Friday, June 13, 2008

Ron Paul to Push Libertarian-Minded Republican Candidates

[I think this is a good idea -- I think an even better idea is to make the Libertarians into a liberty-minded pressure group instead of a political party! -- mac]

Ron Paul Launches Campaign for Liberty

From The Cato Institute

"The governor and other prominent Texas Republicans were supposed to take center stage at the opening of the party's state convention, but Ron Paul may have stolen the show," The Dallas Morning News reports. "Paul himself stirred passion among delegates and others when he held a late-night rally to announce he was officially ending his presidential run. He's forming 'Campaign for Liberty' to continue to spread his message and support Libertarian-leaning candidates across the country."

In "The Libertarian Voter," David Boaz, Cato executive vice president and author of The Politics of Freedom, writes: "Recent polls suggest that 10 to 20 percent of Americans hold 'fiscally conservative, socially liberal' or libertarian views. Indeed, libertarians are a bigger share of the electorate than the much-discussed 'soccer moms,' and they are increasingly a swing vote.

"Libertarian voters have often given 70 percent or more of their votes to Republican candidates, including George W. Bush in 2000. But after six years of war, wiretapping and welfare-state social spending, libertarians gave barely half their votes to Republican candidates in 2006. The swing was even larger in Senate races. It seems clear that a lot of the centrist, moderate, and independent voters who swung to the Democrats in 2006 were libertarian leaners."