http://www.politico.com/magazine/st...ke-what-were-hearing-110769.html#.VBerm2K9KSM The Republican establishment seems unaware of the power of young libertarians. The past six years have seen explosive growth of libertarian groups on campuses and in communities across the country. Students for Liberty has added more than 100,000 members and Young Americans for Liberty has formed more than 500 chapters. Multiple polls from Pew and Harvard University attest to young voters’ acceptance of non-interventionism, drug decriminalization, skepticism of government and other libertarian ideas. And surveys from Quinnipiac, Public Policy Polling and Reason-Rupe have found Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul receiving the most support of any Republican candidate among millennials. These campus groups and a host of different state and national groups have helped educate and organize this movement, whether via top-down organizations that have built armies of volunteers to battle the overreach of the national security state, or bottom-up organic groups that have enabled thousands of young moms to stand against Common Core in their communities. At the turn of the 21st century, the idea of an organized and activated libertarian movement would have struck most people as absurd, even for those in the halls of sympathetic think tanks. But it has arrived thanks to a number of factors, most of which, again, have to do with the decisions and mistakes of the Republican Party.
Yes. The few young people who in previous generations would have been republicans are now "independents" or "libertarians". They'll still vote for republicans, and they still won't have much of an impact on politics as a result, and they still won't ever get laid, but at least nowadays they don't have to admit they are republicans. Progress! barfo
500 chapters. Go ahead and sneeze at it. Our agenda is already happening on many fronts. It's not a sprint, but a marathon. We are doing better than I hoped by this point in time.
Ha----choo! I'm pretty sure you aren't a millennial, Denny. Or are you admitting those students are just pawns of old guys? You've beheaded a few journalists, big deal. Now we bomb you back to the stone age. barfo
I'm a libertarian. So are they. I'm satisfied with that. It's hard to fathom how republicans and democrats don't satisfy the public, yet they keep electing republicans and democrats as if the new guys are any better than the old. How do you feel about the NSA spying on everyone? That's your vision of government. You wanted it, you got it. You argue that the constitution is outdated and can largely be ignored. Your kind is running things and they're ignoring it. I guess it's still tolerable for you for some reason . So you want to start bombing our college campuses now? Bomb them into the Stone Age!
Denny, the oldest teenage libertarian protestor. "Hey, man, we're here, we're clear, we don't want any federal funding except for the military, which is super-important." Start the chant.
Minstrel, I'd be quite in favor of cutting the military by 2/3 or more. Obama didn't do that. Bush didn't do that. The next democrat or republican won't do that. Why do you want such a big military?
A big chunk of that military budget goes to education and medical care for enlistees. Why do you want millions of people to bed uneducated, poor, and unhealthy?
Why? Because I don't want us dropping bombs on people outside (or inside!) the country on a 24/7/365 basis.
I'm disgusted by the republicans, totally disappointed by the democrats, but that doesn't equate to wanting libertarians either. It means we need to somehow get large money and influence out of politics so that no matter who is elected they once again try to satisfy the needs and wants of their communities instead of placating money interests. This might mean voting in third party candidates, just to shake things and get the word out that we are sick of the way things are currently being run.
Denny - I agree with much of this agenda - the NSA spying, the defense budget cuts, etc. But I also think that liberals have changed this country for the better - just look at The Roosevelts on PBS - TR created the park system, busted trusts and monopolies, etc. FDR created Social Security and the minimum wage, etc. Can I be a liberal Libertarian?
If republicans and democrats get to limit the green party's ability to get their word out, how is it better? You know, the two parties would be able to squash 1st amendment political speech.
And beside, Romney spent $931 million and Obama 1.1 billion. Neither of them had anywhere close to enough capital to support their own campaign even if they wanted to, so they end up getting it from others, much of the time the money bing tied to a certain belief or industry that the politician then owes. It's a broken system.
