would they get anything on their agenda through Congress?
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

I know people who want to see the Libertarian party become as mainstream as the Republicans and Democrats but always felt the stakes were too high to "throw away" their vote on an unelectable candidate. At the same time, part of the reason a third party isn't emerging is because none have proven to be significantly popular enough to gain traction and interest. With the unfavorable numbers in both the likely Republican and and Democrat nominees so high, is this the year we should start making the American people consider a third option?

Libertarians are too Ayn Rand for my taste.
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

Gary Johnson =/= Libertarian, any more than "Donald Trump" = "GOP".

Both Johnson and Weld are moderate libertarians and governed in NM and MA as libertarian Republicans. Neither was a radical, and both accomplished a lot. It is a little surprising that the radical Libertarian (capital L) Party seems to be embracing them, but - great!
 
Re: Want to vote Libertarian be always felt you were wasting your vote. Is this the y

So suppose a Libertarian candidate was elected President. How would they get anything on their agenda through Congress?

Easy: cooperate with GOP on constitutional and economic issues, with Democrats on immigration and social stuff.
 
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