4 ms·

Many libertarians vote Republican.

skinnymuch 5y ago
Voting is different from actively supporting candidates. Outside of lower taxes [for corporations and the wealthy primarily], there is no overlap or rational link between libertarianism and actively supporting Trump. If libertarians are actively and strongly supporting specific Republican figures like Thiel is. Politicians who have little to no objections and in fact at times expand the huge spending that is defense, general pork spending, social security, and Medicare. Politicians who don’t don’t even draw a hard line on government staying out of personal life and at times want to expand that (think forcing companies to not be allowed to have mask or vaccine rules or ruling on abortion). Thiel publicly supports these sorts of politicians. Not just quietly voting because of a weak two party system less evil situation. Then how are they libertarian? The definition doesn’t fit.
- throwawaylinux 5y ago
  > Voting is different from actively supporting candidates. Different things are different. You vote for a candidate because you would prefer them to win. Which is possibly included among the reasons you would support them in other ways. > Outside of lower taxes [for corporations and the wealthy primarily], there is no overlap or rational link between libertarianism and actively supporting Trump. Many libertarians support Republicans.
  - skinnymuch 5y ago
    The thread wasn’t about voting. It was about Thiel’s active involvement. Which is the comment you directly responded to. > Many libertarians support Republicans. I don’t disagree some do that. However with you repeating this “many”. Any one can call themselves anything. It doesn’t make it so. OTOH I see no issue if the statement was “Many people who say they are libertarian support Republicans”
    - throwawaylinux 5y ago
      > The thread wasn’t about voting. It was about Thiel’s active involvement. Which is the comment you directly responded to. We've moved on from that. > I don’t disagree some do that. However with you repeating this “many”. Any one can call themselves anything. It doesn’t make it so. OTOH I see no issue if the statement was “Many people who say they are libertarian support Republicans” Well you're just wrong about that. https://www.cato.org/blog/how-many-libertarians-are-there-answer-depends-method-you-use https://www.cato.org/blog/how-many-libertarians-are-there-an... https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-of-libertarians/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-o... Roughly 10-20% of people are libertarians not only how they identify but their stance on various issues. And yet votes, political donations, lobbying, party membership, etc. is far more skewed to the two big parties. Which means they are pragmatic and send their votes and support to where it might make the best difference. Like most people. Many libertarians support Republicans. I'm really quite astounded you're having such a big problem coping with that.
      - Talanes 5y ago
        > We've moved on from that. Well, you keep moving on from it and everyone who replies on you keeps trying to move back toward the original topic.
        throwawaylinux 5y ago
        No try to keep up, we moved on from the other poster's pedantic distraction about voting vs "active support" back to the original topic which is that Thiel is a libertarian and the fact he supports Republicans is not evidence he isn't one.
        Talanes 5y ago
        >No try to keep up, we moved on from the other poster's pedantic distraction about voting Other poster? You brought it up the first time and have brought it up in every post since.

Voting is different from actively supporting candidates. Outside of lower taxes [for corporations and the wealthy primarily], there is no overlap or rational link between libertarianism and actively supporting Trump. If libertarians are actively and strongly supporting specific Republican figures like Thiel is. Politicians who have little to no objections and in fact at times expand the huge spending that is defense, general pork spending, social security, and Medicare. Politicians who don’t don’t even draw a hard line on government staying out of personal life and at times want to expand that (think forcing companies to not be allowed to have mask or vaccine rules or ruling on abortion). Thiel publicly supports these sorts of politicians. Not just quietly voting because of a weak two party system less evil situation. Then how are they libertarian? The definition doesn’t fit.

throwawaylinux 5y ago
> Voting is different from actively supporting candidates. Different things are different. You vote for a candidate because you would prefer them to win. Which is possibly included among the reasons you would support them in other ways. > Outside of lower taxes [for corporations and the wealthy primarily], there is no overlap or rational link between libertarianism and actively supporting Trump. Many libertarians support Republicans.
- skinnymuch 5y ago
  The thread wasn’t about voting. It was about Thiel’s active involvement. Which is the comment you directly responded to. > Many libertarians support Republicans. I don’t disagree some do that. However with you repeating this “many”. Any one can call themselves anything. It doesn’t make it so. OTOH I see no issue if the statement was “Many people who say they are libertarian support Republicans”
  - throwawaylinux 5y ago
    > The thread wasn’t about voting. It was about Thiel’s active involvement. Which is the comment you directly responded to. We've moved on from that. > I don’t disagree some do that. However with you repeating this “many”. Any one can call themselves anything. It doesn’t make it so. OTOH I see no issue if the statement was “Many people who say they are libertarian support Republicans” Well you're just wrong about that. https://www.cato.org/blog/how-many-libertarians-are-there-answer-depends-method-you-use https://www.cato.org/blog/how-many-libertarians-are-there-an... https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-of-libertarians/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-o... Roughly 10-20% of people are libertarians not only how they identify but their stance on various issues. And yet votes, political donations, lobbying, party membership, etc. is far more skewed to the two big parties. Which means they are pragmatic and send their votes and support to where it might make the best difference. Like most people. Many libertarians support Republicans. I'm really quite astounded you're having such a big problem coping with that.
    - Talanes 5y ago
      > We've moved on from that. Well, you keep moving on from it and everyone who replies on you keeps trying to move back toward the original topic.
      - throwawaylinux 5y ago
        No try to keep up, we moved on from the other poster's pedantic distraction about voting vs "active support" back to the original topic which is that Thiel is a libertarian and the fact he supports Republicans is not evidence he isn't one.
        Talanes 5y ago
        >No try to keep up, we moved on from the other poster's pedantic distraction about voting Other poster? You brought it up the first time and have brought it up in every post since.