Libertarians: Don’t Sell Yourselves Short
What we thought was clever messaging is a falsity and a liability.
If you’ve ever gotten the elevator pitch for the Libertarian Party, it’s possible that you’ve heard it termed “socially Democratic, fiscally Republican” or something similar. I know that I’ve used that description in advocacy attempts. The problem with this explanation, though, is that it actually harms the purpose of being the Libertarian Party at all. The “party of principle” has to remain set apart.
At first glance, “socially Democratic, fiscally Republican” sounds both accurate and easy to understand. After all, Libertarians generally do advocate for both economic and social freedoms. However, this relies on an assumption that Democrats and Republicans are socially and economically liberal, respectively, at all. In reality, neither of them actually fulfill this role. Republicans under Trump engaged in a large spending spree even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The total debt at the end of 2019 was $27.75 trillion, representing a 39% increase since President Trump’s inauguration, states ProPublica. According to MarketWatch, the last time the national debt decreased was under President Calvin Coolidge. Meanwhile, Presidents like George W. Bush funnel trillions of dollars to the military-industrial complex. The last time military spending was cut by a Republican was under President H.W. Bush, as shown by AEI. Instead, these “fiscal responsibility hawks” have added trillions in unnecessary spending to the national debt. This is a result of a clearly delusional policy of spending more and taxing less; while it is a good strategy for earning votes, especially after the electoral failure of George H.W. Bush, it ruins the fiscal conservatism of the party overall.
Democrats, of course, are not safe from their own hypocrisy. Their claims of tolerance and liberty seems to increasingly stop at the political divide; as I have said in a previous post, leftist racism against right-wing Black Americans is a real problem. Religious freedoms have continually been overridden by Democrat-led governments at the state and federal level (especially in regards to COVID-19 quarantines, as NPR demonstrates). Furthermore, the Democratic Party’s active participation in the American culture war has allowed it to manufacture outrage and contribute to what ought to be seen as a poisoning of liberal democracy. This Democratic Party does not hold true to the social policy and standards of the Libertarian Party in many ways whatsoever.
The connection to our largest parties in the phrase isn’t only false, it’s harmful. By linking itself to two corrupt and insatiably power-hungry political ensembles, Libertarian advocates miss what makes the Libertarian Party special. As a third-party, Libertarians stand in contrast to an entrenched political establishment that seeks to redefine American society for its own perpetuation. The best way to imagine this is that the Democrats and Republicans exist on a two-dimensional political plane that transects an ultimate three-dimensional cube of American politics. Libertarians do not exist on the same plane, but on the cube. However, by calling ourselves an amalgamation of certain aspects of Republicans and Democrats, we’re boxed into a corner of explaining how we agree with reckless Republicans and illiberal Democrats. The point of the matter is that we don’t; we are wholly set apart from both parties and ought not to use them as crutches to fail to get ahead.
A more accurate statement would simply be “fiscally responsible and socially liberal.” Attachments to Democrats and Republicans will only hinder communication efforts for the Libertarian Party in the future. Let the ass and elephant bicker and fight; the only way to rise above them is to ditch the poor standards they are leaving behind.
