Misrepresenting Election Outcomes

[Bleak Morn]

At the urging of local Libertarians, I penned the linked Letter to the Editor (which I've just been informed, my local paper will either print or list on their website).

 

In it, I complained that the paper reported that city residents had voted to raise their own income taxes because, as near as I could calculate, only 7.3% of the voting aged population supported the measure (which was passed during a special election with only 15% turnout of those registered to vote).

 

I shared the text of the letter with area Libertarian leaders and they seemed skeptical of my position, though all I did was provide the official figures and do some simple math to show the percentage of people who supported the measure compared to those who are of voting age in the City.

 

Most of them responded with concerns over how we'd pay for "minimal government" without such taxes and told me that the tax hike was reasonable because of "implied consent".

 

I also posted a proposal to a SECRET State Libertarian party Facebook group (invite only) that a quick poll I conducted of 50 random people over the span of a month suggested we might gain traction by proposing that my state, Ohio, ban the taxation of minors.

​Once again I was shocked to see such aggressive backlash.

 

How can Libertarian office holders sign the pledge that "I will not support the initiation of force to further social or political goals" and then turn around and justify taxing small children and considering tax hikes to be legitimate when they only have 7.3% support?!?

 

I thought these would be slam-dunk issues... but now I'm just confused.

[shirgall]

I was once membership director of a state's Libertarian Party. Identification as a libertarian--even registering to vote as a libertarian--does not make one a libertarian. There's even a lot of disagreement on what being a "libertarian" is. Instead,you have to judge people by what they do.

 

One of the most contentious issues of the party for a decade was charging members dues. Can you imagine?

 

People are not often encouraged to look deeply at themselves or their deeply-held tenets or even their methodologies. They are just asked what they think. And a lot of people don't really think about what their off-the-cuff opinion is going to be on a lot of subjects.

[Bleak Morn]

I was once membership director of a state's Libertarian Party. Identification as a libertarian--even registering to vote as a libertarian--does not make one a libertarian. There's even a lot of disagreement on what being a "libertarian" is. Instead,you have to judge people by what they do.

 

In Ohio, voters select their parties by voting in a partisan primary.  Petitioning for Libertarians, I could also get signatures from "Unaffiliated" voters (there's no such thing as an "Independent" voter here).

 

I'd knock on doors and people would tell me they were a die-hard Democrat or Republican (apparently not too die-hard to skip the last few primaries!).

 

I even made a point to go to every registered Libertarian in my Ward (which is kind of silly because most Libertarians I've ever met don't usually like random strangers on their property, I'll admit).  What I found there was even more surprising.

 

Nearly all of them had no idea what a Libertarian was and just voted Libertarian because it wasn't D or R.  My favorite though was a young woman who told me that she meant to vote for Ron Paul (who was a candidate in the Republican primary last presidential cycle) but, knowing he had libertarian views, asked for a Libertarian ballot and didn't get to vote for him.

 

Of course, though she had a basic grasp of Libertarian viewpoints and apparently wanted to vote for them, she also said she was too busy to volunteer to help bring choices like that to others via the ballot.

 

The LP in Ohio was recently stripped of party status.  There's a petition drive underway to regain ballot access but, amazingly, everyone is too busy with other things to petition.

 

Wish I couldn't say I've seen this before... but it reminds me of the party pre 2007.

 

Anyway, I kind of expect this kind of thing from the masses - they only learn about the political system through State schools and media, but I expected a little more depth from people who have risen to leadership positions.