I am a slack citizen. I haven’t voted in a Presidential election since…um…well, it’s been a long time. Libertarian Party candidates never win much more than seats on the school board.
The Libertarian Party advocates personal responsibility, individual liberty, a free-market economy and a peaceful foreign policy. If those principles were adopted by the US president, I’d be proud to be an American.
I want to do something to change the direction the US government has taken on almost every issue. I just don’t know what to do, exactly. My friend, Terri, flew from Tokyo to freezing cold Iowa to knock on doors for Howard Dean. I guess I could start “Libertarians Abroad” or something…
But the main (and easiest) action I can take is to vote, and I just can’t rouse myself to register because it feels like my vote is useless. Any candidate whose platform I admire doesn’t stand a chance, and I won’t vote for a candidate I don’t like simply to dislodge a worse one.
This is a defeatist attitude and nothing gets done by defeatists. So I’ll think about it some more. If I do summon the enthusiasm to vote, I can get a downloadable absentee ballot request.
In case you’re not sure of where you stand in the political spectrum, here are two online surveys to try:
World’s Smallest Political Quiz — only 10 questions
Political Compass — a more thorough look at your leanings.
I took both. Libertarian both times, on the Dalai Lama side with the second test. :-)
Posted by: Jenny on January 27, 2004 10:03 PMI share the experience of advocating thing that will never come to pass any time soon: an economic system that enables everyone to feed their families, laws that protect the environment for future generations, a nation that cooperates with it’s neighbors to solve the problems that lead to war, etc.
Knowing that the US won’t be transformed into such a place overnight, I try to push things in that direction by supporting candidates who advocate most of what I’m looking for, even if they don’t stand up and enunciate my core principles exactly. It’s a compromise, for sure, but the alternative is to leave the decision to those who would leave things the same or even make them worse.
Posted by: Michael on January 28, 2004 12:13 AMafter reading through the program i have some questions
Kristen are you a card carrying member
of the NRA ?
http://www.lp.org/issues/gun-rights.html
how can somebody who belives in everyman
for himself and social darwinism live in
japan of all place?
please tell me you are not another ayn rand
worshiper.
best regards axel
The problem with the libertarian perspective is that they tend to want their individual liberty at the expense of mine.
The libertarian philosophy is so loaded with unwarranted extrapolation and straw beasties of all sorts that it makes one’s head spin.
I don’t think I have ever significantly disagreed with you on any occasion we discussed politics or philosophy, so I have to ask; are you *sure* you are libertarian? Their schtick sounds good when distilled to bullet points, but under the hood it feels more like “everybody ought to be able to live as if they are the only human on the planet, and screw ‘em if they can’t survive in the ‘free market’.”
Posted by: lyd on January 31, 2004 06:52 PMI talk to so many people who don’t like the way things are in America right now, but who say, “What’s the point of voting? My vote won’t count.” Certainly for those of us who live in disenfranchised districts or states (where we have been gerry-mandered out of a majority), it can seem pointless.
But it’s not. Even our candidate loses, the fact is we registered our discontent. The other side cannot say “We have a clear mandate from the people.”
Our country is on the brink of environmental devastation where a few rich people are going to get much richer at an irretrievable loss to all of us. And, yeah. Our foreign policy isn’t that great right now either. We’re responsibile for sending women’s rights into the stone age in Iraq (their civil rights based on secular law have been replaced with Muslim law).
Anyway, I followed a great link from Bob Brady. Maybe it will inspire you. If we all do nothing, then they win.
Click on the “Replay Orea Movie” after following the link above.
