Long Term Trends of Our Political Parties
That Iconoclast Investor has a rather interesting article about the long term trends of political parties in the US.
He starts out with a brief history lesson on early political parties and the origin of the Democratic and Republican Parties, then goes into listing the various political parties that have existed and their impact, before moving to a discussion of each of the currently existing ‘major’ parties – the Greens, Democrats, Libertarians, Republicans, and Constitutionals.
The entire article is highly interesting, but his analysis of the Libertarian Party is highlighted after the jump.
The Libertarian Party, organized since 1971, has one overarching principle: “respect for individual rights.” The Party favors strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration across borders, the repeal of drug prohibition–including restrictions on tobacco and alcohol–and the elimination of laws that interfere with private activities like gambling and prostitution … rather liberal stuff.
On the other hand, Libertarians also support minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, favor a non-interventionist foreign policy that respects freedom of trade and travel, support the right to bear arms, oppose entitlement programs–including Medicare and Medicaid–and support the repeal of the income tax and a wholesale shrinkage of the federal government, including the elimination of whole parts of it … rather conservative stuff.
Thus, while the Greens can be pigeonholed on the far left of the current political spectrum and the Constitution Party can be shelved on the far right, the Libertarian party avoids simple categorization.
Yet it is the strongest of the three second-tier parties, and it’s conceivable that it could grow more powerful in three main ways.
One is by attracting numerous disenfranchised Republicans for whom smaller government is still a goal and religion is a private issue.
Two is by attracting numerous Democrats who value personal liberties but think the current spending wave–including military spending–has gone too far.
Three is by attracting numerous independent voters who have been put off by the loss of ethics in both major parties, the lying and the cheating and the general embrace of the philosophy that maintaining political power is more important than doing what’s right.
To do this, the Libertarians would need to moderate some of its positions; I can’t for example, envision the income tax or Medicare disappearing anytime soon. But intelligent compromise on its most abrasive positions could pay big dividends.
From today’s perspective, the odds against the Libertarians are huge, but if the Republican Party continues to flounder, and if growing numbers of voters in the years ahead see the need for a new counterweight to the Democratic Party, it could happen.
As the history of the United States reminds us, political parties do not last forever. Change happens. Think about it.
Tags: Constitution Party, Democratic Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, Republican Party July 10, 2009 – 9:27 pm Posted in National by Jeff
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July 10th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
While I don’t think that the Libertarian Party should “moderate” any of its positions, the author does have a point. Because the income tax and entitlement programs aren’t leaving any time soon, the Libertarian Party should call these their “long-term goals.” Meanwhile, they can have some reachable “short-term goals.” For example, they could support a flat tax or progressive flat tax on income and handing entititlement programs over to the states as a sort of a transition phase.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I don’t think we should moderate out positions either – but I readily admit we need a better PR campaign. For example, talking pot legalization to a cop probably isn’t going to go over so well – but talking about genuinely smaller government that treats us like the adults we are might. Convince people of the general philosophy, THEN show them how it works in the particulars. I know it worked with me. When I first started considering the party, legalization was one of my major sticking points. But the more I considered it, the more I realized that ultimately it IS about treating adults like adults and letting them make their own decisions – good or bad – so long as another person is not harmed.
July 11th, 2009 at 8:12 am
A more pragmatic approach is something I’ve been looking at for quite some time. I think we can do this first by opposing new regulations on both civil liberties and capitalism. Easy enough.
But after that, we need to start working on repealing the laws we so strongly disagree with, layer by layer. For example, going with the legalization example, we want complete legalization. That’s a sticking point even for many liberals. So why not start with decriminalizing pot? Or, perhaps outright legalization like California did but on a national level. Allow individual states to outlaw it’s sale if you want, but remove national laws. Then, after a time when the streets aren’t running red from drug induced violence, we can look at the other drugs