Home » History » American Revolution » Libertarianism & the Founders - Part One

Libertarianism & the Founders - Part One

© Brian Tubbs

In the heat of this year’s presidential election, there is a growing sense of frustration on the part of many American voters painfully conscious of how much our nation has changed since its founding days. Of course, there are millions of Americans who would praise this change as “progress;” and, in many ways, it is hard to dispute that assessment. Medicine, science, and technology have all made quantum leaps in the last 200 plus years, especially when juxtaposed with the overall millennium timeline. In addition, the United States has emerged from the largely male-dominated and slave-holding society it was at its birth to one of the freest and most diverse nations on earth.

There have been other changes, however, in the last 224 years that have not been as popular or as welcome, especially not with those voters who identify themselves as “libertarians.” This election season has left many such voters enormously disenchanted with both major-party candidates, who each promise more government initiatives to help different segments of the American population. As Joy Johnston, Suite101’s Contributing Editor for “Libertarianism,” writes: “For true-blue Libertarian voters, both the Democrat and Republican platforms clash with their ideals.”

While most libertarian or semi-libertarian voters have primarily sided with the Republican Party (or at least the conservative movement) in recent years, especially with the rise of the “New Right” in the 1960s and 1970s, the “true-blue Libertarians” are turning away from both major parties in droves. They are finding a home with the little-known, long shot candidacy of Harry Browne, this year’s nominee of the Libertarian Party USA.

In his official Campaign 2000 essay, Browne declares: “We need to make all Americans aware that there's a party that wants to set them free, to reduce government to its constitutional limits, to free them from the income tax, to let them out of Social Security, to end the insane War on Drugs, and to stop the dangerous foreign policy of the past 60 years.”

While not all Americans who identify themselves as “libertarians” are rallying around Browne’s candidacy or the official, modern Libertarian Party, this clarion call represents a dramatic contrast with the status quo. And while not all libertarians agree completely with Browne’s platform, they are basically universal in their disapproval of the status quo, which, in their minds, is taking the country further away from the principles enshrined in its heritage.

Differences among various libertarian voters don’t alarm those that align themselves with the libertarian message. The reason is that, at its heart, the libertarian position isn’t about politics per se. It’s about a cause – one that most libertarians believe has its roots with the Founders of the United States.

The copyright of the article Libertarianism & the Founders - Part One in American Revolution is owned by . Permission to republish Libertarianism & the Founders - Part One in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.