Thoughts? I say yes. They may go after him hard too. I could see the dems getting in on the action too.
I could see Gary Johnson doing it, just because Rand is apparently a big porker in DC.
They'd be finished if they ran someone against a Paul. The average anarchist would love it tho.
Well obviously Paul hasn't won the nomination yet but of course they will field a candidate in the general. But the LP is irrelevant on the national stage so it hardly matters. Also if it's Gary Johnson again I think Paul is at least as libertarian as him if not more so, certainly a more engaging speaker.
Is he? Rand is definitely better fiscally than Gary.Originally Posted by supermario21
I don't think the average anarchist or even hardcore libertarian supports Gary Johnson. He certainly didn't get a fawning reception at Porcfest.
Gary Johnson is worse than Rand on a few issues.
If Rand took back his "I'm not a libertarian" statement, I could see them stepping back.
As it stands, Rand is putting forth the idea that he's a "True-blue-conservative-constitutionalist-Republican" - and he's not talking about libertarian philosophy or having a discussion about what the role of government should be from a libertarian POV.
To pretend that he's a "good enough" libertarian to not run a candidate is to give up on libertarianism altogether.
"You cannot solve these problems with war." - Ron Paul
Remember at the Rally for the Republic when he bragged about all the government jobs he saved? Pretty embarrassing.
I predict that they will. They always do have a candidate.
The Libertarian party is a firing circle. (It took me a long time to realize they like being in the circle.)
Of course they'll run a candidate.
"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire
Well look at where 40 years of the philosophical approach has gotten us. Rand is proposing practical, viable solutions that point in a libertarian direction, and most importantly he's doing it in a way that makes people think they arrived at those conclusions themselves.
He's worse than Rand across the board. Johnson is not a libertarian at all. He's a soft statist.
When Rand does get the nomination, I fully expect any LP candidate to get a glowing reception and more media coverage than any previous LP candidate.
Of course they will. Hell Ron Paul could run on the R ticket and Judge Nap on the Dems and they would still field a candidate. They need money coming in to keep up their sham of a political party and recruit some more suckers to make up for the ones that they lose along the way.
Yep. To siphon votes away. LP party should recognize rand is as libertarian as you can get for mainstream. Rand can help LP by making libertarian ideas more accepted so LP has more of a chance in 2020 or 2024. If they dont recognize this...
I meant a generic, doctrinaire LP candidate like Badnarik or Ruwart. I was at Johnson's first porcfest in 2010, he got an ok reception and I got a pic with him down by the main pavilion but this is obviously before he started taking stances for his prez run. I agree with specs that the media might give them exposure but if they have a purist candidate then I can't help but think that would make Rand look exceptionally reasonable.
Yes. The L party cares more about advancing their Party than principle (see: Bob Barr) just like the R's and D's do.
No one will pay attention to him/her, they'll get their usual 1% and won't amount to anything.
(I'm talking about the "Party" in my first sentence, not all individual libertarians)
Let's move forward to the Constitution.. I am the new GOP. I stand with Rand.
Of course they will. They can a candidate against Ron Paul for heaven's sakes.
Why wouldn't they? It would be their party's one true chance for attention. After forty years of being ignored, imagine all the hit pieces the media could run against Rand Paul with Libertarian Party quotes attached. They could be the media's useful idiots as long as Rand Paul is running.
I agree with all of this except the 1%. Historically it's more like 0.4%
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”
H.L. Mencken
I think even more so it is a bunch of people sitting around that are a combination of clueless and delusional. 40 years - 40 $#@!ing years and this is what they have amounted to?
They trot out their list of LP members elected to public office every year. There's at most 200 people nationwide. What they fail to tell you in the huge majority of them are for non-partisan seats, and I bet if you dug deeper of the handful that were elected to partisan seats a bunch of them ran unopposed or on "fusion" tickets. My best guess (and I don't have the time, nor desire to do the reasearch), is that of the 10's of thousands of elected offices in this country, maybe a dozen people at best won their seat running solely on the LP line of the ballot and were opposed in their race. Quite a showing for a party that is 40 years old. Yay team!
They will. That candidate will never get on a national debate & will barely be mentioned by the MSM though. He or she will use a lot of money to just get on the ballot.
Don't get all the LP bashing in this thread.
No way. The media liked to use negative comments about Rand Paul from the Kentucky Libertarian Party against him back in 2010. They'll be running criticisms about Paul from them often if he wins the GOP nomination.
Very accurate and true.
I would be more worried if they didn't. The Libertarian party is their own party and SHOULD field their own candidates. We need more parties not less. I would be concerned if the Libertarian Party said they were in "cahoots" with the Republican party and won't challenge them. We need MORE choices not less.
When Rand is the GOP nominee, I fully expect the LP candidate to be invited to all the debates.
A pretty good Democrat strategy would be to send money to the Libertarian campaign to make sure they're well funded. If the Libertarians take at least 3-4% of the vote, the Democrats could get a huge advantage and win the election.
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It irks me every time the media refer to Rand as a "libertarian" and he accepts this label. Not only it goes at odds with his political strategy, he dilutes the meaning of libertarianism in the process.
Rand's mission in the Republican party should be reforming Conservatism, not Libertarianism.
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