From: wayne@mathematik.uni-Bremen.de (Wayne Tvedt)
Subject: Re: Libertarian ticket supported on Rush Limbaugh show
Organization: 250 Million Pet Rocks
Distribution: world 
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 16:36:43 GMT
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werme@alliant.com (Ric Werme) writes:
>wayne@mathematik.uni-Bremen.de (Wayne Tvedt) writes:
>>What evidence is there that the two parties have tried to "suppress"
>>the Libertarians specifically?  I've never heard so much of a peep
>>of recognition towards the Libs from them.  
 
>Two examples:
> 
> 1) [This is hearsay, but I heared it on USENET, so it must be true :-) ]

	Good enough for me.

>    Someone called a radio station to cancel a Nancy Lord interview.  The
>    station didn't bother to check and folks were rather embarrassed when
>    Lord arrived on time.

	But was it a Demopublican?  Could be.  But I've found that the
people who truly *hate* the Libertarians enough to pull dirty tricks
like this aren't Demopublicans themselves, more like Objectivists,
Trots, P&Fers, self-styled anarchists, etc.  My point is that the
established parties just don't notice the Libertarians...
 
> 2) I alluded to this a couple days ago, so please forgive the
>    repetion.  A special election for State Rep for Milford NH included
>    one republican who ran on an absolute no abortion platform, and one
>    libertarian.  (NH is not a Democrat stronghold.)  A week before
>    the election the Democrats fielded a write in candidate, which is a
>    feasible thing to do since there is only a single polling place.  I
>    believe the D "machine" drove people to the polls, I know the R's
>    did.  Memory is fuzzy, but the vote totals were something like R:
>    40%, L: 35%, D: 25%.  Had there not been the D writein, I'm sure we
>    would have won, increasing the libertarian contingent in the state
>    house by 50%, which would have been a major embarassment to the Rs
>    for running such a defeatable candidate and a bigger embarassment
>    to the Ds for not running a candidate from the outset.

	...except in freak accidents.

	Sounds like what political parties are always doing -- dragging
out the vote for their own candidates.  They want their own to win,
sure, but that doesn't count as "suppressing" the other parties.  The
message I was responding to said

>>The democrats and republicans have been trying to suppress the libertarian
>>party since the beginning. Apparently they take it seriously.

And I've heard many other statements from Libs to this effect, that the
two parties are consciously trying to put the Libertarians down.  At
this point all that seems to be running is 150 years of psychological
inertia:  that the two parties are institutions of government, like
Mexico's PRI or the ex-CPSU, and third parties aren't meant to be
taken seriously because they just don't fit.

	The broader issue is that the Libs continually blame external
factors, ie a press that conspires to ignore them, arcane balloting
rules, "suppression" by the major parties, rather than their own
strategies for their failure to gain a foothold.

> [stuff deleted]
> Sure, for the most part the old parties deal with us best by ignoring
> us.  If they paid us some attention, the press might actually cover
> it!  When we start getting enough votes to get the press interested,
> then we may threaten to throw an election between an R & D.  Then they
> can't ignore us.  When we threaten to actually win an election, they
> *do not* ignore us.

	But the Libertarians seem to pose themselves as a special threat to
the status quo... step outside for a moment; do you think they are taken
any more seriously by The Establishment than the Greens or the P&F?

> > Wayne Tvedt                                 wayne@mathematik.uni-bremen.de
> 
>uni-bremen?  I wouldn't expect too many Demopublicans suppressing Libertarians
>there.

	By other names.  German political parties are compensated for their
election expenses in proportion to the number of votes they win.  Nifty, huh? 

--
Wayne Tvedt                                     wayne@mathematik.uni-bremen.de
                                              ...fold globally, expand locally
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