The Boston Globe has this op-ed by former Governor and former U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee, on why he joined the Libertarian Party. He now lives in Wyoming but he is still better known in New England than in the remainder of the country. When he was in office, he was in Rhode Island.
Welcome! Now WE’RE the party of Lincoln!
He joined because he knows he can get the Presidential nomination if he wants it. The man is far from a libertarian, no matter how he is trying to spin things these days.
The party continues to sell out and drift away from its principles. Will they take John Kasich next?
It is a great article. I welcome Lincoln Chaffee to the Libertarian party. I would hope that John Kasich or any former Republican or Democratic office holder would join the Libertarian party. A person doesn’t have to accept 100% of what another person believes before joining the Libertarian party. All one needs is to accept that individual liberty is more important than the collective, agree that laissez-faire economics, and non-intervention in the affairs of other countries should be the policy of the United States. Nothing else is required.
As a Libertarian, I can say that the party is actually a curious coalition: it has political animals all the way from wacky purists to fuzzy pragmatists. Weld and Chafee are definitely in the fuzzy area. Somehow, the party must achieve some kind of balance.
How much BLUE fascist Elephant support for Green candidates ???
How much RED communist Donkey support for LP candidates ???
— Both for divide and conquer RESULTS.
BOTH RED Clinton and BLUE Trump got under 50 pct of popular votes in 2016 due to Green and LP votes (and others).
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PR and AppV and TOTSOP
It is one thing for a person to join the party as a member, and another thing for a person to represent the party as a candidate for political office. If a person is going to represent the party as a candidate for political office, particularly for a high visibility political office, then they ought to be pretty damn solid on the party’s principles. If they are not, then they should not be candidates for the party, and I do not care what credentials they have or how big of a name they are.
Chafee is not even close to laissez-faire economics, or for individual liberty. I knew Robert Stock would chime in to defend his new hero, as both don’t believe you need any principles to join a party. No wonder the LP continues to be a laughing stock.
I don’t know of any venue in which the Libertarian Party is a “laughing stock.” The LP is the first third party in the U.S. to have polled as much as 1% for president, two elections in a row, since the Socialist Party last did that in 1920 (technically it got .99% in 2012, so I am rounding up slightly). The LP is the first third party to have had members of the legislature in more than 3 states (but not simultaneously) since the Progressive, Socialist, and Prohibition Parties more than 100 years ago. The LP has more presidential primaries in 2020 than any third party has ever had in U.S. history. The LP currently has a higher percentage of the national registration (in the states that have registration by party) than any other third party in 100 years.
Agree with your views on the Libertarian Party. I’ve lived in four states and in all four when the pols talk about the LP, it’s always serious talk.
How many LP folks in POWER offices NOW –
USA Congress and State legislatures ???
How many statist control freak laws repealed and LP freedom laws enacted since 1970 due to LP efforts ???
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PR and AppV and TOTSOP
Laughing stock? Perhaps not but serious threat to the two party system? Nah!
“Me” Lincoln Chaffee is not a hero to me. I am happy he has joined the Libertarian party as I would be happy with any former Republican or Democratic office holder to join. If Chaffee’s sole reason to join and only agreement with the Libertarian party platform is a non-interventionist foreign policy, then that is fine by me. No one has to agree 100% with your political beliefs to be welcomed to the Libertarian party.
Not agree 100% I get it, but he doesn’t even agree with half of the beliefs, perhaps not even a third! There has to be some sort of cutoff. This is why the party is going nowhere, that and pathetic “leadership”. What’s the point of a platform if it is meaningless to you? Whatever happened to the party of principle?
Richard, I know you are a member of the LP. I was too at one time. The party is a joke. Just go to a convention. How many people right now are actually elected Libertarians in partisan races? Furthermore, how many are actually important positions (Congress, state rep, Governor, etc) and not just drain commissioner or dog catcher?
So getting 1% of the vote for President makes you legitimate? The Greens did it too, so did the Reform Party. Did they even come close to winning? No.
@me
did you even read the article? Here is a direct quote from Chafee:
“Of the Libertarian Party’s 34 platform principles, I decided that I agree with most of them, disagree with two or three, and a half-dozen I’d need to study up on and think about it.”
So 34-3-6(half dozen)=25 thats a lot more than half.
Me, every history book for the U.S. explains the impact that minor parties have had on policy, whether those parties won elections or not. The first U.S. minor party was the Liberty Party of 1840, which taught that slavery should be abolished throughout the entire nation. They were the first group to even express that thought. It was considered so heretical, even in the north, the party’s speakers were sometimes forcibly prevented from making public speeches. But someone had to start expressing that idea. Later, the Greenback Party, the Peoples Party, the Socialist Party, all introduced new ideas that became public policy.
Chafee says that, but it’s obvious he is lying. Weld, Barr, and Root (among others) made similar statements only for those to be false. If a liar and fake member like Chafee is now the face of the party, I’ll stay away from it.
The criticism that the party is a “joke” because it hasn’t elected people to Congress, state rep, or Governor is itself laughable. How could someone make such an absurd statement in the comment section of a newsletter dedicated to ballot access? American elections are rigged. Besides the ballot access issues there the way the Republicrats are permitted to violate campaign finance laws and the way they are subsidized by the taxpayers.