Will the Libertarian Party Field A Candidate Against Presidential Candidate Rand Paul?

[cjm]

Yes. The L party cares more about advancing their Party than principle (see: Bob Barr) just like the R's and D's do.
No one will pay attention to him/her, they'll get their usual 1% and won't amount to anything.

(I'm talking about the "Party" in my first sentence, not all individual libertarians)

I agree with all of this except the 1%. Historically it's more like 0.4%

 

[CaptLouAlbano]

Yes. The L party cares more about advancing their Party than principle (see: Bob Barr) just like the R's and D's do.
No one will pay attention to him/her, they'll get their usual 1% and won't amount to anything.

(I'm talking about the "Party" in my first sentence, not all individual libertarians)

I think even more so it is a bunch of people sitting around that are a combination of clueless and delusional. 40 years - 40 fucking years and this is what they have amounted to?

They trot out their list of LP members elected to public office every year. There's at most 200 people nationwide. What they fail to tell you in the huge majority of them are for non-partisan seats, and I bet if you dug deeper of the handful that were elected to partisan seats a bunch of them ran unopposed or on "fusion" tickets. My best guess (and I don't have the time, nor desire to do the reasearch), is that of the 10's of thousands of elected offices in this country, maybe a dozen people at best won their seat running solely on the LP line of the ballot and were opposed in their race. Quite a showing for a party that is 40 years old. Yay team!

 

[mello]

They will. That candidate will never get on a national debate & will barely be mentioned by the MSM though. He or she will use a lot of money to just get on the ballot.

 

[JCDenton0451]

Don't get all the LP bashing in this thread.

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

They will. That candidate will never get on a national debate & will barely be mentioned by the MSM though.

No way. The media liked to use negative comments about Rand Paul from the Kentucky Libertarian Party against him back in 2010. They'll be running criticisms about Paul from them often if he wins the GOP nomination.

 

[Bastiat's The Law]

The Libertarian party is a firing circle. (It took me a long time to realize they like being in the circle.)

Of course they'll run a candidate.

Very accurate and true.

 

[twomp]

I would be more worried if they didn't. The Libertarian party is their own party and SHOULD field their own candidates. We need more parties not less. I would be concerned if the Libertarian Party said they were in "cahoots" with the Republican party and won't challenge them. We need MORE choices not less.

 

[specsaregood]

They will. That candidate will never get on a national debate & will barely be mentioned by the MSM though. He or she will use a lot of money to just get on the ballot.

When Rand is the GOP nominee, I fully expect the LP candidate to be invited to all the debates.

 

[FrankRep]

A pretty good Democrat strategy would be to send money to the Libertarian campaign to make sure they're well funded. If the Libertarians take at least 3-4% of the vote, the Democrats could get a huge advantage and win the election.

 

[JCDenton0451]

If Rand took back his "I'm not a libertarian" statement, I could see them stepping back.

As it stands, Rand is putting forth the idea that he's a "True-blue-conservative-constitutionalist-Republican" - and he's not talking about libertarian philosophy or having a discussion about what the role of government should be from a libertarian POV.

To pretend that he's a "good enough" libertarian to not run a candidate is to give up on libertarianism altogether.

It irks me every time the media refer to Rand as a "libertarian" and he accepts this label. Not only it goes at odds with his political strategy, he dilutes the meaning of libertarianism in the process.

Rand's mission in the Republican party should be reforming Conservatism, not Libertarianism.

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

We need MORE choices not less.

When your party is a dud, has 0% chance of winning and usually gets less than 1% of the vote in national elections, it might as well not even be a "choice."

To me, a candidate/party needs to be viable to be a real "choice."

 

[FrankRep]

It irks me every time the media refer to Rand as a "libertarian" and he accepts this label. Not only it goes at odds with his political strategy, he dilutes the meaning of libertarianism in the process.

Rand's mission in the Republican party should be reforming Conservatism, not Libertarianism.

The media is only using the "libertarian" term to smear Rand Paul to make him lose support.

 

[cjm]

Don't get all the LP bashing in this thread.

Some of us are LP survivors.

 

[The Free Hornet]

Thoughts? I say yes. They may go after him hard too. I could see the dems getting in on the action too.

So you have eyes? If the LP/CP elect not to run a candidate, it looks like an endorsement of Rand (who based on the premise of your question, is the presumptive nominee of the GOP). However, what is that endorsement worth? Likely, less than zero.

I would hope LP/CP continue with business as normal and I would hope the good candidates consider seriously their choices.

Maybe you should pick a better pot to stir next time...

 

[speciallyblend]

yes, because i will not be voting republican. I do not trust rand or the rest of them.

 

[AuH20]

A pretty good Democrat strategy would be to send money to the Libertarian campaign to make sure they're well funded. If the Libertarians take at least 3-4% of the vote, the Democrats could get a huge advantage and win the election.

which ties into what Howard Dean recently said. He said that Rand could never be any type of libertarian because of his pro-life stance.

 

[twomp]

When your party is a dud, has 0% chance of winning and usually gets less than 1% of the vote in national elections, it might as well not even be a "choice."

To me, a candidate/party needs to be viable to be a real "choice."

It's exactly that attitude that will have us voting Team Red or Team Blue forever. Eventually people are going to have step out of that mentality and say enough is enough.

 

[FrankRep]

It's exactly that attitude that will have us voting Team Red or Team Blue forever. Eventually people are going to have step out of that mentality and say enough is enough.

Ron Paul went Team Red and became a Congressman.

 

[AuH20]

Clinton money forms a libertarian PAC that goes after Rand Paul. Watch for it!

 

[JCDenton0451]

The media is only using the "libertarian" term to smear Rand Paul to make him lose support.

Well, he should be rejecting this label then, not embracing it.