While possibly effective, there’s a danger to promoting a candidate from a different party, but that’s not stopping the Arizona Democratic Party.

From the Espresso Pundit:

Wow, talk about a desperate move by those whose ideas have been rejected by the populace. The Arizona Democratic Party is sending out mail advocating for the Libertarian Candidate in CD 8 because he is the “Real Conservative.”

That’s an official concession in the battle of ideas. When the Democrats have a candidate as attractive as Gabby Giffords and instead of arguing that her world view is better than Jesse Kelly’s world view—they argue that Steve Stolts [sic] is actually more conservative than Kelly, the Dems have shown that ideas don’t matter, and they simply want to win elections.

While the argument could be made that both parties “simply want to win elections,” it’s hard for a party to stay idealistic when they’re making a case for someone other than their own candidate.

This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.

The editor of the Tucson Weekly. I have no idea how I got here.

2 replies on “Arizona Democratic Party Reaches Into the Pocket of Bad Ideas”

  1. It appears to be part a Democratic push nationally, and also effectively false advertising.
    While it is true that Libertarians lean right on many issues, especially fiscal ones, they also lean left on social issues — much further left than the Democrats.

    Take, for example, the LP’s stance on marriage, which the local Libertarian Party advocates for abolishing all restrictions currently in place regarding “one man/one woman” marriage.

    “We call for the abolition of all state laws and regulations restricting marriages, including the marriage license. We call for the abolition of all laws prohibiting marriage between any consenting adults, or any number of consenting adults.” — http://www.azlp.org/platform.php

    Yeah, they favor full freedom of marriage, and to the AZLP, that includes polygamy.

    However, they also do not support the War on Terror (most conservatives do), restrictions on freedom as part of the war on terror (Bush’s Patriot Act), and lean technically right of the Tea Party for the privatization of government services.

    Fair’s fair, but you’d never see a Libertarian (sans Ron Paul) push for abortion restrictions like you would a true conservative. Ron Paul’s appearance in the ’88 presidential ballot ruffled many Libertarians, and an opposition Libertarian president did make a run for office.

    As far as the national trend I mentioned earlier, here’s what the LP office press released, if I may have the privilege:
    WASHINGTON – In Colorado, Indiana, Illinois, and Maryland, Democrats have spent money on mailers and other printed items to inform voters about Libertarian candidates.
    Libertarian Party (LP) Executive Director Wes Benedict said, “We’re pleased to see Democrats spending their own money to promote Libertarian candidates. We hope Republicans will start doing the same thing soon.”
    …
    If the Republicans are smart, they might try a similar tactic. For example, Republicans could inform liberal voters that Libertarians want to end foreign wars and close foreign military bases; end the War on Drugs; reform immigration policy to make legal immigration easier; and we want the government to show equal treatment to homosexuals.”

    — from a centrist libertarian (small ‘l’)

  2. Retraction: The “opposing Libertarian” during the presidential election was during other presidential elections. Not 1988, it appears. Not that this is any big whoop to anyone as it’s the past.

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