Libertarians who support Democrats are self-canceling

Via Glenn Reynolds, some words of wisdom from American Glob:

I don’t believe it’s possible to be a Libertarian and support Democrats.

I agree. For starters, economic issues are far more important than social issues, and Democrats are, by definition, almost always wrong on economic issues.

In practice (for me, at least) when I dislike a Republican candidate, there are usually three possible reasons.

One is economic. Romney, for example, strikes me as a RINO on economic issues, and most likely to support big government solutions, like entangling government in health care. However, he is still better than the Democrats on economic issues.

Another is social. If I dislike a candidate because I disagree with his obnoxious position on one social issue or another, I might be willing to overlook my disagreements if he is not a statist. Christine O’Donnell is an example of someone whose social conservatism I disagreed with, but who on closer examination, convinced me that she would not use the power of the state to implement her views. Often, Democrat opponents of such people are more to my liking on social issues, but that means very little when the social issues are inappropriate areas for government intervention, and it is heavily outweighed by the fact that Democrats are usually just plain awful on economic issues.  (And even if an individual Democrat may believe in free markets, the party does not, nor do the party activists who call the shots.)

So if a candidate displeases me on social issues but is not a statist and additionally believes in free markets, I can hold my nose and support him.

There is a third type of Republican who is as against economic freedom as well as personal freedom. The Republicans for whom I simply could not vote would be in that category. I won’t name names, but they are people I would consider heavily statist social conservatives, hell bent on using the state to invade people’s lives and telling them what to do at gunpoint. But bad as they are, I would never vote for a Democrat over them. In such a case I would vote Libertarian.

Why any libertarian would vote for a Democrat under any circumstances baffles me. The last election was a perfect example. John McCain was a candidate who made many a conservative and many a libertarian want to reach for the barf bag. But look at his opponent! Clayton Cramer put it quite well when he said,

Do you want someone is wrong half the time, or someone who is wrong all the time?

Clearly, some libertarians preferred someone who is wrong all the time. And it wasn’t as if they didn’t have a Libertarian alternative. Bob Barr was on the ticket in every state.