Libertarians: The Millennial’s Party

The libertarian sentiment in general has a good grounding in the young voters of the nation because due to its appeal to liberty. Although some political analysts claim the growing libertarian sentiment as just a movement and is not in any way going to affect U.S. politics in the long run. But when the evidence is taken into account all signs point to a generational shift it seems to be that libertarianism is a generational realignment in the political arena.

The reason behind libertarian philosophy becoming so prevalent amongst the nation’s youth is not too hard to understand. The philosophy is grounded in the principles of freedom and self-reliance. Young adults want to find themselves and want to do this in a manner that is totally up to their own choice. Government coming in and micro-managing steps on the freedom to choose and in turn they decide across the board what is best for everyone this does not sit well in the hearts and minds of this generation of voters.

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This generation is one of few who has grown up with the nation at perpetual war on terror and have seen little to no results from the decade-long struggle. The results they have seen go on are encroachment of their rights like the implementation of surveillance of the NSA and distrust of the government to them. So it is reasonable to assume that the millennial generation holds the same distrust towards the government. Millennials have experienced repeated failure by the hands of the government and are beginning to turn their focus toward solutions to societal problems to a more individually geared form.

Some Political analyst would usually just dismiss the libertarian sentiment of the youth as just a movement that really has no lasting power in politics.

They equate it to movements like the tea party, or the green party who had some influence on politics at the time they rose to national prevalence but had little to no lasting influence on the whole of American politics, but if we were to take a look at the past of political movements and realignment of political party ideals the libertarian sentiment of the millennial generation is more in line with a realignment of ideals (American Conservative). Unlike the tea party which was a general movement in a party libertarian ideals have risen from the next generation of voters to affect the party system (American Conservative). Seeds have been planted in the mind of young millennials and these ideas are going to be a major player.Indications of the generational realignment have become more evident with the current issues that are being discussed regarding the political landscape today.

One of the issues that have gained traction is the topic of marijuana legalization. In the past year more states have moved in the direction to legalizing marijuana in Washington State has been added to the states that has legalized it for medicinal purposes. Colorado has gone ahead and completely legalized for recreational use (Fuller). The changes in policy on drug use are symptomatic of the generational shift in policy amongst millennials: the youngest voting bloc. In a Pew Research Center surveys the data showed 69 percent of the milliennials think that marijuana should be legalized (Fuller). This makes it easier to understand the reasoning behind so much change in policy in the recent years. What has started to make itself very clear is that were the generational divide was mostly being fought for is social issues. The example of marijuana legislation is just one of many other social issues concern that is on the mind of the millennial voter generation.

This has become a major issue for Republicans in garnering votes that have lost touch with the youngest segment of the population and in doing risk losing a generation of elections to Democrats. But the future does not look so grim for Republicans if they would just step back and accept the libertarian lean that the party has been moving towards in the past few elections they could edge out wins. For example both Gary Johnson the 2012 libertarian candidate and Ron Paul the recently retired Congressman from Texas both began their work in politics under the Republican banner (Blake). If the GOP would capitalize on this already apparent republican association with libertarian candidates the party could win future elections. In the recently past presidential election Gary Johnson only garnered 1 percent of the national vote but in swing states the candidate gained a lot more than just 1 percent (Blake).

When it came to Senate races libertarian candidates siphoned off 6 percent of the vote in both Montana and Indiana (Blake). If there was not the heavy presence of a relevant third option for voters these voters probably would have gone to the Republican Party due to the libertarian association with conservatism. But since the party does not appeal to these critical groups of voters it is understandable why the GOP ended up losing these seats. Another factor that shows the libertarian influence is in the CPAC. The Conservative Political Action Conference is basically the convention that the Republicans hold every year to gauge the sentiments of young voters. Because the majority of the people who attend the convention are in the 18-25 age range it has become where the growing libertarian swing has made itself very apparent. In the last 6 years the candidate that won the convention's straw poll has either been Ron Paul or Rand Paul except on election year when the winner was Mitt Romney (Fuller). But nonetheless, the libertarian swing on millennials had made itself very clearly apparent.

Millennials have made it clear that they are more socially liberal then the generations before them and the Republican Party is lacking to make moves to adapt to their sentiments. George Will the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the Wall Street Journal who has been living in Washington D.C. for 44 years covering politics has become aware of this shift. In an interview with Reason Magazine, George Will states that back in his time when you wanted to listen to a certain song you would listen to the radio and hope that the Disc Jockey would play the song you wanted to hear but this day an age where this generation of voter has had the opportunity of more choice and instant access to anything at their fingertips.

The idea that “The Government operates on one-size-fits-all because that suits the bureaucratic impulse and method, which is empire building and Manifest Destiny on the part of every bureaucracy to maximize its mission(Gillespie)” goes against this very concept of freedom to choose. Millennials have also begun to realize that business and government have become so heavily intertwined. This realization has created a rise a new brand of populism which some are dubbing libertarian populism (James). Crony capitalism has become a commonly throughout phrase to describe the actions the government has taken. These groups of voters have taken a hard stance against the verdict of Citizen United and have pointed as this Supreme Court decision as one of the main reasons to the rise of interconnection with government and big businesses (James).

To libertarian populist this does not sit well the government has been hijacked by special interest and completely forgotten the individual. Their view is encapsulated in the words of Tim Carney “Every time government gets bigger, somebody’s getting rich.”(James)Across America there is starting to be real influence being felt in local politics when it comes to candidates with a libertarian influence. For example in the Virginia Governors race the republican candidate lost due to the strong libertarian candidate siphoning a good chunk of the vote this lead to the democratic candidate winning out in the election. Libertarians tend to be wealthier, better educated, and younger than the national average (Tilchin). Those young libertarians usually live in densely populated areas which can help lead a sway in those areas to have a more libertarian lean (Tilchin).

The Republican Party cannot keep ignoring this group of individuals in doing so they put the party at risk for any future elections. If they do not take a stab at capturing the hearts and minds of the younger generation of voters they risk completely being irrelevant to the political dialogue of the future. Libertarians have shown that they are not push over and are not willing to back down. They refuse to step in line with what the mainstream Republican Party leaders want them to do. Change in party views needs to be change and they will not compromise until the voice of the young is heard and action taken due to it. What is certain is that libertarianism is currently having an effect in politics and all signs see to point that the future seems to indicate that it is not a trend that is not going to change any time soon.