This campaign season, the selection of Republican and Democrat presidential candidates started out kind of bad, and then gradually got worse. We’re hearing from more and more people that don’t feel they can support any of the remaining candidates in either of the major parties.
In contrast, the Libertarian Party has at least 15 presidential candidates committed to reducing the size and cost of government, and doing what they can to move it in a Libertarian direction. Admittedly, some are committed to reducing it more than others, and some are committed to moving it in more of a Libertarian direction more than others.
If we were electing a President at our national convention, there isn’t much doubt in my mind which one I would choose. But we’re not electing a President. We’re selecting a candidate for President. And as much as we would like to see it happen, that candidate probably isn’t going to be elected this November.
What can happen is that our candidate might be able to attract media publicity, draw attention to Libertarian issues, and raise an awareness that will benefit our local and state candidates, areas where we stand to make significant gains this election.
Most of our presidential candidates entered the race unbeknownst to anyone outside of Libertarian circles. And even if they receive the nomination in Denver, they will remain unbeknownst to most people outside of Libertarian circles. That doesn’t make them less Libertarian. It simply acknowledges that the LP doesn’t get a lot of national media attention, certainly not as much as it deserves for the solutions it offers.
I was a little skeptical when I heard that Bob Barr was entering the race. I remain a little skeptical. But the day he announced he had decided to run, the two newspapers I receive ran articles about it. There was a clip about it on the evening news. When I went to the coffee shop the next morning, one of the regulars there asked about him. When I went to Burger King for lunch, the people that always sit in the corner booth at noon asked about him. I’ve been through 2 presidential elections where those people didn’t know who the Libertarian candidate was until I told them. And told them. And told them.
I suspect there will be very few delegates in Denver that haven’t heard of Barr’s candidacy somewhere in the national media. I also suspect there will be very few delegates that have heard of the other candidates anywhere but in the Libertarian media.
I certainly won’t argue that Barr has the most Libertarian credentials of the group, and as I said earlier, if we were electing a President, he wouldn’t be my pick. But we’re not. What we can do is select a candidate that will campaign to reduce government, move it in our direction, and shine a spotlight of media attention on the Libertarian Party that we couldn’t buy for a million dollars. If we had a million dollars. Which we don’t.
Regardless of who wins the nomination, one thing that won’t help move the government in a Libertarian direction is an ugly fight in the media and a split party over which presidential candidate is Libertarian enough to represent the party in a contest that most of us realize we’re not going to win anyway.
Does anybody have any suggestions on how to avoid that?
