Post stuff on election :)
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
I'm less worried about the actual results and more worried about going to work tomorrow and hearing my colleagues hopping around, thinking it's all gonna be sunshine and lollipops now because Bronco Bamma's going to save the world! (I'm no Romney supporter, but where I live and work, it's almost exclusively liberals and socialists I gotta deal with)
Its not that.
Its the fact people think elections are legitimate and will change something in the first place.
“Since people are concerned that ‘X’ will not be provided, ‘X’ will naturally be provided by those who are concerned by its absence.""The sweetest of minds can harbor the harshest of men.”
http://voluntaryistreader.wordpress.org
@Kevin
Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant - that my colleagues, friends and family believe that when Obama wins this election because of their votes or...vocal support (which I think he will), they will have achieved a great victory over the evil Republicans and everything's gonna be great now. Example: Today, one of my colleagues told me, "If Mr. Obama doesn't win, God help us!" Didn't want to rain on her parade by saying, "Romney vs. Obama = Alien vs. Predator. Whoever wins, we lose."
Worse of all, they treat the elections like a football game.
Arrgggh repubs ganna beat the dems yaarrrr
Nawww repubs its tha dems that gotta win it....
I want fireworks. Best scenario is 269 vs 269. Man that would be hilarious to watch.
Runner-up is Romney wins popular vote, Obama the EVs. But frankly, I want Obama to lose just to see the meltdown.
Lol, yes perfect analogy. You even get the play-by-play and post-game analysis on CNN. :P
The other analogy I draw in my own mind is the whole red (Republican) vs. blue (Democrat) thing. It reminds me of when I used to play a multiplayer video game where you would individually choose to fight for the red team or the blue team. There was no difference between the two other than the color of your character's clothing and yet, given some time, the players on both sides were making generalized statements about the other team ("Blue team's a bunch o' fags!", "red team are cheaters!"). I feel like that's pretty much where we're at in real life. People found a way to collectivize each other based on nothing.
Prediction: Obama by a wide margin (more than 5 points), both electoral and popular.
While I'll be glad when this is over, I am apprehensive about what is going to follow... I think the floodgates are going to open up on CPI and the war-drums are going to start pounding for war in Iran and Syria.
Clayton -
Yeah, Obama will definitely win.
Here is a prediction: Obama's re-election with "spark" a grass-roots, White, Tea Party, Republican, freedom-loving, free-market-worshiping, gold-eating, tofu-hating, militianist, secessionist movement, causing a huge implementation of the police state to protect us from these domestic terrorists. Sandy was simply practice.
I hope Obama wins so that he can be blamed for everything that follows, rather than the spuriously 'free-market' Romney taking the hit. Also, chances of a major war being started under Obama seem less than one under Romney (even if likely).
Because I don't see those two things as part of the elites' plans, I think Romney has a good chance. But Obama has been compliant with many of their measures, so they might just keep him. Either way I think the next president after Obama will be Republican, purely to shift the masses anger from this way to that and back again.
Out of curiosity, what do you guys, who probably don't fall into the mainstream of the American political spectrum, tell people when they come up to you with a 'mainstream' question like, "Do you support Romney or Obama?" or "Are you a Republican or Democrat?". After you presumably respond with "neither," what do you tell them after that? I'm guessing you don't just launch into how you're a classical liberal or anarcho-capitalist/voluntaryist, lol. Or do you just not bother explaining? I like to tell people where I stand because this is one of the ways I can spread the message of liberty. But I've only got their attention for about two minutes so I'm wondering if you've developed quick ways of explaining your philosophy.
I ask because someone at work today saw my Gary Johnson/Libertarian sticker and asked, "What's 'Libertarian?' Are they like nudists?" I've gotten so used to having deeper philosophical debates online at places like Mises and with a couple of my better informed friends that I froze when trying to explain myself to a random person. After talking to me, she and another colleauge pretty much pigeon-holed libertarians as supporting "'proper' small government" or "get government out of everything." Me: "Yeah, something like that..."
Live in California. Pops is a republican. Said, hey pops, Romney won't win California anyway, how about voting for Johnson.
Okay, he says, will do.
Haha.
Bah. Just got back from voting. In most cases there was only one candidate. In retrospect, I should have just written in my own name, lol. I'll do that next time if I vote at all.
I'm favoring Obama to win, but I think it's a question of how much of a hurry TPTB are in to keep things under control domestically. If they're in a hurry, I wouldn't be surprised if the election goes to Romney, because there have apparently been many people threatening to riot should he win the election. TPTB may foment civil unrest in order to justify a crackdown and further power-grabbing. Otherwise, if they think things are sufficiently under control domestically, then Obama will definitely win the election. I'm sure they recognize that there'd be significantly more public support for future foreign-policy shenanigans with Obama as president than with Romney.
I'll put it to you all this way: if I had the same goals as TPTB (generally speaking, maintenance and enhancement of US global hegemony), and I had the power to decide the election, the above would be my thought process.
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
My Dad just wrote in the good doctor. My Mom is doing the same after work.
YEE-HAW
I hope Obama wins. He and Romney have the same stupid ideas, but at least if Obama wins the Left will get what it wants, and it'll be on their heads, while they try and explain away all of his failings or resort to vapid rhetoric to turn them into victories. Whereas with Romney there's this lingeriing misconception that he's for free markets. So no matter how socialist he is, it's the market to blame for his socialism.
Bring on Obama and let the rest of the world learn from this stupid monkey-faced imbecile. He can have it teleprompted all he likes that "you didn't build this" whilst the US racks up mountainous debt with China, where entrepreneurs actually are building things, and he and his court of jesters along with that raving lunatic, Warren, continue to stuff their faces on the produce of the market while deriding it.
I cannot wait for the day that he and that bitch get what is coming to them. Maybe a bullet built by his own contractors, heh heh. I also hope he nationalises the US banking sector officially. Let the nutcases in Europe see what happens when he does that.
Freedom of markets is positively correlated with the degree of evolution in any society...
@Jon
If it has to be between the two clowns, I feel the same way as you. I'd rather give the Obama crowd everything they want so when shit gets really bad, they can't pin the blame on the supposed "capitalism" of Romney and they can't say that foreign military intervention is solely the fault of the Republicans. In short, I want people to at least learn something.
It's going to be Obama because that's just how the game works. The four-year mark is just a referendum and a chance for the masters to crack the whip. As long as the incumbent has been dutifully doing his job and hasn't committed any major political blunders, he will be rewarded with a second term. As far as I can tell, Obama has been a dutiful lapdog for TPTB.
If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.
-Mark Twain.
How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?
-Anonymous-
A politician should have three hats. One for throwing into the ring, one for talking through, and one for pulling rabbits out of if elected.
-Carl Sandburg-
If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.
-Jay Leno-
The problem with political jokes is they get elected.
-Henry Cate-
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
-Oscar Ameringer-
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.
-Clarence Darrow-
Don't vote, it only encourages them.
-Bill Connolly-
Take our politicians: they're a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopedia of cliches the first prize.
-Saul Bellow-
If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
-Emma Goldman.
Plenty more from they came from.
Well just did my civic duty and don't I feel all important! (not really) Figured I'd lend my circle-filling expertise to Johnson, and there were some local tax increases I wanted to vote down.
I actually think Romney is going to win, the young tend to go liberal and many in the younger crowd is either apathetic toward Romney and Obama (rightfully so) or is playing Halo 4 today...
You guys actually make a really good case to vote for Obama, seeing as people think Romney supports laissez-faire, if some economic disaster happens under his presidency it could set back the real case for capitalism many many years.
Speaking of voting, I like this article by Mark Brandly:
https://mises.org/daily/5058/Why-Vote
Don't know how many times you will hear this gem:
"You didn't vote, so you don't get to complain!"
I just found out that Ron Paul write-ins in Florida don't count.
What a wonderful democracy.
@SkepticalMetal
Yeah, it's sad. But we know it won't really sway the election anyway. Writing in is just to feel better about supporting someone we actually trust rather than engaging in lesser-of-two-evilism.
Yeah. Oh well. We know we're right anyway.
I just can't help but get ticked off when I see some comment on the internet about how "libertarians don't advocate things like socialized medicine because they are all a bunch of white middle-class phonies who have never experienced something like having a disease and not being able to pay for it."
Sorry. That was kind of off topic. I was just venting over some comment I just read on the Vice Magazine website.
Hahaha, take a look at this, voting machine changing votes due to miscalibration:
Funny how my tablet has never needed to be 'calibrated.'
I'm a go vote soon. Do you guys dare me to vote in my Guy Fawkes mask??? :D I'll totally do it.
Do it do it do it do it do it.
And film it, why don't you.
I'll see if I can get a photo, dunno about filming it :P
Oh yeah, they don't allow that do they?
I dunno about showing up in a mask.
Remember cops have killed people because their 3 Musketeers candy bar "looked like a gun".
That's true. One of the cops might think he's there to do some V-style terrorism.
Not to mention that Guy Fawkes' Day was the day before...We need to stop the Guy Fawkes copy-cat terrorists.
This is nowhere near as exciting as the New Hampshire (or what state was it?) primary.
What exactly do you mean, Marko?
Gentlemen! It is now time!
I think that the winner will be Mitt Romney. And I am not happy about it
As a side note, Tuesday is ruled by Ares (aka Mars), the God of War. Fitting day to hold elections.
I really, really hope it's Obama. Fortunately, I think he'll win.
Like Jon, I don't want what's coming to be in any way blamed on not being tyrannical enough. Sadly, I know it doesn't matter that much as they'll do it anyway.
I just can't help but get ticked off when I see some comment on the internet about how "libertarians don't advocate things like socialized medicine because they are all a bunch of white middle-class phonies who have never experienced something like having a disease and not being able to pay for it." Sorry. That was kind of off topic. I was just venting over some comment I just read on the Vice Magazine website.
Being that they are of part of the media segment which markets itself as 'angry/edgy/hip/tough/snarky liberal bloggers who don't take no shit', that is sustained by wealthy white bourgeois, I'd say this kind of ad hominem venom spitting that they always do is a sign of some serious psychological projection.
The people that write and read this kind of stuff tends to be the upper/middle class college audience who like to imagine they have some intimate understanding of minorities and the lower classes and What's Really Going On, which you can always tell within moments of reading anything written in their sneering, condescending tone.
+1 Another "hoping for Obama to win" libertarian reporting in. Another 4 years of Obama might really give wing to the notion of secession in America.
The Anarch is to the Anarchist what the Monarch is to the Monarchist. -Ernst Jünger
I mean I stayed up most of the night for the results and we were commentating on here and cheering Ron Paul on. I sure won't be staying up today. Maybe it was Iowa, dunno.