October 29, 2013
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You could call it the wealthy white fratboy wing of the GOP. Or
perhaps its masters-of-the-universe subset, as exemplified by Wall
Streeters who regularly rank private profits above the common good and
whose credo is “get government out of my way.”
Libertarians make up a small but enduring slice of the Right, a nationwide
study
by the Public Religion Research Institute confirms. Of course, they
have their own party that nominates presidential candidates—like the
Greens. But, practically speaking, libertarians line up with Republicans
most of the time.
They are the economic conservatives and privacy
rights adherents that existed before the Tea Party emerged in 2010,
PRRI finds, and today—as in years past—they split with the religious
right on regulating morality, and they are not always Tea Party fans.
PRRI’s “
2013 American Values Survey” is the latest
reminder
from respected pollsters that “committed libertarians”—who comprise
seven percent of all voters, with another 15 percent leaning their
way—have an out-sized influence. Libertarians feel that there is almost
nothing good that government can do for them personally or for society,
PRRI reports. In contrast, the GOP’s evangelical wing wants government
to ban abortion, reject same-sex marriage and bar assisted suicide for
the terminally ill.
According to PRRI, a room full of libertarians
would be overwhemingly young, male and white. “Nearly all libertarians
are non-Hispanic whites (94 percent), more than two-thirds (68 percent)
are men, and more than six in 10 (62 percent) are under the age of 50,”
they report. Libertarians tend to be WASPs—white Anglo-Saxon Protestants
(27 percent)—or religious agnostics (27 percent), but a few are
Catholic (11 percent) and amazingly “no libertarians identify as black
Protestant,” PRRI said, without offering an explanation.
It would
one thing to dismiss libertarians as a fringe movement, as “only 12
percent of self-identified Republicans are libertarians, compared to 20
percent of Republicans who identify with the Tea Party, [or] 33 percent
who identify with the religious right.” But with benefactors such as the
Koch brothers
channeling
more than $250 million into the 2012 election for campaigns targeting
Democrats and unions—and continuing today by leading attacks on
Obamacare and trying to
discredit climate change—it is important to know what they believe and how they differ from others on the Right.
On
economic issues and social safety nets, PRRI reports they are
old-school economic conservatives. Two-thirds oppose raising the federal
minimum wage, which now is $7.25 an hour. Nearly all (96 percent) have
“an unfavorable view of the 2010 health law [Obamacare], compared with
83 percent of white evangelicals.” Seventy-three percent oppose stronger
environmental laws.
Economic and religious conservatives
have always occupied conflicting corners of the GOP—and that continues,
as libertarians disagree with the religious right on culture war issues.
“Nearly six-in-ten (57 percent) oppose making it more difficult for a
woman to get an abortion, a proportion identical to the general
population,” PRRI said. Seventy percent favor lethal injections by
physicians for the terminally ill—nearly twice the rate of other
Republicans. Seventy-one percent favor legalizing pot, compared to 59
percent of Tea Partiers. In contrast, 69 pecent of “white evangelical
Protestants oppose legalizing marijuana,” PRRI found.
One area
where libertarians are less liberal is LGBT issues—though they are more
open-minded than much of the GOP. “While a majority (59 percent) of
libertarians oppose same-sex marriage, they are significantly less
opposed than Republicans overall (67 percent) and than other
conservative-leaning groups such as Tea Party members (73 percent) and
white evangelical Protestants (80 percent).”
When it
comes to the intensity of their political beliefs, PPRI found that
libertarians dislike Democrats more fervently than they like
Republicans—who they have a hot-and-cold relationship with. Fifty-seven
percent “have a favorable view” of the GOP, “but a substantial minority
(40 percent) have an unfavorable view,” the survey said. That may be why
they are less likely than Tea Partiers to vote in GOP primaries, PRRI
found. When it comes to Democrats, 89 percent "have an unfavorable view"
and 64 percent "have a very unfavorable opinion of the party."
Libertarians
name Sen. Rand Paul as their first choice for the GOP’s 2016
presidential nominee, with Tea Party darlings Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and
Paul Ryan following in descending order. But the PRRI survey offers no
explanation about why one candidate would be more popular than another.
Of course, there is a Libertarian Party, which has nominated its own
national candidates in the past, such as Texas congressman Ron Paul—Rand
Paul’s dad.
On other issues, their platform includes a strong
aversion to the government’s domestic spying, an isolationist foreign
policy, and reluctance to use military force. On economic growth, they
favor lower taxes and do not support public programs to help people get
ahead. That survival-of-the-fittest, hands-off mindset includes opposing
gun control laws, as well as censoring online pornography.
Libertarians
tend to register to vote at a slightly higher rate (80 percent) than
the national average (76 percent), PRRI found. And the survey finds that
they follow politics more than most Americans. “Libertarians are much
more likely than Americans overall to pay attention to what is going on
in government and politics,” it said. “Fewer than four-in-ten (38
percent) Americans report paying attention… Among libertarians, a
majority (56 percent) report that they pay attention to politics always
or most of the time.”
Americans who identify as firm libertarians
might only be seven percent of the electorate, but with some of the
deepest pockets in America backing their beliefs—particularly on
economic issues and the role of government—they remain an outsized
political force. They certainly are an enduring part of the Republican
Party, even if they have been eclipsed by Tea Partiers—such as during
the recent government shutdown.
Steven Rosenfeld covers
democracy issues for AlterNet and is the author of "Count My Vote: A
Citizen's Guide to Voting" (AlterNet Books, 2008).
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