Even though the United States of America is regarded as a two-party political system, there are about fifty-one national third parties. Three of which have gained the most notoriety due to being actively involved electorally with a candidate in all political levels (national, state, county and local). These three major third parties are the Libertarian Party, Green Party, and Constitution Party. The eldest of these three is the Libertarian Party formed on December 11, 1971 in Colorado. The other two were founded in the 1990’s.
According to the Libertarian Party’s official website they are the third largest political party in the United States of America and serve as an alternative to the two major political parties (the Democratic Party and Republican Party). Like the two major political parties, this third party has a national headquarters in Washington D.C. and is regarded as a legitimate political party. There are states that allow and list the Libertarian Party candidates on the voters ballots for national, state, county and local elections. According to Wikipedia’s website there are 30 states that allow Americans to register as a Libertarian voter.
The Libertarian Party’s current symbol (mascot) is the “Lady Liberty”, a round gold starred background with “Lady Liberty” (Statue of Liberty from the waist up) white and blue. The original slogan of this party was “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” This slogan by no means indicated that the Libertarian Party began with primarily non-educated people due to its bad grammar; quite the opposite is the truth for it had some very well educated, degreed, people within its membership during its formative years. The current Libertarian Party slogan is “The Party of Principle.” These two slogans expertly make evident exactly what the Libertarian Party platform is about which can also be described as pro individual liberty for all.
Historically the Libertarian Party has had closer ties with the Republican Party primarily for its conservative leaning that staunchly supports the Bill of Rights (Amendments 1 through 10 of the United States Constitution). This does not mean since its conception the Libertarian Party has completely agreed with the Republican Party or been entirely against the Democratic Party’s stands on various important issues such as abortion, health care, and so forth. The Libertarian Party since its conception has been dedicated toward a free-market economy, civil liberties, personal individual freedom, a non-intervention foreign policy, peace, and free-trade.
In 1999, the original Libertarian Party platform was revised. This occurred because the Libertarian Party wanted to set up a better guideline pertaining to what this political party stood for and against due to the growth of the Libertarian Party. At this time, it was felt by Libertarian Party members that specific key issues needed to be addressed within the platform that were not covered in the larger original party platform that supported the Bill of Rights, small government, civil liberties, personal individual freedom, non-intervention for foreign policy, peace, free-trade and a free-market economy; in opposition to government spending, high taxation and national debt. Many of its party members felt the original platform was too lengthy, required condensing. Only four of the original planks were retained, giving the platform 11 new planks thereby shortening the 61 plank platform to an easier to read 15 plank platform. At the 2008 Libertarian Party National Convention, May 2008 in Denver, Colorado, more revisions and planks were made. Today the current platform has 27 planks. I counted them on the Libertarian official website that has their party’s platform listed. Unlike most party platforms, this one takes about 20 minutes or less to read.
The current Libertarian Party platform promotes the lowering of taxes, smaller government, and more individual plus economic freedom within the United States. Reading this party’s platform was an eye opener for I was under a completely different impression about this particular third party. I was amazed that the Libertarian Party had been making great strides in order to give Americans a moderate-conservative choice in-spite of the roadblocks set by many states, currently 20, who do not allow third party choices on their ballots.
In 1978, the Libertarian Party had a candidate run for Governor in California who received 5% of the votes. The Libertarian Party in 1979 had 80,000 registered voters in the state of California. 1980 was a great year for this young party with two Libertarian candidates voted into the Alaskan state legislature (one was a re-election). The rest of the twentieth century blessed the Libertarian Party with a Libertarian congressional candidate in Louisiana receiving 23% of the vote, Alaska’s Libertarian gubernatorial candidate received 15% of the vote, in Arizona the Libertarian gubernatorial candidate received 5% of the vote, the Libertarian presidential candidates received more votes than either major party expected per national election, and in some states including Colorado this party managed to win some state, county, and local elections for elected officials such as Elections Commissioner, City Council members, School Board members, and so on. 1996 was one of the Libertarian Party’s landmark years, marking the Libertarian Party as the first and only third party to receive ballot status in all 50 states for two national presidential elections in a row.
The Libertarian Party by the year 2000 had 224,000 registered as Libertarian voters. This was an increase of 10% within one year. In the year 2004 the Libertarian registered voters had increased by 4.5% from the 2003 tally. This is not the small third party one would expect a third party to be. Now the Libertarian Party, per the Wikipedia website, has over 225,000 registered Libertarian voters. This political party is only 39 years old and for it to have a membership this size is astounding and remarkable.
The increase in Libertarian membership is something that should concern the two major political parties (the Democratic Party and Republican Party), for it does take membership and registered voters away from their political parties thereby making it more difficult for the two major parties to win any type of election. As more Libertarian Party-affiliated candidates are voted into state and federal legislative branches, it will also mean an increase of difficulty for the Democratic Party and Republican Party to get their legislative agendas past. This could also mean the Libertarian Party would be the “swing vote” for the legislative branches (state and federal) on some very major issues and laws. Granted that currently is in the future, yet a distinct possibility.
This famous quote by Patrick Henry’s, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, sums up my understanding where the Libertarian Party moderately and conservatively stands. This is as true today as when Patrick Henry said, “When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.”
Bill of Rights, United States government archives website: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html
History of the Libertarian Party, Libertarian Party official website: http://www.lp.org/our-history
Libertarian Party platform, Libertarian Party official website: http://www.lp.org/platform
Libertarian Party, Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Party_(United_States)
Third parties in the US, Wikipedia Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States
Patrick Henry quote, Liberty Quotes, BrainyQuote website: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/liberty_3.html
