Author of this Blog and LPO Candidate Committe Chair William (Butch) McDowall Issues an Essay on Libertarian Social Positions

Ron Paul was nearly drawn and quartered by his Republican Party at the mere suggestion that 911 was the result of “blowback”, the result of a decades long aggressive U.S. foreign policy. This notion is now all but mainstream and is a widely accepted public position today, even among conservatives.

Similarly, the idea that the relationship between Congress and the Federal Reserve is the single most destructive association in America, and possibly the world, was virtually an unknown concept ten years ago. The education of the populous regarding our monetary system is still deficient, but it is progressing.

Why is this? It is not as if Democrats began to see the evils in insuring poor people remain poor through their abuse of the Federal Reserve system, nor is it that Republicans suddenly decided to abandon their affection for invading countries whose residents are not white Christians. It is because Libertarianism is mainstream, which is where most Americans live their lives.

These above mentioned ideals were exclusive to Libertarian thought at one point. However, as the Republicans loose power, they are commandeering these messages. That is good, to the small degree that it brings the topics to discussion. It is bad because there is no chance that an elected Republican would act out from self interest to shepherd reform legislature through Congress, with the noted exception of Ron Paul.

It is my opinion that there is ZERO chance of any Libertarian winning office in any race above the municipal level that does not place the Libertarian social policy front and center. And yes, I do mean in front of the Libertarian position of conservative fiscal responsibility. (I will pause while you catch your breath and get a cold glass of water). A recent article described the Libertarian Party as the “attack Chihuahuas of the Republican Party”. While I do not agree, I understand where that perception comes from.

“Pragmatism” is a buzzword being used frequently by Libertarians. It describes the idea of branding ourselves as mainstream and stiff-arming those who seek to return the Libertarian Party to a glorified debate society. However, it is important to insure that the word “Pragmatic” does not become interchangeable with the phrase “Like Republicans would do it”.

Here are examples of proper use of the word “pragmatic”:
- We must be pragmatic when lobbying Republican and Democratic committee leaders when dealing with ballot access issues.
- We must be pragmatic in deciding who receives the limited contributions we can make to Libertarian candidates based on their chances of success.
- We must be pragmatic when selecting Party leaders based on their abilities to get things done.

Here are examples of poor use of the word “pragmatic”:
- We must be pragmatic when dealing with the drug issue, because that will not be popular with some voters.
- We must be pragmatic when attracting candidates to make sure they are middle of the road conservatives who are much like major party candidates.
- We must be pragmatic in our efforts to reach out to gay and minority communities because visibly aligning ourselves with controversial groups will irritate traditional voters.

As you can see, the words “like Republicans would do it” is completely interchangeable with “pragmatic” in the second example list.

Elections will not be won in Ohio by saying, “We’re fiscally conservative.” or by saying, “We’re really fiscally conservative” nor by saying “We’re really, really fiscally conservative” and not even by blurting out “Audit the FED!” Elections at the State and Local level will only be won once we as a party and our candidates become comfortable in our own skin.

- Show me candidates that say that the war on drugs is actually a war on the poor and blacks in America and drug laws are designed to control and incarcerate as many of them as possible.
- Show me candidates that will say that government has no business in the institution of marriage.
- Show me candidates that say that there are two political parties in Ohio: The Libertarian Party and the Incumbent Party, and point out the statistic that between 94-99% of all Federal elections result in incumbent wins.
- Show me candidates that take our social agenda and demonstrate that each position is mainstream to voters.
- Show me all of that and secondarily a message of fiscal responsibility, and I will show you wins at the ballot box. Without an interlaced progressive and tolerant social agenda front and center, we will appear to be “Republican concentrate”. True, we will not be the old style “debate society”, but the end result at the ballot box will forever be pretty much the same.

William (Butch) McDowall
Chair, Candidates and Campaign Committee
Libertarian Party of Ohio