Libertarianism: A Movement in Chains

For those who oppose big government on principle, the current American political climate is a perfect storm. Support for Congress remains around 10 percent, the Afghanistan war is increasingly unpopular, and Americans are becoming more distrustful of their own government. The Tea Party’s ascendancy in 2009 demonstrated grassroots support for fiscal conservatism, and soon after, the Occupy movement manifested support for social libertarianism. With the opportunity to draw a following from both momentous protests, why does the Libertarian Party remain in relative obscurity? After weighing the perspective of the party’s presidential candidate against those of a libertarian professor and a nonpartisan historian, one arrives at a complex answer: media coverage, presidential debate rules, state ballot laws, and the organization itself are all forces constraining the Libertarian Party.
Kept Behind the Curtain
Despite his low polling numbers, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is optimistic about his presidential campaign on the Libertarian Party ticket. He believes the only thing standing between him and the Oval Office is the right microphone. Because the media has focused its attention on Obama and Romney, Johnson has not been given an equal chance to convey his message. Governor Johnson told the HPR, “If my name was mentioned five times for every time Obama’s name or Romney’s name was mentioned… I think I’d be the next President of the United States.”
However, even if his campaign successfully emerges on political analysts’ radar, a large institutional barrier remains: the rules established by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). After Reform Party candidate Ross Perot was allowed to participate in the presidential debates of 1992, his support jumped to 19 percent by Election Day. When he ran in 1996, the CPD blocked him from the podium, pleasing the Republican and Democratic campaigns. University of Michigan Professor Lisa J. Disch, author of Tyranny of the Two-Party System, told the HPR that these rules “favor the two major parties, and often those structures are drawn up by members of the two major political parties.” Therefore, she says voters believe that the two major parties are “somehow more legitimate” than any third party could be.
Lesser-Known Ballot Controversies
While the CPD keeps Governor Johnson offstage, ballot laws are keeping him mired in the courts. According to the AP, the Pennsylvania Republican Party sued Johnson’s campaign because it found his nominating petitions “riddled with errors, duplicate signatures and in some cases, blatant fraud.” Similar charges have been leveled against the Libertarian Party in six states and the District of Columbia. Despite these challenges, Johnson’s campaign recently announced that his name will officially be on the ballots of 47 states and D.C. He says, “It borders on the ridiculous how that process is manipulated. … You’ve got Republicans and Democrats in office in every single state that administrate ballot access. They have no desire to see a third party on the ballot.”
Ballot access controversy is not new, nor is it limited to the Libertarian Party. Disch reminds the HPR that, “it was the two major political parties at the turn of the twentieth century who designed ballot laws,” and asserts that they were and remain “prejudicial against third parties.”
Taking Responsibility
Disch, an expert on third parties, acknowledges that while there are many adversarial institutional forces, third parties often bring about their own demise. Too many become “campaign vehicles in the presidential elections,” rather than legitimate, principled parties. However, she believes that the Libertarian Party is “distinct for the fact” that they are “also trying to build themselves at the grassroots, run in smaller offices, and build themselves as a party.”
Nevertheless, some libertarians are not ready to let their party off the hook that easily. Harvard Economics Professor and Senior Cato Institute Fellow Jeffrey Miron believes that libertarians including himself must improve the marketing of their party. He tells the HPR, “We do a good job of trying to be consistent, trying to say what we think is right, and not just leaning towards what seems politically expedient, but… we somehow have not packaged our message in a way that makes it broadly appealing.”
Johnson recognizes that many major Libertarian tenets are simply not being communicated. Now, campaigning around college campuses, he has ditched the suit and tie, instead adorning a peace sign t-shirt to convey the party’s dedication to military non-interventionism.
Beyond issues in their PR department, libertarians continue to struggle with internal disorganization. Johnson’s campaign conspicuously lacks the endorsement of Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas), the committed libertarian who many credit with bringing the philosophy to the mainstream. The two remain publicly amicable, with Paul calling Johnson “wonderful,” and Johnson identifying himself as Ron Paul supporter.
However, as Johnson makes appeals to Paul supporters and sees them “coming on board,” he identifies the reason why Paul is hesitant to give the explicit endorsement: “His son is a U.S. senator, and he doesn’t want to jeopardize his son being a U.S. senator.” Ron Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), would likely suffer considerable political consequences if his father broke from the Republican Party. Despite these concerns, Johnson remains optimistic about the Libertarian Party, believing with a resounding “yes” that American libertarians are united under the party.
The Party’s Prognosis
Miron recognizes that despite considerable effort, libertarianism remains on the fringes of the political sphere. While the ideology “doesn’t seem to be doing that great” in the United States, Miron sees a glimmer of hope in Johnson, whom he identifies as a rare political figure with a consistently libertarian record. In fact, while Johnson’s approximately four percent polling standing seems insignificant when compared with the support for Romney and Obama, the number represents a substantial increase from the 0.5 percent of the popular vote that the Libertarian presidential nominee received in 2008.
Disch provides more reason for libertarians to remain hopeful, noting that the Republican Party has adopted staunchly conservative stances on social issues, causing the socially liberal members of their party to explore other options. Johnson is even more optimistic about the current political climate, claiming that “with a broad brushstroke, the majority of Americans are not Democrats, they’re not Republicans. The largest segment of American politics today are independents and… that reflects socially accepting fiscally conservatives.”
Despite this, the Libertarian Party must work well beyond the 2012 campaign to become a significant challenge to the two-party establishment.  Given the narrow media focus, exclusivity of presidential debates, distractions of state ballot battles, and fractures within the party itself, libertarians have their work cut out for them. The current political climate may favor the Libertarian Party, but it is not yet strong enough to bring the institutional barriers crumbling down.