Libertarian Party

From RationalWiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Guide to:

U.S. Politics

Icon politics USA.svg
Hail to the Chief?
Persons of interest
The current logo of the Los Angeles Lakers Libertarian Party

The US Libertarian Party was founded in 1971[1] on the principles of libertarianism.

The Libertarian Party is the third-largest political party in America. They’re active in all 50 states and have more than... 280,000 registered voters.[2][3]

The policies of the party include laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally-regulated borders, and non-interventionism in foreign policy.

As of 2012, no party spokesman has addressed the irony of a group of individualists pooling their efforts to join an entity they despise.

Libertarians believe that the one-dimensional scale of the political "left-right" is insufficient to describe the many philosophies held by the general public. They introduced the Nolan Chart, which measures two dimensions (at least according to Libertarians).

Contents

[edit] Current status

The two-variable Nolan chart

[edit] 2007 Elections

In the 2007 Elections, Libertarian Party candidates won 14 elective offices, including an election for mayor of Avis, Pennsylvania.[4]

[edit] 2008 Presidential nominating process

Several candidates were seeking to become the party's 2008 presidential nominee. Mike Gravel changed from the Democratic Party to the Libertarian Party. Bob Barr, a former Republican U.S. Congressman, announced on May 12, 2008 that he would seek the nomination.[5] The final choice of Bob Barr (and his running mate, Wayne Allyn Root) was made at the 2008 national convention in Denver, Colorado in late May.

Ron Paul, who was the party's 1988 candidate, had been mentioned as a possible nominee as well, but has officially denied any intent to run under any third-party banner. On December 12, 2007, the Party adopted a resolution requesting Paul to run on the Libertarian ticket if he does not win the Republican Party nomination.[6]

[edit] 2012 elections

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, ran with running mate Jim Gray on the top of the Libertarian ticket.[7] Johnson received slightly over 1 million votes, or about one percent.[8]

[edit] 2016 election

Johnson has stated that he will run again in 2016, "as long as he's relevant,"[9] whatever that may mean.

[edit] Footnotes

United States political parties
Alaskan Independence Party - American Independent Party - Communist Party USA - Constitution Party - DINO - Democratic-Republican Party - Democratic Party - Federalist Party - Green Party - Know Nothing - Modern Whig party - National Atheist Party - Prohibition Party - RINO - Radical Republicans - Reform Party - Republican Party - Revolutionary Communist Party (US) - Socialist Party USA - Socialist Workers Party (US) - States' Rights Democratic Party - World Socialist Party of the United States - Yippie -
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Toolbox
support