How do you fix the LP? Get rid of the libertines!
McQ over at QandO laments over the ineffectiveness of the Libertarian Party:You may remember the blogger who likened libertarian philosophy to that which would a appeal to a 13 year old? It is the LP/C-SPAN circus and the positions of many of its national candidates which establishes and perpetuates that image and makes it easy for both the left and right to dismiss as a whole even the serious, pragmatic libertarians and their ideas.
Additionally, as Bartlett points out, the deck is stacked against the success of a 3rd party. Bartlett points to the Electoral College as one of the main reasons, but another equally important reason has to do with the major parties co-opting third party ideas and essentially rendering that party to marginal status at best.
So what is the solution? Well, per Mr. Bartlett, one thing would help is if the Libertarian Party would go away. Unfortunately I don't think that will happen. And while some see the conversion of Bob Barr to a member of the Libertarian Party as a hopeful sign, my guess is Bob Barr will soon discover exactly what Bartlett and others discovered long ago... In order for the libertarian philosophy to be effective, it must accomplish one of two general scenarios:
A. Co-opt one of the major parties (see Goldwater in 1964).
B. Start it's own party and feed off the dying husk of another major party (see Whigs and Republicans).
To be honest, in winner-take-all Electoral College math, a third party could make a huge dent if it were committed to victory.
Libertarians (capital L) haven't gotten the point yet, nor do they know what they believe, how they can responsibly implement their philosophy, and what kind of candidates they should run.
Take Michael Badnarik in 2004. A pro-life libertarian (!) until he won the nomination, when the kooks forced him to waffle to pro-abortion.
Then you have the conventions... and the platforms... ugh. For being Libertarians, they sure are rather oppressive when it comes to ideological conformity.
The quick-and-dirty solution is to purge the libertines from the LP. Get rid of the pro-legalization crowd, the no-IRS crowd, the Illuminati-control-everything crowd and set up a long pole for the big tent. Surprisingly, the blogosphere can almost be neatly split into three groups of conservatives, liberals (self-styled progressives), and libertarians. The soil is fertile, but the wrong people are sowing the seeds.
Until then, there are going to continue to be many, many potential recruits that will lurk on the sidelines and influence the major parties from within. The GOP is starting to rumble with the libertarian-conservative rift, but it's not a Goldwater/Reaganesque revolution as conservatives enjoyed in the years leading up to 1980.
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Melissa 
3 Comments:
Alas, many economists have decided that this means it is not worth their time to vote. Do you think that if the LP was in better shape, that they might find it worth thier time? I know a big problem the economists have with voting as well is the fact that since they ID as libertarians, neither the Dems nor the Repubs do it entirely for them- why bother voting if you only agree with 50% of what's being said?
This is actually something I've been mulling over (more coherently than here, ha!) lately. It's a fascinating issue, IMO.
it ain't gonna happen.
They need to spend all their money educating the voters on why we would all be better off if our taxes were cut in half and government didn't try to solve our problems.
Until they do that, there simply are not enough voters who agree with them to register more than a spoiler alert.
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