While Democrats had no chance of snatching Miller’s followers, they did have a wide-open opportunity to send them to Libertarian. It would have taken only 8 percent of Miller’s supporters to tilt election in favor of Democrat Joe Kernan. But Democrats did nothing. Snore.

The Republicans, meanwhile, did plenty.

For starters, a here-to-fore unknown PAC dumped a ton of cold cash into a direct mail campaign. The target was Joe Kernan. The benefactor was Libertarian challenger. The result? Kernan lost votes. Those were votes Republicans would never have captured. Nice play.

What’s more, Republicans kept close tabs on their Libertarian opponent. Stuffing his Web site with e-mail addresses, GOP received Libertarian’s weekly updates. Any appeal to Miller supporters was noted and challenged. The risk of losing Miller votes was a chance they would not take. Another nice play.

The Democrats, meanwhile, were sound asleep. One Miller supporter went so far as to personally appeal to Democrats for support. A win by Daniels, he knew, would keep Miller from running in next election. The election returns proved Republicans right and Democrats to be snoozing.

Another case in point was defeat of Democratic Congressman Baron Hill by Republican Mike Sodrel. The margin of victory was less than 2,000 votes. The Libertarian challenged garnered 4,698 votes. Had Democrats offered Libertarian candidate even a modest amount of support, election would have likely tilted toward Democrat.

The groggy-eyed Democrats, meanwhile, are outside looking in, clueless as to what happened. But who knows? Maybe between now and 2006 they’ll wake up.

Consider this; Germany is a socialist country in every sense of word. Their government is large. They have large and generous retirement and entitlement programs, they have a government health care system, and they have all of social programs you would associate with a Socialist country. The German government spends 49% of its total GDP.

The United States is not far behind. We are becoming more Socialist each and every year. We are losing our civil liberties every year. I used to associate this with Democratic Party, I no longer do. The Republican Party has had a majority in House, Senate, and a Republican President in office for last four years. In those four years Federal government has increased education spending by 78%, passed a large and ineffective prescription drug program that benefits drug companies rather then our senior citizens, and increased spending on EVERY government program.

I believe in a smaller, more efficient government. I believe in power of fifty states to make their own laws without undue Federal intervention. I believe that bigger is not necessarily better. I believe that individual’s are responsible for their own actions. I believe we need less regulation and fewer barriers to business owners. I believe in United States Constitution. I believe this country is still greatest country on Earth; however, I believe it is in grave danger.

If you feel as I do, please contact me. We have organized a group of like minded people in Allen County and we are politically active in local politics. We need to elect some people to public office with views like ours and we need to keep public informed about what our government is doing. Please call me at 260-338-0833 or contact us at AllenCountyLP.org.

Mike Sylvester Chairman, Libertarian Party of Allen Country Fort Wayne