libertarians

[WalterMitty]

are libertarians strongest in college towns?  i was just review some results for governor here in nc, the libertarian candidate got their highest percentage in college counties.

just wondering if that is the norm.  

[Brambila]

Libertarians are weird, so many college students vote for them.

[angus]

As I recall, Libertarian Senate Candidate (and gun nut) Carla Howell received as much popular support as did the Republican Senate candidate for Massachusetts senator in November 2000.  That is, Kennedy received something like 3/4 of the vote and the remainder was split evenly between L and R.  Boston is the college town.  But the numbers I just gave were statewide, so you'd need to compare, say, Lowell and Fitchburg, to Boston and Cambridge.  Nevertheless, since more than half of the population of that state live in or near the College Town, it's a pretty good bit of evidence that Libertarians received, in that particular race, as much as the Republican in the nation's premier college town.

[CTguy]

Younger voters are much more likely to support 3rd party candidates since they don't take their vote as seriously...  those who even vote at all.  So that is not suprising.  More than half of Nader's votes came from people under 35.

[Nation]

Or maybe they vote for a 3rd party because they're actually voting their conscious, and not party lines. God forbid someone would do that.

[Beet]

Too bad under this sytem it doesn't pay to vote your beliefs.

[angus]

Beet,
As my Nederlande colleague, Arjan Gijsbertsen, used to say, "In the Dutch system, if 9 people like hip-hop and one person likes jazz, you play hip-hop 9 out of every ten songs, and one out of every ten songs will be jazz.  In the US system, if 9 people like hip-hop and one person likes jazz, you play hip-hop ten out of every ten songs."

Apt metaphor, I think, for proportional representation as opposed to winner-take-all.

[CTguy]

Or maybe they vote for a 3rd party because they're actually voting their conscious, and not party lines. God forbid someone would do that.

Yes but we learned out lesson.  I voted for Nader last time...  Voting your conscience is fine and dandy but when you're talking about the country going to hell I'll take the lesser of two evils any day.  And by the way, the parties aren't that much alike as third parties would have us believe.

[WalterMitty]

is it college students voting for these libertarians, or is it professors?  or both?

[Gustaf]

Beet,
As my Nederlande colleague, Arjan Gijsbertsen, used to say, "In the Dutch system, if 9 people like hip-hop and one person likes jazz, you play hip-hop 9 out of every ten songs, and one out of every ten songs will be jazz.  In the US system, if 9 people like hip-hop and one person likes jazz, you play hip-hop ten out of every ten songs."

Apt metaphor, I think, for proportional representation as opposed to winner-take-all.

Yes, there's a good point to that. The counter-ergument for your system would be that if 10 people are all playing different tunes at the same time, everyone will evenetually get a head-ache...

[CTguy]

Probably both but college students make up a larger chunk of the electorate than professors do...  I personally know an absolute ton of students I went to college with that were die-hard libertarians but they started to move away from the party mainly because of gun control.  I would say that they probably have moved back to it since the issue is no longer that significant and since all of the patriot act concerns seem to be best addressed from a libertarian standpoint.  

I almost think it is the super-intellectuals that are supporting these third parties...  because they see the "bigger picture" as they would like to call it...  they look past this election here and now and are working toward building a party and changing the system... and blah blah blah...  I happen to think it's all bullsh*t but most people supporting these causes are rich upper middle class white kids that have the luxury of throwing away their vote as I did in 2000...  But I think many of them have learned their lesson... especially if they live in Florida.

[muon2]

Here's my thought on youth and Libertarians. There is wide segment of the population that is for less government - socially and economically. Generally that is the Libertarian stand. However, like many US third parties, the Libertarians often take their platform to extremes.

Young voters with less investment in their lives tend to be more willing to vote on ideology alone, without regard to the relative extremity of the ideology. Older voters become more pragmatic, and want ideology tempered with realism. Neither major party really covers both the social and economic aspects of libertarianism, so I'm not surprised that those who lean towards that ideology are more likely to vote for it when they are young.

I spent some of my adult life in metro Boston and have family there. Many older natives have a strong "Yankee" streak which when you get to it is really realistic libertarianism.  My sense is that is a very old tradition in the region. The older "Yankees" used to vote Republican, but now vote Democrat, since that better matches their practical needs.
 

[CTguy]

Here's my thought on youth and Libertarians. There is wide segment of the population that is for less government - socially and economically. Generally that is the Libertarian stand. However, like many US third parties, the Libertarians often take their platform to extremes.

Young voters with less investment in their lives tend to be more willing to vote on ideology alone, without regard to the relative extremity of the ideology. Older voters become more pragmatic, and want ideology tempered with realism. Neither major party really covers both the social and economic aspects of libertarianism, so I'm not surprised that those who lean towards that ideology are more likely to vote for it when they are young.

I spent some of my adult life in metro Boston and have family there. Many older natives have a strong "Yankee" streak which when you get to it is really realistic libertarianism.  My sense is that is a very old tradition in the region. The older "Yankees" used to vote Republican, but now vote Democrat, since that better matches their practical needs.
 

I agree 100%.

[classical liberal]

What needs?

People who benefit most from Republican policies seem to vote Democrat and those who benefit from Democratic policies seem to vote Republican.  It has to be ideology that pushes New England to the left, practically the majority of New Englanders should be on the right.

[angus]

You have listened to one too many Howard Dean speeches.

[Gustaf]

Here's my thought on youth and Libertarians. There is wide segment of the population that is for less government - socially and economically. Generally that is the Libertarian stand. However, like many US third parties, the Libertarians often take their platform to extremes.

Young voters with less investment in their lives tend to be more willing to vote on ideology alone, without regard to the relative extremity of the ideology. Older voters become more pragmatic, and want ideology tempered with realism. Neither major party really covers both the social and economic aspects of libertarianism, so I'm not surprised that those who lean towards that ideology are more likely to vote for it when they are young.

I spent some of my adult life in metro Boston and have family there. Many older natives have a strong "Yankee" streak which when you get to it is really realistic libertarianism.  My sense is that is a very old tradition in the region. The older "Yankees" used to vote Republican, but now vote Democrat, since that better matches their practical needs.
 

I agree 100%.

Me too.