Civil Libertarians are a minority in the Democratic party. Liberalism, progressivism and Libertarianism are separate.

Why did the Democrats win the election? Sure, Tester got some leverage out of the PATRIOT Act. But the Democrats won the election for two reasons: the Republicans were running the country badly, and the War in Iraq is a disaster. Violations of Civil Liberties, though egregrious to some (like me, for example), were not what drove the Democratic victory.

If voters care about FISA, it is probably more because Bush violated it. The PATRIOT Act gave him expansive powers, and then he broke the law because he didn't think it was expansive enough.

The most amusing irony is that many people pretend to be Libertarians but vote Republican. As a previous poster showed, the Republican party is unanimous in its disdain for Civil Liberties. At least the Democratic party has a strong contingent of representatives who are against these kinds of infringements. But with the narrow majority held by the Democrats, unanimity is needed. And to expect unanimity from the Democratic party on these sorts of issues is to vastly misunderstand the voters who elected these men and women.

Posted at October 9, 2007 6:37 AM in response to Punched in the stomach

Bloomberg won't run a left of center campaign, however. He won't do it to be a spoiler, or on principle. His best bet is to be Perot without the craziness. That's the model that can win.

Posted at June 20, 2007 11:00 PM in response to The Bloomberg Bubble

That same Pew poll found 65 percent of people knew who Bloomberg was. And even at the abstract, hypothetical Buck Mulligan level, the numbers would indicate that more Republicans than Democrats are interested in an independent candidate.

What makes Bloomberg different? Why will he attract Democrats, when Perot attracted Republicans? What is the change, specifically?

You seem to take it as a given that he will attract more Democratic voters, but why? What is the evidence that this will be the case?

"Do you think rural Pennsylvanians, a state Dems have won by narrow margins in the past two cycles, are going to vote for Bloomberg over Fred Thompson?"

I think more Pennsylvania Republicans will vote for Bloomberg than Democrats will. Who are these hypothetical Bloomberg Democrats?

Posted at June 20, 2007 10:56 PM in response to The Bloomberg Bubble

"As many as 38% of independent voters and 36% of Republican voters who have heard of Bloomberg say there is at least some chance they'd vote for him, compared to just 26% of Democratic voters."

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/518/bloomberg-independent

Please explain to me how Bloomberg isn't Ross Perot 2. He's socially liberal, big on government accountability... Why does he take Democratic votes, unlike Perot? And what evidence is there that he doesn't, as the Pew poll shows, actually take votes from Republicans?

Posted at June 20, 2007 6:14 PM in response to The Bloomberg Bubble