What will libertarian candidate for Virginia governor Rob Sarvis’ legacy be?  Will he be remembered as a hero for stepping up to the plate, or known several years from now by Republicans and effected libertarians as a person whose sole opportunistic achievement was diverting enough votes from the Republican candidate to elect a Democrat?
My bet is on the latter because as much as the libertarians are pissed off that Ron Paul didn’t take over the Tampa convention, and that Obama is still the antichrist—here in Virginia, they WILL be directly impacted with a Democrat back in the Governor’s mansion.
SARVIS SHOULD FOLLOW RAND PAUL’S LEAD
Rand Paul was smart enough to break away and not follow in his father’s footsteps.  Rand instead has chosen to bridge the gap with the GOP, laying needed groundwork for the 2016/20 big show.  Rand has fought hard and moved up the ranks, learned the processes, paid his dues, paved a path and created a history.
Sarvis, is 36 years old and married with kids. He has spent 25 of those years in school collecting degrees.  He has no practical experience and while I respect him, he is really nothing more than that college kid trying to get a top level job at your office while you slave and grind away wondering how you are going to pay for your kids braces, afford healthcare, pay your mortgage or take the family on vacation.
Here is the reality.  Whether a liberal, conservative, independent or libertarian, regardless of what religion or nationality—no one likes some smart ass college snot stepping over us at work to be our boss and/or run the department or the company.  They know nothing of the inner workings, they will make decisions which impact those in the ranks—those that don’t bask in the glory yet work their ass off in jobs which should pay more, and finally, that kid with no experience can have a major impact on your future with that company.  What is any different here folks?
You wouldn’t like some college kid with no experience becoming your boss at work, why would you want it for your State?  Because he claims to be a libertarian?  Very shallow, my libertarian friends.
Or, for those who make over $150K/yr.  You are a mid to high level manager in your organization and have worked hard in your field to get there.  A title, office, staff, perhaps transferring from job to job to gain the experience and background on your resume… now this college puke with no experience is interviewing to be your boss or even the President of the company?  No experience, just a lot of degrees which you know do not mean anything in the real world.  Care for that?  Of course not.  So why allow this kid Sarvis to have a pass just because he claims to be libertarian?
A VOTE FOR SARVIS IS A VOTE FOR MCAULIFFE
The ONLY goal here in Virginia must be to prevent Terry McAuliffe from becoming Governor.  The ONLY way that can occur is to elect Cuccinelli.  Then Sarvis can run in and win a local district election, get some practical experience serving his community in a government role and move him up the ladder with confidence that he can gain support outside of the libertarian community, just like Rand.  He will have 4 years to do so.
If you are libertarian, stop looking for the next world savior—it’s not happening.  But if you want a libertarian-minded candidate to reach the top in Virginia, there has to be a plan, not just a candidate.
Rand Paul was smart enough to know that you can’t attempt to ride the GOP ticket to the big show without bridging some gaps.  Equally, when push comes to shove, the goal for all non-Democrat Americans in 2012 was to rid this country of Obama.  To reach that goal, Rand supported the only candidate who could win against Obama. Unfortunately his father failed the American people and did not drive this to occur himself.  He took his ball and stomped off and Libertarians following daddy were left to sit at home and watch Obama win again when they should have united AS AMERICANS to rid us of Obama.  Don’t let this occur in Virginia.
Let’s wise up Libertarians. Stand and fight with a plan. Create a small win now and show your strength by preventing your worst nightmare, a liberal Democrat, from being in charge of Virginia.  Then you will see if Sarvis was just a one-hit wonder or really wants to help his community long term—if so, support Sarvis over the next few years so he can run for delegate, senate, AG or Governor and have a real chance to make an impact.  The alternative should be unacceptable to you.
35 comments
10 Reasons Libertarians Should NOT Vote For Cuccinelli.
http://theconstitutionworks.blogspot.com/2013/10/10-reasons-libertarians-should-not-vote.html
To trash Sarvis the way you did is disgusting. And to call Cooch “libertarian-minded” is a joke. Libertarians are more than conservatives on steroids: they believe in a consistent philosophy of freedom that applies to all, not just to those favored by the religious right and socons. The problem is with LINOS like Cooch and maybe you is that they don’t understand freedom is about a lot more than just low taxes and gun rights. It’s also about freedom for gays and lesbians and freedom of choice for women and freedom to immigrate to find a job and not making public policy based on someone’s private religious views. If Cooch had this more consistent and expansive view of freedom, he’d get a lot more support, including mine. But he doesn’t, so he won’t. And maybe one day the party will invite all those who support individual liberty into the party instead of driving them away.
What is all this complaining about Sarvis? The guy has no money, no name recognition, no media coverage, no debate participation so why are you sweating this guy? Competition is a good thing in my opinion and the more choice voters have in their politicians the better. Either Cuccinelli can beat both Sarvis and McAuliffe or he can’t. That is why we have elections.
He also has no libertarian principles, apparently.
I don’t think you have all the facts.
Proudly voting for and contributing$$ to Sarvis! Maybe if the GOP wasn’t running a bigoted, religious authoritarian, freedom hating, doofus they wouldn’t have to worry about getting the peoples vote.
What? Somebody doesn’t believe in infanticide? Why, he must be the Ayatollah!
Hit pieces like these aren’t going to win Sarvis supporters over to Cuccinelli… In fact, it might even encourage them to do even more to make sure that Ken loses, even at the expense of letting Terry McAuliffe win.
What a trash article, it sounds like some “little college snot” became your boss and you got sh1t canned. Everything I read from this article sounds like some personal experience and you are angry that someone more intelligent than you got a promotion over you.
Ken is a terrible candidate on the social issues and no libertarian is going to vote for him, he isn’t even pro-gun. Why would I vote for the guy that is so-so on gun rights and wants to persecute homosexuals? Honestly, if Sarvis wasn’t running I wouldn’t vote in this election. I already plan on not voting for AG or LG because all four candidates suck.
Right, because being a “college snot” is so much worse than being an insider politician who has been proven to be corrupt (and that applies to both TM and KC!). Oh they’ve worked so hard to get where they are, clawed their way up, these poor politicians.
testing 123
It’s too bad that Brian Reynolds and others like him are so insecure about their lousy candidate that they have to write articles like this. And that is exactly what it is. Insecurity. If Cooch is such a great candidate, you – and he – should have nothing to worry about. Articles like this do not win Sarvis supporters for Cooch. The only thing that will win you more supporters is to get rid of Cooch and put up somebody else.
Who else should be put up? Cooch was/is the liberty candidate in the GOP. He was endorsed by Ron Paul during his AG run. So who else should the Grand Ol Party put up?
Too bad the Cooch didn’t return the favor in 2012…
what a lame excuse for a hit piece on Robert Sarvis, let’s see if Steve Albertson can do better job
This is something that every committed libertarian must read, but then again, we should not forget that they are completely self righteous and know so much more because they are libertarians and that makes them cool. So self righteous that they are willing to put their freedom at risk just to vote their conscience and increase their percentage of the vote from two percent to three percent.
i’d like to know how many self-righteous libertarian minds you’ve changed using that argument?
I think “self righteous” better describes Cooch and his followers who love to wear their religion on their sleeves and make us wear it too. I’m sick and tired of LINOs like Cooch who will deny you equal rights if he doesn’t like you or “your kind” or if you violate his Catholic sensibilities. So it’s funny to hear you say we’re willing to “put our freedom at risk” by not voting for the theocrat in the race.
these Cooch cheerleaders are only looking for somebody to scapegoat just in case their crummy candidate loses, and who else to put the blame on but Robert Sarvis?
The VA GOP is going to get what they deserve — should have gone with bland Bolling instead of the corrupt Cuccinelli.
Cuccinelli looks like a 100% libertarian compared to Bolling.
i’m sure that TONS of libertarians will be voting for Ken Cuccinelli after seeing how you compared their party’s candidate to a “smart ass college snot”, great job courting the libertarian vote Brian! /sarc
I’d hope that libertarians and libertarian-friendlies base our votes on something more substantive than a throwaway line from Brian. Like the fact that a vote for Sarvis is a vote to defeat the only libertarian-leaning candidate that has a snowball’s chance of winning.
why is KC the gleaming “libertarian-leaning” candidate you claim him to be? if that were the case, then why on earth is Sarvis running in the first place? and don’t give me that stuff about him being a paid Democratic plant or a butthurt Republican who has a personal vendetta against KC
The question is, is it better to hold one’s nose for 10 seconds in the voting booth, or to hold it for four years of having the tax-raising, Obamacare-embracing, EPA-loving statist Terry McAuliffe as Governor?
And as to Cuccinelli’s libertarianism, you really don’t have to look far on that. If you can get past a single issue, you might see he was the first guy to sue to block Obamacare on constitutional grounds, has taken real concrete steps to reduce arbitrary incarceration or over-incarceration, has said he would consider decriminalization of marijuana, fights the EPA and other federal overreach, and wants to shrink the role of government in our lives and economy. Is he a pure libertarian? No. Clearly his stance on marriage alone disqualifies him there. But, like I said before, he’s the most libertarian candidate with a snowball’s chance of winning.
“But, like I said before, he’s the most libertarian candidate with a snowball’s chance of winning.”
He’s obviously not “libertarian” enough to satisfy Robert Sarvis or his picky supporters, regardless of whether they can win or not. I’ve noticed that many Sarvis supporters claim that they’re taking equal amounts of prospective Cuccinelli and McAuliffe voters, including voters who would probably stay home on Election Day. They use this as an excuse to shrug off the accusations of spoiler that they’re getting from both the left and right sides of the political spectrum.
Please note that I’m not a Sarvis supporter myself, I’m still undecided, but I’m merely trying to play devil’s advocate with the convoluted arguments that I have seen Sarvis supporters use to defend their candidate.
Thanks. I see what you mean, but I think they’re not reading the polls correctly. To me it’s clear Sarvis drains support from Cuccinelli MUCH more than McAuliffe. But I’ll have to address that in an upcoming post.
Let me give you an example of one of those arguments I found on Robert Sarvis’s facebook page from a supporter:
“Based on the most recent polling data, Robert Sarvis is earning 5% of the vote from Cuccinelli and over 4% from McAuliffe. Since McAuliffe is up by 8-10% in most polls, I don’t think you have to worry about Sarvis splitting anything.”
See what I mean?
We aren’t electing a dictator. Whoever is governor still has to work with the General Assembly.
Steve, he’d have a much greater chance of winning if he didn’t have all that social conservative baggage, so it’s his fault he’s not getting the support from most libertarians, let alone independents. He just can’t bring himself to repudiate his most bigoted beliefs and followers. He’s a dressed up Rev. Jackson and for that, he deserves to lose.
Sorry Steve, but the Republicans under Bob McDonnell implemented the largest tax increase in Va. history. And they’ve only promised to be fiscally conservative if McAuliffe wins. Cooch thought the tax hike was a good idea until he realized it could hurt his chances of winning (as if he had any), so he now denies he was ever for it. Even though he is on record as having supported it.
http://www.varight.com/opinion/senator-walter-stosch-r-essentially-endorses-terry-mcauliffe-d-for-governor/
Cuccinelli is not libertarian-leaning any more than McA.
in a recent YouTube video of Mr. Sarvis at a meet-and-greet event in Arlington last night, he said that he’s planning for more meet-and-greets in Northern Virginia, so i’m hoping that Brian can personally question Mr. Sarvis on this important issue in front of his own supporters when he makes his way into Loudoun County
here is Mr. Sarvis’s Facebook event page
http://www.facebook.com/RobertSarvisVA/events
good luck getting Robert Sarvis or any of his supporters to take this advice…
I got caught up in a similar issue back in the 80’s with Ross Perot. He was ‘Tea Party’ before there was a Tea Party but voting for him allowed Bill Clinton to win the election with less than half the electorate. It’s hard not to vote where your heart guides you BUT you must use your head! I’ll never get caught in that mistake again. Our good fortune is that Ken Cuccinelli is a good conservative candidate we can feel good about electing! The media is trying to taint him but he’s a great guy!