An anonymous adage always pops into my mind when I write about politics.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
That’s why I seldom write about politics.
Candidates, political parties, campaigns, elections — otherwise intelligent people lose about 50 IQ points when they enter that warren of wackiness. (I have decades of hate mail to prove it.) Tribalism is hard-wired, of course, but it doesn’t adequately explain, at least to me, how deep the irrationality goes. (Consider Trump Derangement Syndrome and Trump Deification Syndrome.)
Anyway, No Labels (ugh) is threatening to run a third-party candidate in 2024. It reminded me of a column I wrote in early 2012. I think my perspective has stood the test of time — the Libertarian Party is as worthless today as it was then, and the Kentucky twosome of Rand Paul and Thomas Massie offer at least a bit of evidence that libertarians wishing to participate in politics can carve out a salient in the GOP.
Enjoy!
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After four decades of failure, it’s time to stick a fork in the Libertarian Party.
Some may be tempted to offer the LP an “attaboy,” and urge its activists and candidates to keep fighting. But examine the record. There are no LP-nominated legislators or executives in office at the state or federal level. Just one of its ten presidential candidacies crested 1 percent of the popular vote. According to Ballot Access News, a mere 278,446 voters were registered as Libertarians in 2010. (Democrats numbered 43.1 million, and Republicans 30.7 million.)
The LP peaked early. In 1972, its first year on the ballot, a Nixon-hating faithless elector from Virginia backed its presidential ticket. The rebellious act produced the first, and so far the only, Electoral College vote for a woman — Theodora Nathan was the party’s pick for vice president.
Since then, the LP has mattered in few significant elections. And not by winning them.
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