Not to be outdone on the irresponsible Libertarian voting scandal, Radley Balko’s Cato colleague Randy Barnett blames it on Republicans:
What conservative Republicans often fail to realize is that libertarians are an important constituency that should not be ignored or taken for granted lest their votes be driven to the Libertarian party or even to the Democrats. Telling libertarians they should vote Republican despite their serious reservations about Republican policies is futile. These concerns need to be addressed rather than ignored.
Professor Barnett offers a laundry list of policies to make the Republican Party more Libber-friendly, such as getting jiggy about privacy, pushing Federalism, appointing more Clarence Thomases, legalizing crack, caring about the free market, and refraining from rude comments about the apparently very sensitive Libbers.
In brief, Barnett says that the Republican Party has to adopt the entire Libertarian Party platform lock, stock, and barrel, and then maybe Libbers will vote Reep.
While a deal like that is hard to refuse, I think most Reeps will take a pass on it. The Thomas nomination politicized judicial confirmation to an extent never seen before, and single-handedly created a logjam in the federal courts. We don’t need any more of that, as a party or as a nation. Similarly, rewriting the Patriot Act to accommodate privacy concerns would likely make it completely ineffective, because these concerns are endless and can never be satisfied, and as attractive as crack, smack, and speed may be, legalization (at either the state or the federal level) isn’t the next step. Decriminalizing personal use of pot even looks far out now that states are voting down medical use.
The party platform is decided by the party convention, and the candidates are chosen in the primary. If the Libbers want a voice on these things, they are going to have to participate in the party process instead of playing toy soldiers on their own little island. But they won’t, of course: compromise isn’t in their nature, as Barnett’s laundry list amply demonstrates.
The one issue that I would take from his list and try to advance is Federalism, simply because it’s the right thing to do, but I doubt most Libbers actually understand it, or that they’d be satisfied with it.
I’ve learned from arguing with Libbers the last few days that their voting patterns aren’t a reasoned political choice as much as they’re an assertion of individual identity – a way of saying they’re too pure for the process, too individualistic for the conformist major parties, and too special to care who wins. Given that mindset, appeasing them is about as likely to be successful as appeasing, well, Saddam Hussein. So it’s wise to forget them and fight for the swing voters who can actually be convinced on a rational self-interest basis to do the right thing.
While I agree with much of what you say–indeed, the reasons you give are the primary reasons why I finally realized that voting Libertarian was a waste of my time, and I should get over my silly fear and loathing of Republicans–I think you’re a wee bit hard on Professor Barnett. His list of suggestions is not a laundry-list of LP ideas, and it hardly mirrors everything the LP stands for. Indeed, it’s not even close.
Barnett’s suggestions are a useful exercise in considering what Republicans might do to reach out to a small constituency without breaking themselves. Not unreasonable; Republicans should reach out to prospective voters.
I don’t think everything on Barnett’s list is achievable. However, picking a handful of items would certainly help. Tax cuts are one avenue. Republicans could also start talking about reducing unnecessary regulation while simultaneously talking tougher about fraud. They could also talk more often about how Federalism could work toward the type of world Libertarians would like better.
At the ultimate level, you can never win everyone of course.
Amen! I realized years ago that affecting the GOP from within is a much likelier means of promoting libertarian ideas than playing spoiler. So I traded my LP membership for the Republican Liberty Caucus.
I think adopting Barnett’s points would do the GOP some good, but flinging feces at the whole system from the monkey house that is the LP isn’t going to make it happen.