Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party (LP) is a political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government. The party was conceived in August 1971 at meetings in the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado,[10][11] and was officially formed on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs.[11] The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist, Murray Rothbard.[12] The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration, the Vietnam War, conscription, and the introduction of fiat money.[13]
The party generally promotes a classical liberal platform, in contrast to the Democratic Party's modern liberalism and progressivism and the Republican Party's conservatism.[14] Gary Johnson, the party's presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, claims that the Libertarian Party is more culturally liberal than Democrats, and more fiscally conservative than Republicans.[15] Its fiscal policy positions include lowering taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), decreasing the national debt, allowing people to opt out of Social Security and eliminating the welfare state, in part by utilizing private charities. Its cultural policy positions include ending the prohibition of illegal drugs, advocating criminal justice reform,[16] supporting same-sex marriage, ending capital punishment, and supporting gun ownership rights.[14]
As of 2023, it is the third-largest political party in the United States by voter registration.[17] In the 2020 election, the Libertarians gained a seat in the Wyoming House of Representatives, giving them their first state legislative win since 2000.[18][19][20] As of August 2022, there are 310 Libertarians holding elected office: 193 of them partisan offices and 117 of them non-partisan offices.[9] There are 693,634 voters registered as Libertarian in the 31 states that report Libertarian registration statistics and Washington, D.C.[21] The first electoral vote for a woman was that for Tonie Nathan of the party for vice president in the 1972 United States presidential election due to a faithless elector supporter who eschewed his expected votes for President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew in favor of the Libertarian ticket. The first and only Libertarian in Congress was Justin Amash, who joined the Libertarian Party in 2020 and left the U.S. House of Representatives in 2021 after choosing not to seek re-election.
In 2022, the paleolibertarian Mises Caucus (LPMC) became the dominant faction on the Libertarian National Committee, leading to internal conflicts and significant policy changes, such as regarding immigration and abortion.[22][23]
Platform[edit]
The preamble outlines the party's goals: "As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty; a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others. [...] Our goal is nothing more nor less than a world set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that we take these stands". Its Statement of Principles begins: "We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual". The Statement of Principles is foundational to the ideology of the party and was created specifically to bind the party to certain core principles with a high parliamentary burden for any amendment.[66]
The platform emphasizes individual liberty in personal and economic affairs, avoidance of "foreign entanglements" and military and economic intervention in other nations' affairs, and free trade and migration. The party opposes gun control. It calls for Constitutional limitations on government as well as the elimination of most state functions. It includes a "Self-determination" section which quotes from the Declaration of Independence and reads: "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty". It also includes an "Omissions" section which reads: "Our silence about any other particular government law, regulation, ordinance, directive, edict, control, regulatory agency, activity, or machination should not be construed to imply approval".[67]
The party favors minimally regulated markets, a less powerful federal government, strong civil liberties (including LGBT rights, with the party supporting same-sex marriage), the liberalization of drug laws, separation of church and state, open immigration, non-interventionism and neutrality in diplomatic relations, free trade and free movement to all foreign countries and a more representative republic.[67] In 2018, the Libertarian Party became the first in the United States to call for the decriminalization of sex work.[68] The party since 2022 has no official stance on abortion.[69]
The Statement of Principles was written by John Hospers.[70] The Libertarian Party's bylaws specify that a 7/8ths supermajority of delegates is required to change the Statement of Principles.[71] Any proposed platform plank found by the Judicial Committee to conflict with the Statement requires approval by a three-fourths supermajority of delegates.[72] Early platform debates included at the second convention whether to support tax resistance and at the 1974 convention whether to support anarchism. In both cases, a compromise was reached.[73]
