EDITORIAL - According to a recent survey, 59 percent of Americans describe themselves as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal." A total of 44 percent of the survey respondents were willing to describe themselves as "libertarian" if the term is defined as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal." Many of these swing voters rejected the Republican Party in 2006 congressional races and may well reject the Democrats in 2008.

Last November, Americans decided "enough is enough" and threw many Republicans out of office. A summary of post-election analyses indicates that the main issues Americans voted on were President Bush's foreign policy, political corruption and out-of-control congressional spending. The view of most Americans on these significant issues is generally consistent with the views of the Libertarian Party.

As columnist Ryan Sager and others accurately predicte, many Americans living in western and mountain states were going to vote for Democrats running on more-libertarian-than-liberal messages. In order to win their elections, many Democrats promised a new, more libertarian-looking face for their party. Promises were made to keep tax increases and gun control bills off the table. Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised "the most ethical Congress ever."

"Democrats Fail to Impress in First 100 Days" is the title of a Pew Research Center survey released last Thursday. The pertinent finding from this survey is that while independents say (52 percent to 30 percent) they are happy that the Democrats won the majority, nearly half of them (47 percent to 30 percent) are already saying "they disapprove of the policies and proposals of the Democratic leaders in Congress."

The Pew poll also found that only a slight majority of respondents (40 percent to 30 percent) felt that Democrats were keeping their campaign promises. As swing voters become more aware of broken Democratic pledges, expect the American public to spank Democrats in 2008 like they spanked Republicans in 2006.

"Let's take a look at the issues swing voters found important and the promises Democrats made," stated Libertarian National Committee Executive Director Shane Cory. "The Democrats squandered foreign policy, political corruption and congressional spending opportunities in one single legislative act by attaching billions of dollars of pork barrel spending to the emergency supplemental defense appropriations bill. They also favor a tax increase and have introduced a major gun control bill. Democrats are already reverting to the same old liberal agenda that Americans grew tired of in the nineties."

One of the key political goals announced at the latest Libertarian National Committee meeting was to recruit three times the amount of Libertarian Party candidates in 2008 as the party ran in 2006. With the libertarian western and mountain states up for grabs and a sizeable quantity of Americans with generally libertarian values casting the deciding votes, millions of voters may break free of the two-party system and cast their 2008 votes for Libertarian Party candidates in good conscience.