United Liberty
Vote Your Conscience
Thu, 05/17/2012 - 2:10pm | posted by Kevin Boyd
On Twitter, many conservatives and Republicans have been badgering people who are threatening to not vote for Mitt Romney. They have been saying that if you don’t vote for Mitt Romney, you’re voting for Barack Obama. This is silly reasoning at its best. The only way you vote for Barack Obama is by actually voting for Barack Obama. Libertarians and others who love liberty should vote their conscience in November and vote for the candidate who best represents their views.
The Republican Party has not offered very much for libertarians to vote for. The GOP controlled House has failed to lead on reducing the size and scope of government. Mitt Romney has not offered up any serious or substantial cuts. Plus, Mitt Romney supports anti-liberty legislation such as the Federal Marriage Amendment and the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA. Plus, Romney during the primaries supported a hard-line on immigration reform and on foreign policy, generally offers more of the same as Barack Obama. Finally, there is the simple fact that all throughout Mitt Romney’s political career; he has been on just about every side of every issue possible, sometimes simultaneously. Romney, politically, is not a man to be trusted even in a millennium of Sundays.
On the other hand, I don’t need to tell anybody who reads this site how horrendous of a president Barack Obama is. He has been an absolute failure from a libertarian perspective, so I can understand the inclination to replace him, even with someone like Mitt Romney. However consider this, what kind of message would it send to the Republican Party to nominate someone like Romney and have him win?
A presidential election is not really a national election; it is a series of 50 state elections to win electoral votes. Of those states, only about 10 or so are actually in play. In solid red or blue states, you shouldn’t feel guilty about voting for Gary Johnson, if you’re thinking about voting for him. In a swing state, it’s a little bit more difficult. There’s the urge to tactical vote, which would be a vote for Mitt Romney just to get rid of Barack Obama. Libertarians should respect fellow libertarians those that choose to do that. However, it may send a stronger message to the Republican Party to cost Romney the election by giving votes to Gary Johnson and force the GOP into a more libertarian direction to win back those lost votes.
Either way, think before you vote and vote your conscience.
What you are advocating above - support for government-sanctioned gay marriage, opposition to national security, ect… is Left-Libertarianism. Please do not use the term “libertarian” to describe your beliefs. You are mis-representing our movement.
We true libertarians don’t want government involved in our personal affairs, nor do we wish to sell our country out to Islamists who want to force our wive/girlfriends to wear ugly black burkas from head to toe.
Correction please.
Libertarians are not against national security, but we are against policing the world. That is what Bush/Obama/Romney support, and what the author was trying to point out. Not many libertarians (at least not the mini-archist) are for eliminating a government run military all together. I do not think that is what he was trying to say. I agree that libertarians are against government sanctioned gay marriage because they don’t want the government to sanction any marriage. They are however ok with gay people getting married, and they do not want the government telling them they can’t.
What you call left libertarianism is really just the portion of libertarianism that differs from conservativism. It sounds to me like you are a conservative.
All of us lie somewhere on the liberal/conservative spectrum, which does not automatically determine where we are in the large/small govt spectrum. There are plenty of Liberals who want a small Federal Government. There are plenty of Conservatives who want a huge, controlling government.
In my understanding, Libertarianism is not so much about gay marriage being good or bad, but whether the Federal Govt or the local governments get to decide family choices. As for myself, I am a Conservative/Constitutionalist/Libertarian living in a Liberal/Democratic state. But I would rather see my state make gay marriage legal (which they are about to do) than to see the Federal Government make it illegal. I’d like the Federal government to get out of my home, even if it means my local govt makes laws I don’t like. I have the freedom to move to another state if I really can’t handle it. That is well inside my realm of patriotism, and my loyalty to the US remains the same. Moving outside the country to escape the Federal Govt is a different story, however. That is very much NOT patriotic.
As for foreign policy, we very much SHOULD have a very strong military. That minds its own business and doesn’t bother other people. It should be to protect, not be aggressors.
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