Mike Gravel joins Libertarian Party
Posted on March 25th, 2008 by bile Tags: Alaska, Bob Barr, elections, Former US Senator and Alaska House, Green Party, Jesse Johnson, Libertarian Party, libertarianism, Mike Gravel, Pentagon, politics, Ron Paul, Senate, Shane Cory, Uncategorized, United States, USAI just got off the phone with Libertarian Party Executive Director Shane Cory and he confirms the following information: Former US Senator and Alaska House Speaker Mike Gravel has joined the Libertarian Party. Cory says he’ll provide more in a media release to be expected over the next few hours.
Gravel is currently one of the Democratic contenders for president. Wikipedia provides a bit of Gravel’s colorful background:
As Senator, Gravel became nationally known for his forceful but unsuccessful attempts to end the draft during the Vietnam War and for having put the Pentagon Papers into the public record in 1971 despite risk to himself. He conducted an unusual campaign for the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States in 1972, and then played a crucial role in getting Congressional approval for the Trans-Alaska pipeline in 1973. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1974, but gradually alienated most of his Alaskan constituencies and his bid for a third term was defeated in a Democratic primary election in 1980.
Third Party Watch covered Gravel’s endorsement of Green Party candidate Jesse Johnson here and Gravel’s libertarian streak here.
This should provide some refreshing news to those insisting that the right-left balance in the Libertarian Party is slightly out of whack. Gravel joins former Republican Rep. Bob Barr as a recent congressional addition to the Libertarian Party fold. Both Barr and current Rep. Ron Paul are “Life Members” of the LP.
He had indicated a few weeks back he’d consider a 3rd party run. Fairly recently there have been rumors he was going to run for the Libertarian Party nomination. Appears those were accurate. Some have called Gravel a left libertarian but anyone who supports national referendums and creates an organization which promotes direct democracy doesn’t seem to me to be all that interested in individual liberty. He’s better than any of those running in the main parties however by a long shot.
4 Responses to “Mike Gravel joins Libertarian Party”
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March 25th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Interesting. The left-libertarians (at least Roderick Long) seem pretty psyched about Mary Ruwart trying to get a libertarian nomination.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
She seems to be an anarcho-capitalist of sorts but I’ve not read her major works so I may be off.
I should note that there are left libertarians and left libertarians. I’m not sure why the two don’t have different terms. The former really doesn’t sound like libertarianism to me at all… perhaps it’s the article or I’m just misunderstanding something.
March 28th, 2008 at 7:41 am
She’s apparently pretty radical. People are wondering if she’ll get more of the "non-voting" vote, which I find to be hilarious.
There is a lot of dispute between left libertarians. For the most part I’ve seen Proudhon’s possession vs ownership argument at the crux of most left libertarian’s ideas about property. If you read "What is Property?" you can see that property is the cause for most of the debate on the left side of libertarianism or anarchism. Unfortunately Proudhon has a style of writing that really buns me the wrong way, sort of like Mill.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Radical as in an anarchist. The libertarian wing of the LP.