This year, once more, I was not pleased with the choices. Absent a viable third party, we were faced with an impossible choice for president: An old white man who had appealed to his party’s darkest fringes and failed the most significant test of his presidency, allowing his ego to overwhelm him; or an old white man who had trouble speaking and remembering where he was, whose party had been taken over by the loons of the left. The electorate chose the forgetful guy, but otherwise turned its back on his party. For the other party, which had neared becoming a cult, it won the larger election but was handed notice that its leader was unacceptable to America.
After the 2016 election, Democrats refused to accept the results. After the 2020 election, Republicans refused to accept the results. The past four years have nearly torn us to shreds. It’s not clear to me that our country can endure another four years just like the last four.
In 2016 I was not pleased with the choices, and voted for the Libertarian candidate. Libertarian is the closest we have to a third party, but it can never win a nationwide election. Its appeal is its downfall. The party celebrates the supremacy of the individual over the group, which yields what most Americans seem to want: social liberalism and fiscal conservatism. The problem comes when departing from core principles to the nuts and bolts of policy. Put ten Libertarians in a room and you’ll get 23 opinions on any policy issue you put forward. And, party discipline is anathema to a group that celebrates the supremacy of the individual over the collective.
To compete, we will need to be a big-tent political party accepting anyone who can subscribe to individual liberty as the basis of our Republic. We are not a collection of group rights, we are a collection of equal, individual citizens. Libertarians can set the principles, but politicians will be needed to run a political party. I think I know where we can find them.
Two pairs of states offer an example of how politics can work in the absence of ideological constipation and intolerance for all who disagree. The first is in the Midwest, Ohio and Indiana. Ohio has a record of electing liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. Liberals and conservatives neither fear nor hate one another; the same is not true of people who have become tribalists. Note that I described these as liberal Democrats, Americans who are liberal and happen to belong to the Democratic Party, not Americans who are Democrats and happen to be liberal. The same applies to Ohio’s conservative Republicans. Of Indiana’s last six governors, three have been Republican, three Democrat. Senators have been mixed, a few more Republicans than Democrats. I’d ask Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Oh), former senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), and Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) and Governor Eric Holman (R-IN) to join.
The second is Maine and New Hampshire. Maine’s Democrat Governor Janet Mills and Republican Senator Susan Collins are no-brainers. So are New Hampshire’s Republican Governor Chris Sununu and Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen. None of the four needs any particular party behind him or her to stay in office. From there I’d add Independent Maine Senator Angus King, and Joe Lieberman, retired Independent Senator from Connecticut. There are others who have been able to play well with other children regardless of party label, who could help.
What to call the party? I think I’d like to call it NB. Stands for Non-Binary, and has nothing to do with gender identification. Harold Ford, Jr, should be recruited to be the face of the part, the Central Committee Chairman. Perhaps the Deputy Chairwoman could be Olympia Snowe. There are plenty of smart people out there who aren’t tribalists. L. Douglas Wilder could serve as the Chairman Emeritus and be the new party’s sage.
Most of all the new party needs energy, followed by money. We already have a think tank, the Cato Institute, a magazine, Reason, and a number of well-known television personalities such as John Stossel, Drew Carey, and Penn Jillette. The greatest hurdle is probably overcoming the Duopoly’s propaganda, from the left that we are secret Republicans, from the right that we’re traitors to conservatism. We’re neither of those, and certainly should not allow others to define us.
