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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Party time

Libertarian dreams of becoming a viable national party have never come close to being realized. But what about a state takeover?

Subtract the results of the Second Congressional District, and it is possible that the votes for Libertarian and no party candidates in all of the other U.S. House contests will exceed those cast for Democrats across the rest of Louisiana, belying the notion that state Democrats are anywhere near a sustained and successful rebuilding effort.

The final qualifying statistics registered Republicans having one or more candidates in all six districts, in five of which they are favored overwhelmingly, Libertarians contesting all but the First, and Democrats competing in just three, and in the Second their Rep. Cedric Richmond is the heavy reelection favorite. Besides those dismal statistics for the state’s former majority party, some others compound recognition of its plight.

Our political system works best with two functionaing, competitive parties. Imagine how much better off we'd be if one of them were the Libertarian Party and all elections featured a real choice between more government or less government. On a state-by-state basis it makes sense to try to knock off the weaker party, whichever that might be. As a philosophical matter, though, it makes more sense to dispatch the Gargantuan Spending Democratic Party to the dustbin instead of the Merely Big Spending Republican Party.

Whaddya say, Rupert, want to get to work on that?

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