Boo Hoo

With respect to the inevitable accusations of the LP playing "spoiler" in elections, particularly Kentucky's gubernatorial race, I thought I'd reiterate a point Libertarians often have to make:

When you say the LP "spoiled the election for the GOP" what you're implying is those votes somehow belonged to the GOP. They don't. You get to earn them every election, or not. If you want the GOP to win, you have to appeal to a majority of voters. It's not THEIR fault if you can't do that. It's on the GOP.

This also assumes the the LP "stole" votes primarily from the GOP, which time and again has been shown to not be the case...of course each election is different, but you can't assume that the LP didn't draw in moderate Kentucky Democrats as well. So basically, it's not something you can clearly establish, and your time is better spent on being the best representative of your party's ideals and not throwing out excuses as to why you lost. From what I have read, Bevin was a deeply unpopular governor who struggled in early polling.

Heaven forbid your party do some honest introspection and look at just how far you have strayed from your party's stated platform and principles. That would require real change.

EOM