As seen at Cato:
Meanwhile, Republicans are slipping in places like the Mountain West where they should do well even in a Democratic year. The national Republican Party is spending big money to save Republican seats in western Idaho, eastern Washington, Colorado Springs, southern and eastern Arizona, and Wyoming. Why would rock-ribbed Barry Goldwater individualists from Idaho to Arizona consider voting for Democrats?
The secret word that ties all these Republican problems together is “libertarian.” Pollsters and politicians tell us that everyone is liberal or conservative, blue or red, Democrat or Republican. But new research shows that about 15 percent of American voters hold libertarian views. They’re small-government, leave-me-alone voters who don’t like big-spending Democrats or religious-right Republicans.
Libertarians usually vote for Republicans, who promise to hold down taxes, spending, and regulation. But in the past six years of Republican control in Washington, federal spending has skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the Republican Party has become more dominated by the religious right, and the Bush administration has mired the country in a seemingly endless war in Iraq.
Of course, since small-”l” libertarians organize about as well as a herd of cats, we seem to be doomed to shift back and forth among elephants and donkeys who don’t really fit our views.