4 ms·

socially liberal & fiscally conservative != right wing

jhancock 18y ago
you are correct sir, if you have two variables, you get a whole plane of possibilities, not just a line ;) I guess its too late to teach basic math to the masses though.
- davidw 18y ago
  When the squares actually visit LineLand though, who do they hold their noses and vote for? My guess is that they generally vote Republican (like, for instance, Milton Friedman), or did at one time. Perhaps that's changing?
  - Prrometheus 18y ago
    Cato actually has done some studies on the libertarian vote. It went overwhelmingly for George Bush in 2000, but swung about 20 points democratic in 2004. I'm not sure that they've updated the study for 2008, but my gut (and surveys of self-identified well-known libertarians) tell me Obama won the vote. If you like market economics, don't care if your neighbor is gay, and don't feel like occupying countries on the other side of the world, there is really nobody pandering to you. You tend to move around. Edit: Here's the paper comparing the 2000 and 2004 elections that I mentioned http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6715 http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6715 Kerry did 18% better than Gore among libertarian voters, despite not having a libertarian bone in his body. Bush won the demographic in both elections, but lost 13% between 2000 and 2004, for a 31 point net swing.
    - davidw 18y ago
      Interesting. It would be fun to have numbers for the past, too, to see how much 'bouncing around' there was, and what it could be correlated with.
      - deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]
      - Prrometheus 18y ago
        http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/html/pa580/pa580index.html http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/html/pa580/pa580index.html page 13 Keep in mind that these are "soft libertarians", people that consider themselves economically conservative and socially liberal, but don't necessarily go around trolling message boards with anarchist philosophy. 2004 seemed to be unusually bad for the republican percentage of the libertarian vote. The only worse year was 1992, when Ross Perot, Clinton, and Bush I all got a third (well, I think 2008 will be bad, too).
        dgordon 18y ago
        I don't see that "libertarian" entails "anarchist" or even "trolling message boards."

you are correct sir, if you have two variables, you get a whole plane of possibilities, not just a line ;) I guess its too late to teach basic math to the masses though.

davidw 18y ago
When the squares actually visit LineLand though, who do they hold their noses and vote for? My guess is that they generally vote Republican (like, for instance, Milton Friedman), or did at one time. Perhaps that's changing?
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  Cato actually has done some studies on the libertarian vote. It went overwhelmingly for George Bush in 2000, but swung about 20 points democratic in 2004. I'm not sure that they've updated the study for 2008, but my gut (and surveys of self-identified well-known libertarians) tell me Obama won the vote. If you like market economics, don't care if your neighbor is gay, and don't feel like occupying countries on the other side of the world, there is really nobody pandering to you. You tend to move around. Edit: Here's the paper comparing the 2000 and 2004 elections that I mentioned http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6715 http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6715 Kerry did 18% better than Gore among libertarian voters, despite not having a libertarian bone in his body. Bush won the demographic in both elections, but lost 13% between 2000 and 2004, for a 31 point net swing.
  - davidw 18y ago
    Interesting. It would be fun to have numbers for the past, too, to see how much 'bouncing around' there was, and what it could be correlated with.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]
    - Prrometheus 18y ago
      http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/html/pa580/pa580index.html http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/html/pa580/pa580index.html page 13 Keep in mind that these are "soft libertarians", people that consider themselves economically conservative and socially liberal, but don't necessarily go around trolling message boards with anarchist philosophy. 2004 seemed to be unusually bad for the republican percentage of the libertarian vote. The only worse year was 1992, when Ross Perot, Clinton, and Bush I all got a third (well, I think 2008 will be bad, too).
      - dgordon 18y ago
        I don't see that "libertarian" entails "anarchist" or even "trolling message boards."