Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Polls: 40-60% Libertarian?

How would you describe a person who does not believe in politics, who says to politicians and the political process, "Just let me alone" ("laissez-faire")?

Would "libertarian" be a poor choice of words?

This is not a person who makes sure to go to the polls to vote Democratic, in order to initiate force against the rich to confiscate their wealth and have it redistributed to himself.

This is not a person who goes to the polls to vote Republican to impose her views on the rest of the world by imperial force.

This is a person that a former Senior Editor of Gallop Poll, David Moore, describes as "unengaged" in politics. And Moore says the unengaged make up 40-60% of Americans, despite the best efforts of pollsters and media to get us engaged, to convert us to true believers in the "cult of the omnipotent state," to make us all think that all Americans are vitally and profoundly concerned with the upcoming elections, sitting on the edge of our seats, believing that it really makes a big difference who wins.

The problem is two-fold: the two major parties control the election process, and will not allow apolitical (laissez-faire) parties to participate. Second, libertarians don't vote, and that means they don't vote for other libertarians. So the Demoblicans and Republicrats always win re-election. They control the reins of power.

(I guess the reporter is from Russia. She imitates the artificial sing-songy media melody that American news reporters often have. Do these people talk with the same contrived vocal inflection after hours on a date? I hope not.)

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