Could Your Neighbor Be A Libertarian? It's More Likely Than You Think!

An anonymous commenter rightly chided me for focusing on silliness when there's interesting stuff going on.* He or she points to a new Cato piece showing that there may well be a pretty even split among tea party activists between those who care only about fiscal conservative issues and those who also care about traditional Judeo-Christian values issues. (As someone who thinks that what passes for many mainstream Christian values in this country generally are nothing Jesus would have bought into I'm a bit miffed at the terminology, but that's a digression for another day.) The really big news for me was seeing how many folks self-identified as Libertarians:

"Surprisingly, 35 percent of respondents who hold libertarian views self-identified as such. In previous surveys, we’ve found only 2 to 3 percent self-identify as “libertarian” nationally. To the extent that Tea Partiers talk to their neighbors and friends, perhaps we will begin to see the word “libertarian” catch on. This would certainly be good news for the “libertarian brand,” and a possible trend worth exploring in future research."

If supported by later findings, this would be wonderful news. A serious third party candidate approach to dealing with fiscal issues separately from culture issues would force a national discussion we really need to have.

On a related note, I thought Warren Redlich did a really nice job in the farce of a debate we had in NY's governor's race. It was good tactics by Cuomo to insist on that format -- made it quite easy to lump Paladino in with the "fringe" candidates. But a nice unintended consequence from my point of view would be for some folks who had thought of Libertarians as no more serious than the Rent Is Too Damn High Party to take a closer look at the former. After watching the debate together, my daughter now wants me to vote for Jimmy "The Poodle" McMillan, but maybe I'll just buy her the action figure.



* I will freely confess that my lawyerly/childish/quixotic quest to see if LAGuy is ever willing to admit error is silly.