Liberty Maven

“If you’re not a liberal when you’re 20, you have no heart. If
you’re not a conservative when you’re 40, you have no head.”

- Winston Churchill (perhaps wrongly attributed)

I turned 18 when the 1980′s came to a close (1989) and like many young people held a left leaning ideology. I was positive that world peace was attainable, and almost as sure that I could help get the world there. I believed that anything could be accomplished with words, as long as they were put together properly. I wrote poetry as an outlet for my thoughts and as a reaction to things that happened to me, mostly in relationships.

These days I don’t write poetry any more. I don’t believe world peace is attainable. Words are just words, and I’m considered rather extreme in my Libertarian political views. So what happened? How did I get here?

From the time I graduated high school in 1989 until the Presidential election in 1992 I became intensely interested in politics. After all it would be the first time I could vote in a Presidential election, and it was something I did not want to take lightly. I was determined to learn as much as possible about all the candidates from both parties.

I was pretty sure that I was a Democrat. They seemed to be saying the things that I agreed with most. I, along with a like-minded friend, devoured any information about the Democratic candidates who had declared their bid for the nomination. The main candidates were Bill Clinton, Paul Tsongas, Bob Kerrey, Jerry Brown, and Tom Harkin. My friend and I video taped debates between the candidates from various sources, but much of our information came from CSPAN and news articles.

I listened to the candidates and automatically assumed that the things they said they were “for” were things that would actually get done when/if they became President. Yet I always had a pretty good BS meter. I remember immediately disliking Tom Harkin, with his enclosed fist, thumb on top way of pointing to the camera and answering with “I will put the American people back to work” to just about every question given him. I remember thinking Jerry Brown was a bit of a quack, but I kind of liked him. I remember being ambivalent towards Clinton and then almost hating him. The candidate that stood above all the rest for me was Paul Tsongas.

He seemed genuine. He didn’t always say the things people wanted to hear. He spoke of balancing the federal budget and decreasing deficit spending; rather right-wing type policies, but on social issues he leaned leftward. He became my candidate of choice.

Tsongas won in New Hampshire, then the very next day came down for a campaign stop/rally in Baltimore, Maryland (my home state at the time). My friend and I were able to attend the rally and shake his hand. We were ecstatic. I remember us being interviewed by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution following the rally. I don’t exactly remember if we told the reporter what we liked to tell each other about the silent ‘T’ in his last name: The ‘T’ stands for truth, but it was an exciting time for us just the same. We had high hopes his win in New Hampshire would catapult him to the nomination. But the “Comeback Kid” Clinton would end up winning.

I remember being depressed about Clinton getting the nomination, but at the same time I remember watching his victory celebration when he won the presidency with pride. I thought at least Bush didn’t win a second term, so things will get better now. They didn’t.

Something happened between that election and the following election in 1996 in my world view. I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and discovered the Libertarian party. I don’t remember why or how I discovered the Libertarian party, but when I did I felt I had struck gold. An ideology that preached individual responsibility, smaller government, lower taxes, and personal freedom resonated with me.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I put my support behind Paul Tsongas in 1992 I was actually supporting the same Libertarian principles I support today: fiscally conservative, socially liberal. My views just had not developed enough at the time.

In 1996 and in 2000 I voted for Harry Browne, the Libertarian candidate. In 2004 I voted for the Libertarian Michael Badnarik. I voted for these candidates with shameless pride. I didn’t care that they wouldn’t win. I only cared that I was voting for my beliefs. I dreamed of a day when I could vote for Libertarian ideas and feel that there was a possibility of winning.

Hello Ron Paul. I’ve read about Ron Paul in the past. I knew he ran as a Libertarian in the 1988 presidential election. I knew he was a Libertarian in Republican clothes. What I didn’t know was that he would announce his candidacy for president this year and that he would instill in me the absurdly optimistic view that he could actually win.

I say absurd because if you ask any expert they’ll tell you he has no shot of winning. My brain agrees with them. My heart does not. There is too much stacked against him to win, I think, but I love the fact that he is getting more support than any Libertarian candidate I’ve voted for in the past. It tells me that my political views could one day be mainstream again. Maybe there is a possibility that someone with his views (and mine) could get elected in my lifetime. Or maybe not.

But one thing Ron Paul has given me is simply: Hope.