Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind... Again?

Last week I posted some info and links for the Green Party. This week I turn my attention to the Libertarians, who received 397,265 votes (0.32%) in the 2004 election, taking fourth place, just behind Ralph Nader, who ran on an independent ticket. Although the 2004 percentage decreased from 0.36% in the 2000 contest, the counted votes increased from 384,516, for a gain of over 12,500. The numbers have fluctuated around the 0.50% or less for several elections, but the 1980 Libertarian, Edward Clark, brought the numbers to a party high of 921,128 (1.06%). In the 1972 race, with only 3,674 popular votes, Libertarian John Hospers took one Virginia electoral vote away from Richard Nixon. Thanks to Dave Leip's Atlas of US Pres. Elections for the info.

The first time I heard about the Libertarian party was in the 1976 election. I was a seven-year-old trying to make sense of the voting process. I accompanied my father into the voting booth and asked him why so many names were on the ballot. Besides Democrat & Republican, the Libertarian title was the only party name that caught my attention. Libertarian sounded like liberty, and that was a big deal for a kid during the bicentennial. By 1977, I no longer cared.

Then came a pro-military, war-hawk friend in high school. All through school he was likely to have a book about military weaponry under his arm at any given moment, and talked about how his license plate starting with the letters CIA was a harbinger of things to come. During our senior week immediately following graduation, I remember that he indulged in something fun and smokey, which I found very out of character. By the end of the summer he was decked out in tie-dye and sported the Shaggy-look. Shortly after college, he came into the little record store where I worked and asked for my signature on a petition for something having to do with the Libertarian Party and he said he was running for office. He's still involved, it seems. Way to go, Brotha!

Originally, what I thought of as the reason for joining the party was to end drug laws so we can all toke up at will. Anyone who ran for office as a Libertarian I assumed also had a subscription to High Times. Over the last few years I've realized the party is much more complicated, and not so much a haven for huffers and snorters. It's really a group committed to freedoms, and is reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's philosophies.

From the official site, I found the following positions:

• The Libertarian Party's anti-crime plan would do what the Democrats and Republicans have not done:
  Respect the victim's rights and make criminals pay full restitution.
  Hold all criminals responsible for their actions.
  Double the police resources available for crime prevention without any additional government spending.
  Reduce the number of criminals at large on our streets.
  Defend the most effective crime deterrent available, the private ownership of guns.
  Create jobs, end welfare dependence, and improve education.
• Government, both federal and local, is the greatest single polluter in the U.S. This polluter literally gets away with murder because of sovereign immunity. Libertarians would make government as responsible for its actions as everyone else is expected to be. Libertarians would protect the environment by first abolishing sovereign immunity.
• If Americans truly want to help other countries, they can best do so not through failed foreign aid programs, but by improving the U.S. economy, so that U.S. businesses have funds to invest abroad, and pursuing free trade policies.
• Countries like Chile, Mexico, Britain, and Australia have successfully made the transition from their failed Social Security systems to healthy systems based on individual retirement accounts. In Chile, over 90% of workers have opted out of the government-run system. It's time America did as well.
• With less government and lower taxes, you could keep more of what you earn. It would be easier to start new businesses, build new homes, and fuel stronger economic growth.

The official website is very well organized, and the list of current holders of local offices is astounding in Pennsylvania and California as well as a few other states. As with the Green Party, the Libertarians are working mostly at a grassroots level despite the often "also ran" status of national elections. I don't really agree with the Libertarians on many issues, but I have respect for them overall. Keep up the good fight and "party hearty rock & roll!"