The Libertarian Party in the United States: Who They Are and What They Stand For

One probably wouldn't suspect that a small suburban home architecture student would be the home of the largest third party in the United States, however in 1971 exactly this happened. After months of debate, the National Libertarian Party was formed on December 11th, of 1971. The party first fielded a presidential candidate in 1972, but received only 3000 votes. In 1980, the party had received ballot access in all fifty states. In the 2004 presidential election, Libertarian Party Candidate Michael Badnarik received 400,000 votes nation wide.

Although the party has not had very many election victories to speak of, it has presented a number of very interesting proposals and ideas to govern America. The National Libertarian Party (NLP), has a number of points of contention with both of America's major political parties. They believe the Republicans get it wrong by putting social regulations on America, and that the Democrats get it wrong by pushing for economic regulations on America.

Libertarians have a few plat-form issues which pretty much all Libertarians support. Like all political parties, everyone is not going to agree on everything, but there are some points that are for the most part universal. First and foremost, members of the libertarian party promote the ideas of freedom and small government. They believe that the government should not intervene with rules and regulations in the economy, but rather let the free market handle such issues. For example, instead of the FDA telling individuals not to use a drug, individuals would look at the available evidence from different organizations and choose whether or not to use the drug without having the FDA deciding for them. The size that Libertarians want to cut the government differs from person to person, but the vast majority of them support cutting taxes greatly and shrinking the size of government.

Beyond economic issues, Libertarians are very liberal when it comes to social issues. Libertarians generally defend the second amendment, and often criticize the NRA for not going far enough in promoting second amendment rights. Libertarians generally often believe that illegal drugs, such as marijuana and crack cocaine, should be legal. They argue that the "War on Drugs", is failing and instead we should let individuals choose whether or not they wish to use a drug. They generally support the elimination of "victimless crimes" such as prostitution and gambling.

Civil liberties is one of the issues that is central to the platform of the Libertarian party. They believe in freedom of speech, religion, association and privacy protections. They generally believe the military is not needed and rather an armed citizenry would better defend America and cry out whenever the government limits rights of its citizens.