In a Tue. Wall Street Journal op-ed (also available here), David
Boaz writes of libertarians unrepresented by either politicians or
media:
Gallup also found-this year as in others-that 20% are neither liberal nor conservative but libertarian, opposing the use of government either to "promote traditional values" or to "do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses."
[But] Democrats stand like a wall against tax cuts and Social Security privatization. Republicans want to ban abortion, gay marriage and "Happy Holidays." It's not just Congress-in Virginia's recent elections, all the Democrats were tax-hikers and all the Republicans were religious rightists. What's a libertarian to do?
He concludes:
According to [exit] polls, 17 million voted for John Kerry but did not think the government should do more to solve the country's problems. And 28 million Bush voters support either gay marriage or civil unions. That's 45 million who don't fit the polarized model. They seem to have broadly libertarian attitudes. In fact, it's no secret that libertarian voters make up a chunk of America. But you'd never know it from watching TV-or listening to our elected politicians.
The tragedy of our political system is that the two parties and
their activists fundraising networks use the worst propagandistic
means to keep their respective donor bases whipped into a
crazy/angry frenzy. I'm reminded of the words of W.B.
Yeats:
The centre cannot hold ...
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
More. We've now posted Paul Varnell's "Neither Liberal nor Conservative," with further insights about polarization.--Stephen H. Miller