By David F. Nolan
It seems hard to believe that 30 years have passed since a small group
of young idealists, most of us just out of college, met in Colorado
Springs to launch the Libertarian Party.
Our inspirations ranged from Thomas Jefferson and John Stuart Mill to
Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein. We were passionate in our belief that no
individual should be sacrificed to satisfy some collective "need" or
plan; that all people should be free to pursue their own dreams in
their own way, so long as they do not use force or fraud to harm
others.
The ideal of individual liberty is an age-old dream, but one which has
been violated by governments throughout human history, and our hardy
group saw that neither of the two major American parties was true to
that vision. Republican and Democratic politicians give occasional lip
service to individual rights and liberty, but they are only too willing
to violate those rights to attain their goal of the moment.
And it is our unswerving devotion to individual liberty, I believe,
that has given the Libertarian Party its enduring strength. That
strength has enabled it to grow despite the strong institutional bias
toward a "two-party system" -- not mentioned, by the way, in any of our
nation's founding documents.
Currently, there are 240,000 voters registered as Libertarians, and 298
Libertarians hold elective office, more than all other third parties
combined.
According to research by Richard Winger, one of the most respected
third-party experts in the country, the Libertarian Party is the most
successful alternative party of the past half-century. Winger found
that Libertarians accounted for the largest number of gubernatorial and
Senatorial candidates obtaining the highest percentages in races from
1948 through 2000 -- more than the Reform Party, the Greens, or George
Wallace's American Independent Party.
Last year, 256 Libertarians ran for the U.S. House -- the first time in
80 years that any third party had contested a majority of Congressional
seats. And they polled a total of 1.7 million votes, the largest number
ever received by any third party slate. In Massachusetts, U.S. Senate
candidate Carla Howell received 12 percent of the vote in a three-way
race, coming within a point or two of beating the Republican!
The Libertarian Party has helped to fundamentally shift the nature of
American political debate -- even though it has yet to elect a member
of Congress or a president. Libertarian ideas that were considered
outlandish 20 years ago -- like replacing the bankrupt Social Security
system with private retirement accounts, getting rid of the income tax
and the IRS, ending the War on Drugs, and so on -- are now part of
mainstream political debate.
And yet the news media have largely overlooked this evidence that the
Libertarian message has a broad and enduring appeal in America. Perhaps
it is because our culture is obsessed with celebrities, and the
Libertarian Party has never had a "celebrity" candidate for president,
such as a George Wallace, Ross Perot, or Ralph Nader.
But whatever the reason, the Libertarian Party isn't going to go away.
Indeed, as other alternative parties struggle or fade, the Libertarian
Party is clearly the only viable national alternative to the Democrats
and Republicans.
In 2002, we will once again be fielding candidates in a majority of
Congressional districts. In most races, these candidates will be the
only choice for voters who are deeply concerned about the ill-conceived
and dangerous Security State measures that have been hastily enacted by
Congress. We are in a time of tremendous change, and I believe that
Americans are soon going to have to choose between a lot more freedom
and a lot less freedom.
We are living more and more in a system in which people are no longer
innocent until proven guilty. More and more, we are living in a state
where it is presumed that the government controls everything, and that
Americans have to get the government's permission to do almost
anything. Ten years ago, you didn't even need to show identification to
get onto an airplane; today you have to show some kind of "government-
issued" ID to check into many hotels.
The question is, can we turn that around? I don't know. But I sincerely
believe the Libertarian Party is the last, best hope for freedom in
America.
Thirty years ago, when the Libertarian Party was founded, we were moved
by the idea expressed so well in the Rascals song: "All the world over,
so easy to see, people everywhere just want to be free."
They still do.
David F. Nolan founded the Libertarian Party with a group of friends in
Colorado Springs on December 11, 1971. He currently lives in Mission
Viejo, CA.
It seems hard to believe that 30 years have passed since a small group
of young idealists, most of us just out of college, met in Colorado
Springs to launch the Libertarian Party.
Our inspirations ranged from Thomas Jefferson and John Stuart Mill to
Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein. We were passionate in our belief that no
individual should be sacrificed to satisfy some collective "need" or
plan; that all people should be free to pursue their own dreams in
their own way, so long as they do not use force or fraud to harm
others.
The ideal of individual liberty is an age-old dream, but one which has
been violated by governments throughout human history, and our hardy
group saw that neither of the two major American parties was true to
that vision. Republican and Democratic politicians give occasional lip
service to individual rights and liberty, but they are only too willing
to violate those rights to attain their goal of the moment.
And it is our unswerving devotion to individual liberty, I believe,
that has given the Libertarian Party its enduring strength. That
strength has enabled it to grow despite the strong institutional bias
toward a "two-party system" -- not mentioned, by the way, in any of our
nation's founding documents.
Currently, there are 240,000 voters registered as Libertarians, and 298
Libertarians hold elective office, more than all other third parties
combined.
According to research by Richard Winger, one of the most respected
third-party experts in the country, the Libertarian Party is the most
successful alternative party of the past half-century. Winger found
that Libertarians accounted for the largest number of gubernatorial and
Senatorial candidates obtaining the highest percentages in races from
1948 through 2000 -- more than the Reform Party, the Greens, or George
Wallace's American Independent Party.
Last year, 256 Libertarians ran for the U.S. House -- the first time in
80 years that any third party had contested a majority of Congressional
seats. And they polled a total of 1.7 million votes, the largest number
ever received by any third party slate. In Massachusetts, U.S. Senate
candidate Carla Howell received 12 percent of the vote in a three-way
race, coming within a point or two of beating the Republican!
The Libertarian Party has helped to fundamentally shift the nature of
American political debate -- even though it has yet to elect a member
of Congress or a president. Libertarian ideas that were considered
outlandish 20 years ago -- like replacing the bankrupt Social Security
system with private retirement accounts, getting rid of the income tax
and the IRS, ending the War on Drugs, and so on -- are now part of
mainstream political debate.
And yet the news media have largely overlooked this evidence that the
Libertarian message has a broad and enduring appeal in America. Perhaps
it is because our culture is obsessed with celebrities, and the
Libertarian Party has never had a "celebrity" candidate for president,
such as a George Wallace, Ross Perot, or Ralph Nader.
But whatever the reason, the Libertarian Party isn't going to go away.
Indeed, as other alternative parties struggle or fade, the Libertarian
Party is clearly the only viable national alternative to the Democrats
and Republicans.
In 2002, we will once again be fielding candidates in a majority of
Congressional districts. In most races, these candidates will be the
only choice for voters who are deeply concerned about the ill-conceived
and dangerous Security State measures that have been hastily enacted by
Congress. We are in a time of tremendous change, and I believe that
Americans are soon going to have to choose between a lot more freedom
and a lot less freedom.
We are living more and more in a system in which people are no longer
innocent until proven guilty. More and more, we are living in a state
where it is presumed that the government controls everything, and that
Americans have to get the government's permission to do almost
anything. Ten years ago, you didn't even need to show identification to
get onto an airplane; today you have to show some kind of "government-
issued" ID to check into many hotels.
The question is, can we turn that around? I don't know. But I sincerely
believe the Libertarian Party is the last, best hope for freedom in
America.
Thirty years ago, when the Libertarian Party was founded, we were moved
by the idea expressed so well in the Rascals song: "All the world over,
so easy to see, people everywhere just want to be free."
They still do.
David F. Nolan founded the Libertarian Party with a group of friends in
Colorado Springs on December 11, 1971. He currently lives in Mission
Viejo, CA.
