I would put Jim Cooper at the edge between Centrist and Authoritarian with Duncan at the edge of Conservative and Authoritarian, especially because of his dracioan stand on immigration. Bruce Benneit would be on the edge of Centrist to Conservative because of his tax stand and Authoritarian especially because because of his big brotherish stand on immigration.The guy Benneit, is running against,Zack Wamp, is Authoritarian plain and simple.--- In [email protected], Logan Ferree <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Today, a new Congressional scorecard was released by > FreedomDemocrats.org, a libertarian Democrats blog. Grading the members > of the House of Representatives on thirty votes on personal liberty and > forty on economic liberty, it shows that few members of Congress support > a broad libertarian agenda. The results of the scorecard, including a > graphic representation of the members on a Nolan Chart, can be found > online at the following link: http://freedomdemocrats.org/node/812 > > Over the past six years, the rise of "compassionate conservatism" > has eroded the Republican Party's traditional support for economic > liberty. The majority of Republicans fall within the authoritarian > quadrant, voting against both personal liberty and economic liberty the > majority of the time. Ironically, the two most libertarian members of > the House are Republicans Ron Paul of Texas and Jeff Flake of Arizona, > despite the growing authoritarian nature of their party. > > Across the aisle, the Democratic Party remains committed to > liberalism. While most of its members support personal liberty, it has > a significant "populist" wing of the party that is far more socially > conservative. Despite some variety on social issues, the Democrats > remain united in support of economic liberalism and big government. Yet > because of the party's overall support of personal liberty, in many ways > it appears to be more libertarian than the authoritarian Republican Party. > > FreedomDemocrats.org is an online internet community of libertarian > activists within the Democratic Party. Faced with the collapse of > fiscal responsibility in the Republican Party and its descent into > authoritarianism, it works to promote genuine small government ideas and > candidates within the Democratic Party. Although dismayed by the low > scores of most Democrats, we are pleased to note that two Democratic > members of the House stand out for having libertarian-leaning voting > records: Melissa Bean of Illinois and Jim Cooper of Tennessee, both > members of the Blue Dog Democrats Coalition. > > Melissa Bean of Illinois is still in her first term; she defeated > long time incumbent Phil Crane in 2004. She scored 80% on economic > issues and 50% on social issues. Although more to the right on social > issues than ideal, she has shown herself to be a staunch fiscal > conservative (according to the old, traditional definition of the > phrase). She has received a rare endorsement from the Chamber of > Commerce, an organization that typically supports Republicans, in her > reelection bid. > > Jim Cooper of Tennessee is also a deficit hawk and an opponent of > wasteful spending; he scored 67.50% on economic issues and 56.67% on > social issues. He has received media attention recently for pushing to > publish the "Financial Report of the United States." This report, which > more accurately tracks the budget and future financial obligations like > Social Security than traditional budget methods, will hopefully help > inform voters about the reality of our country's coming fiscal crisis. > > In the future, FreedomDemocrats.org hopes to support more Democratic > challengers running with a libertarian-leaning platform. One such > candidate is Frank Gonzalez, a former Libertarian Party candidate who is > currently running in the Florida 21st. Please check out his site: > http://www.electfrank.org/ Another Libertarian-turned-Democrat is Brent > Benedict in the Tennessee 3rd: http://www.brentbenedict.com/ The Freedom > Democrats community also plans on working on targeting specific policy > proposals to Democratic activists and party members in order to expand > the appeal of libertarian ideas. > > <><> > Logan H. Ferree >
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