In 2006 the Democrats were re-elected to Congress during the midterm elections. For the first time in a decade, the Democrats had control of the House and Senate. Elected in a charge to end the War in Iraq, rein in out of control spending by George W. Bush, and perhaps save America's reputation and our economy. As I predicted, they failed in all of these tasks.
Many voters had already lost faith in the Republican party. It was assured that many more would lose their faith in the Democrats within a year. It looked to be a very good 2008 election for the Libertarian Party, the Party of Principle, the party who focuses on controlling spending, on ending the war, on restoring freedom to America. In early 2007, Ron Paul announced that he would be running for president.
And that fucked everything up.
Instead of having a viable Third Party to throw our money behind, pass out pamphlets for, and tell our friends about, we were left with Ron Paul. There is nothing wrong with Ron Paul, except that he is only one man, he is firmly committed to standing behind the Republican Party, and he probably won't be running in the 2012 election.
Libertarians will always be around. Freedom is a common cause and when American's learn what we are for they generally will support at least some of our viewpoints, if not more than they would for the other two parties.
The Libertarian Party was founded in the early 1970's and has fielded a presidential candidate ever since. Sometimes the LP does good in the polls, in other times very poorly. I predict that this year will be a bad year for the LP in the nationwide race. Ron Paul has taken a lot of the money that typically is donated to the LP and has taken the spotlight away from any LP candidates that could emerge.
There would be no problem with this situation if Ron Paul were leading in the polls; I am sorry to say that he is not. What this means is that we could be left with a nightmare McCain/Obama scenario with no Third Party candidate that we recognize.
I can only hope that Ron Paul has inspired a new generation of Americans to vote for freedom and that these individuals will be drawn to the LP once this campaign cycle is over. Only time will tell.
The positive note is that the LP seems to be capitalizing somewhat on the Democrats losses by fielding a lot of local candidates.
For more information on the LP, visit www.lp.org
3 comments:
Ron Paul should consider running with the Libertarians if he doesn't win with the Republicans. I'd vote for him still.
The problem is that he legally cannot run on any ticket other than Republican in most states. Once you start the process in one party you can't switch over during that election. In some states it would be possible, but not in most. If he does not get the nomination, I will vote for whoever the Libertarian candidate is, or possibly Mitt Romney.
That's probably what I'll do.
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