The United States presidential election of 2008 will be held on November 4, 2008. The two major parties of the United States political system already have their respective candidates, for the Republican Party, John McCain, a senior United States Senator from Arizona, and for the Democratic Party, a junior United States Senator from Illinois. Little the world knows that there is also a third party in this year’s election. The Libertarian Party will have Bob Barr as their candidate for the coming elections.
The Libertarian Party is the third-largest party in American politics. It claims more than 200,000 registered voters. At the public office level, it asserts to have more than 600 people in position; this includes mayors, county executives, county council members, school board members, and other local officials.
The Libertarian Party was founded in the home of David Nolan in Colorado Springs on December 11, 1971. The founding group includes John Hospers, Edward Crane, Manuel Klausner, Murray Rothbard, R. A. Childs, Theodora (Tonie) Nathan, and Jim Dean. The end of the Gold Standard and the implementation of price controls by President Nixon stimulated the formation of the Libertarian Party. The Libertarians thought that the other major political parties –Republican and Democratic – have deviated already from the libertarian principles of the American Founding Fathers. The libertarian party judges that the present political system is the proper means in effectively implementing the libertarian goals and principles.
The Libertarian Party stands for the American heritage of personal responsibility, enterprise, and liberty. Libertarians view all men as unique individuals. Libertarians want their people to live free and independent. It wants its people to have the freedom to choose the way they want to live their lives as long as they don’t adversely affect the equal rights and welfare of others. A libertarianism is an approach in politics that is people-centered. It supposes that men themselves have the only right to control their own actions. In connection with this, the role that the government will play is the protector of this right. The government under Libertarian rule will keep its people away from force and fraud.
The Libertarian platform is guided by the principle of “mutual respect for rights.” Therefore, they believe that in order to create moral and stable societies, individual liberty must be respected. So basically, the Libertarian party’s platform includes strengthening the recognition of the rights of the people and the protection of those rights. In this regard, the party wanted to adopt the laissez-faire principles that would result in the reduction of the role of the state in the economy.
The effects of this would be the privatization of Social Security and Welfare and deduction of taxes for individuals. For businesses, government intervention will be reduced for local operations and foreign trade. Protection of the rights of the people will be intensified. These include the protection of property rights, freedom of association, freedom of speech, and sexual freedom. The party also opposes civil rights laws that aim to regulate the private sector. Reproductive rights such as access to abortion will not receive intervention from the government. Right to self-defense will be unobstructed. The party also stands for the abolition of laws against victimless crimes, for instance, prostitution and fraternization, among others.
On the issues facing the United States today, here is the Libertarians party’s stand in all of these. the War on Iraq. The Libertarian party is very specific in that it would like the U.S. troops to be pulled out of Iraq in the safest way possible. In protecting civil liberties, the party likes to repeal the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and restricting the Executive Branch from implementing additional limitations that are not set forth in the constitution. Regarding the fiscal situation of the country, the party expects that everyone, including those in the highest positions in the government, to start working on reducing their expenses and promote fiscal adequacy.
They believe that for the government to enact true tax reform, government spending must be controlled. In reducing crimes, the government will focus on protecting the victims and at the same time make the criminals pay full restitution. In protecting the people, the party’s goal is to double the police resources available. The party also aims to increase employment and improve education because they believe that lack of jobs and education is the root of all crimes.
On the issue of the environment, the party recognized the need for action in providing a clean and healthy environment. Though, the party believes that it should be a joint effort by all sectors of the country. On international affairs, the party opposes the present U.S. government policy on giving economic and military aid to foreign countries. On the other hand, the party encourages the free movement of humans as well as capital across national borders.
With the platform prepared by the party, the American people will experience more freedom. Their actions will be subjected to fewer interventions by the government. The end result of all of these will be the reduction of the government size. Many current government functions will be eliminated. The reduced cost in running the government will then be used in implementing the new government’s policies, including the protection of the people from force and fraud.
As compared to the two major political parties in the United States, the Libertarian Party clearly is the party that wants its people to have all the freedom they want to have. Their goals and policy are basically toward the non-intervention of the government with the people’s rights. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, also wants its people to be free, but at the same time, they believe that government intervention is still necessary.
The Republican Party has more conservative policies. In terms of the parties’ stand in current issues facing the United States today, the parties have different views. On the issue of same-sex marriage, the democrats are in favor, on the contrary, republicans oppose this, and the Libertarians do not want government intervention in this issue. On the legalization of abortion, the democrats and the Libertarians are in favor of this, but the republicans currently oppose this action. With regard to the universal healthcare issue, Democrats have mixed views, but the Libertarians and the Republicans are firm in saying that they are not in favor of it.
At the same time, Libertarians and the Republicans agree that taxes must not be increased, but the Democrats have mixed views on this issue. On illegal immigration, the Democrats and the Libertarians all want amnesty and guest workers; the Republicans have mixed views on this. On deficit spending, the Republicans are willing to increase deficit spending, but the Democrats and Libertarians favor its reduction. When asked about the war in Iraq, Democrats and Libertarians are on the same page in opposing the war; the Republicans, however, support the said war.
In an article written by Bob Barr himself in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he wrote that rising disappointment with the two major parties is shown by politically active Americans (Barr, 2006). They say this is due to the over-intervention of the government with the people’s rights. The Libertarians thus believe that the people need a new option. An option that gives the people the true freedom they need. But since the inception of the Libertarian party in 1971, the party never succeeded in winning a presidential election.
The party’s candidates hardy accumulates even a percentage of the votes except during the 1980 elections. On the other hand, a number of Libertarians rule in local public offices. Furthermore, as compared to other third parties, the Libertarian Party is the largest. As mentioned, although third parties don’t perform well enough in the national elections, the presence of third parties in the local political system is very relevant. Albeit they only have a minor presence in Congress, they still bring a major influence in the formation of U.S. policies and in political debate (Nwazota, 2008).
In addition, though it is mentioned that third parties in the United States political system only gather very small percentages of votes, they do affect the outcome of the election by “stealing” votes from another candidate just like what happened to the 2000 presidential elections. Ralph Nader, the presidential candidate of the Green Party took some crucial votes away from Al Gore that resulted to Al Gore’s defeat.
In the 2008 presidential elections, the Libertarian Party’s candidate is Robert Laurence “Bob” Barr, Jr. Bob Barr. He was born on November 5, 1948 in Iowa City, Iowa. He has served as a federal prosecutor and represented Georgia’s 7th congressional district from 1995 to 2003 as a republican. He is one of the leaders in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. On his earlier years, Barr already showed high liberal spirits. He has the position of Grand Histor in the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Barr is also a member of the Young Democrats of America and he joined the rally against the Vietnam War.
His career as a representative in Congress is a very colorful one. He started of as a Republican representative of the 7th congressional district of Georgia. But due to differences in interest and opinions, there came a time that he was named as a libertarian. He criticized the policy of the Bush administration about privacy and other civil liberties which is very unusual for a Republican. He disliked the domestic surveillance program and the warrantless spying on the American people. He said that it is an abuse of the due process rights. In addition, his stand on other issues focused more on the rights of the people. He regretted his vote on the Patriot Act.
He wanted the U.S. troop to be pulled out of Iraq. He did not oppose same sex marriages and supported other issues that are in face value, typical to a libertarian to agree on. Finally, in the 2004 Presidential election, Barr endorsed in public the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party and at the same time abandoned the Republican Party.
Barr showed interest in running for the 2008 presidential election early April 2008. he was quoted saying that he would run as the Libertarian presidential candidate if sufficient number of people want him to do so. (Vejnoska, 2008). Eventually, Barr confirmed interest on the 2008 presidential run under the Libertarian party after activists made a Facebook group that aims to draft Barr into the nominations. He formally announced his candidacy on May 12, 2008. After six rounds of voting, Barr turned out to be the 2008 Libertarian Presidential Nominee on May 25, 2008.
According to news sources, the candidacy of Barr will make things complicated for McCain in the 2008 election (Sullivan, 2008). Not only that his candidacy will pose a threat on the unity of the conservatives, Barr’s presence in the presidency will drain votes mostly from the McCain. According to the polling done by Rasmussen Reports, when Barr announced his candidacy, the poll resulted in the vote turnover against McCain. Many analysts say that Barr’s candidacy will be a blow to McCain in some states. It is expected that Barr would be on the ballot of at least 49 states. A poll by Zogby Poll indicated that Barr received 6% of the nationwide vote.
According to an article by Faye Fiore of the Houston Chronicle, other national polls indicate that his support is only around the low to mid-single digits (Fiore, 2008). In a different context, the tone of these news indicate that many still think that the Libertarian party’s presidential candidate is a spoiler in the elections. They say that he will just remove some votes from the Republican candidate; this time from McCain. The obvious impact of this is Obama, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, will benefit from the lost votes that McCain suffered. However, Barr is firm in saying that he will not be just a spoiler in the coming election
(Sheinin, 2008). He says that if McCain failed to win the election in 2008, it is not because he spoiled it but because the republicans failed to present a vision and an agenda that the people want. On the other hand, Andy Sullivan of Reuters quoted a statement made by a Southern Methodist University professor Cal Jillson saying that the fight between Obama and McCain will not be close enough to the point where Barr’s candidacy will affect the outcome (Sullivan, 2008). They say that the election cycle here in 2008 is still in favor of the Democrats.
For the record, Barr’s proposed campaign budget is between $40 to $45 million which is less than half of McCain and eight times less than of Obama. Furthermore, Barr’s presidential campaign is evidently suffering from the lack of seriousness from the public. News articles often make fun of his candidacy; focusing stories on his mustache or his whipped cream controversy he entered himself into when he licked whipped cream off the chest of a woman during a leukemia research. Even Preston, political analyst for CNN, is very firm in saying that he will not win (Preston, 2008). These problems, among others, are the obvious reasons why analysts say that Barr has a very small chance of winning the 2008 presidential elections.
In my opinion, Bob Barr’s candidacy for the 2008 presidential elections will have an impact on the whole presidential campaign. First, it will give the people a third option. People that are not satisfied or do not believe to the agenda of the two major political party in the country will be given a chance to consider another option. Second, it is of no doubt that Barr will really steal some crucial votes from McCain, although this can only be true if the race between Obama and McCain is so tight. Lastly, because of this threat to spoil votes for McCain, Barr’s campaign, which is believed to be the strongest so far by a Libertarian, will make the other parties especially the Republicans to focus campaign efforts on states that are believed to be the strongest points of Barr.
By considering all of these factors, the likely outcome for Barr’s presidential candidacy is, defeat. In terms of the campaign fund, which many believes is a great success factor, Barr’s resources are significantly small. The fact that people still do not take his candidacy seriously is also a great indication that he will not have a good chance of winning.
Although, he is still only considered as a potential spoiler to the 2008 presidential election, the difference it will make in American democracy is still great. Barr’s candidacy shows that it is always worth the try. No one knows if in the future, the Libertarian party will gain ground in the American political system. But at the present time, it is obvious that the party has not been taken seriously by the people. It will still take time before the party can receive the seriousness they need from the people.
References
Nwazota, K. Third Parties in the U.S. Political Process. 2008. Web.
Preston, M. (2008). Preston on politics: Barr says he’s no Nader. Web.
Sheinin, A. G. (2008). Spoiler label likely to follow Barr in presidential race. Web.
Sullivan, A. (2008). Barr announces Libertarian presidential bid. Web.
Vejnoska, J. (2008). Barr’s campaign for White House taking shape. Web.