Plurality or majority support for a generic third party in principle is not the same thing as plurality or majority support for a specific third party in the voting booth. In practice, most voters who say they want a third party end up voting Republican or Democrat, or just not voting. Why?
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
Tom has worked in journalism — sometimes as an amateur, sometimes professionally — for more than 35 years and has been a full-time libertarian writer, editor, and publisher since 2000. He’s the former managing editor of the Henry Hazlitt Foundation, the publisher of Rational Review News Digest (2003-present), former media coordinator and senior news analyst at the Center for a Stateless Society (2009-2015) and also works at Antiwar.com. He lives in north central Florida.
Happy Holidays; Yes, All of Them
Like it or not (personally, I like it a lot), America IS a multi-religious and multi-cultural country with holidays galore. So what if you don’t celebrate them all? Why not just congratulate those who do? Shut yer griping, Trump. Merry Christmas AND Happy Holidays!
And Now, A Prairie Home Sexual Harassment Complaint
It’s impossible to know in advance how far any social sea change will go, or how far it should go. But this one may have just seen its first bit of backlash — literally.
James O’Keefe versus the Cardinal Rule of “Gotcha” Journalism
“O’Keefe’s team seems less interested in what’s true than in making the media look bad,” writes Friedersdorf. The indictment is harsh but it seems to be true. And that’s a problem.
No, The End of “Net Neutrality” is Not The End of the World (Wide Web)
The fight over “Net Neutrality” is best understood as a duel between corporate interests — Big Telecom on one hand, Big Data on the other, with Big Data doing a better job of fooling activists into making a moral crusade out of the matter.
Things I’ve Found to be Thankful for in 2017
It’s that time of year, and like most of you I’m planning on a big meal and a lazy afternoon as America celebrates yet another Thanksgiving. Naturally, I’m also thinking back over the previous year and looking for things to be thankful for. I’ve found some. Here are a few that aren’t about family, spiral cut ham and so forth.
How to Stop a Rogue President from Ordering a Nuclear First Strike
Nuclear weapons have no legitimate military use. They are weapons of terror, not of war. It’s time that the first and only government to ever use them become the second (after South Africa) to voluntarily give them up, for its own sake and the world’s.
Impeachment Theater, 2017 Edition
As much as one might like to think of the presidency and Congress as temples to civic virtue or arenas in which issues of great weight are disputed, Washington is in truth a lot more like a “professional wrestling” ring. It’s two gangs of boastful peacocks putting on a tag-team show. Washington’s rivalries may be more real but they’re no more momentous.
The Honest Ads Act: “Fundamental Rights,” Real and Imagined
Americans — and Russians — have a fundamental right to say what they want to say, with or without their names attached to it.
Veterans Day: “Appropriate Homage”
I’d rather have Armistice Day. “Prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace” seem far more appropriate to the occasion than a free car wash. Far more respectful, I feel, to all those whose lives have been cut short by war, and for that matter, to veterans in particular.