Low-Tax liberalism: The rise of the Libertarian Party

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Hall

"I've got a little noise here today, I take it maybe you people would like to see a three-party America. " ————Ed Clark, at the 1980 Libertarian Party Convention
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Hello everyone! This is my first work on this site. I'd like to introduce you to a very interesting candidate: Ed Clark. His campaign is - in my opinion - the most interesting the Libertarian Party has ever run, and also the one with the most potential. For many in the country, both candidates in 1980 were difficult to swallow... Anderson's campaign gave them a third choice, and in fact the similarities between the two candidates destroyed Clark's chances.

What if Clark becomes the only third choice? Could his more moderate libertarianism enable the Libertarian Party to achieve its goal of turning the United States into a three-party system? I'll try my best to describe the scene, but if you feel there's anything unrealistic about it, feel free to point it out. Hope I can update steadily.
 

164522

May be to wank Libertarian Party we need to butterfly away Reagan? And put a more (so-to-speak) "left-wing" Republican to the White House in 1980?
 
Anarcho-Occultist

Anarcho-Occultist

164522 said:
May be to wank Libertarian Party we need to butterfly away Reagan? And put a more (so-to-speak) "left-wing" Republican to the White House in 1980?
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Whats interesting about the Libertarians is they could gain from either a more liberal GOP or a more conservative one depending on who helms the LP. Ed Clark definitely was more ‘socially liberal fiscally conservative’ type that could if willing to moderate win over the Anderson/Weicker type of moderate Republicans while a more hardline right wing type LP in the vein of Ron Paul probably would need no Reagan to gain.

The Libertarian Party in this era is deeply divided between the moderate types (who are aligned with Ed Crane of the Cato Institute and the Koch Brothers), who were the main backers of the Clark campaign, and the more hardline variety (best represented by Murray Rothbard and the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus) who were very hostile to the Clark campaign selling libertarianism as ‘low-tax liberalism.’
 
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Dancing Fool

Hall said:
His campaign is - in my opinion - the most interesting the Libertarian Party has ever run,
Click to expand...
I was 17 in 1980 and I remember two things about the Libertarians —

Immediately before Monday Night Football for several weeks in a row, they ran a commercial that was a very good mix of fast and slow. At one part they showed a clip from their conventional “And Alaska, the last home of the individual and other endangered species . . ”

And Ed Clark did an interview in Penthouse magazine!
 
1978 California gubernatorial election-1
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    • Hall

    “Although nearly all libertarians view 1978 as a precursor to what would come later, ironically what actually happened in that year’s gubernatorial election approximated an old–school communist–style takeover . Proposition 13 holding down state property taxes was driven by the standard antitax populist right–wingers, but the libertarian movement figured out a way to attach themselves to the Prop. 13 movement…they’d inject themselves into a mass movement they hadn’t really assembled, one dedicated to separate goals, and subtly shift the entire movement in their direction. ”

    -From Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement
    by Brian Doherty, published 2007

    The California gubernatorial election of 1978 initially showed no signs of leading to the rise of the Libertarian Party. But two events happened in California that same year that changed everything: First, Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) was passed, and libertarians linked it to their campaign. Second, the so-called Briggs Initiative, which aimed to restrict gay and lesbian rights, narrowly failed despite modest support from former California Governor Ronald Reagan [1]. Libertarian opposition to this is widely credited with helping them in the gubernatorial election. Both of which are cited as reasons for the Libertarian Party's stunning performance in the election.

    On the other hand, many Ed Clark supporters will claim that it has everything to do with this candidate's charisma.
    截屏2024-05-07 下午1.37.38.png

    (Ed Clark, during his campaign for governor in 1978)

    Edward Emerson Clark is a corporate attorney in New York and Los Angeles. While he was still a Republican, he opposed the Vietnam War. This gradually alienated him from his party. The last straw was President Richard Nixon imposing wage and price controls in 1971, which prompted Clark to join the Libertarian Party, and quickly became a member of its national committee.
    Under Ed Crane's cajole, Ed Clark decided to run for governor in 1978. Even though Clark was not technically a Libertarian on the ballot—he was listed as an independent, for ballot access law reasons, but ran as a proud Libertarian. The results of that year would prove to represent the beginnings of a new party system, albeit one that was not fully recognized at the time.


    [1]: In OTL, Reagan opposed the Briggs Initiative. ITTL, David Mixner did not convince him to oppose the measure.
     
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    • 1978 California gubernatorial election-2
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    • Hall

    "Clark spent two months campaigning, with Bob and me scrambling to set up schedules……We had enough money for radio ads, but Clark was a candidate no one had heard of before the campaign, I'm still proud of what we achieved."

    -From Happy 90th Birthday, Ed Clark
    by David Boaz, posted 2020

    Unprecedented, Ed Clark’s campaign ultimately captured 8.56% of the vote [1], which the Libertarian Party claimed was proof of people’s dissatisfaction with California’s overweening, overthieving government. Although that year’s election still ended in Jerry Brown’s landslide victory, many libertarians can proudly claim that one of its boys could control the balance of power in one of America’s biggest and most important states.

    This was not blind optimism. That same year, the Libertarian Party received millions of votes nationwide and won its first state congressional seat. 1978 was a great year for the Libertarian Party, yet the party's most radical supporters saw more than just a victory in Ed Clark's campaign—from the start, libertarians dominated the coalition by no means. Ed Clark capitalized on a movement that was not libertarian, and the extent to which his success was a victory for libertarians remains questionable in their eyes. Chief among these doubters was Murray Rothbard.
    Rothbard_'70s.jpg

    (Murray Rothbard)

    It is true that this suspicion would evolve into a larger conflict, but in 1978, things were far from that……

    [1] OTL results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978_California_gubernatorial_election
     
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    • Dancing Fool

    Hall said:
    Chief among these doubters was Murray Rothbard.
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    I unfairly divide group members in “purists” and “pragmatists” ! ! ! 😃

    I even heard about this in a folk dancing group I joined. Previously, the one leader wanted to “do the dances right.” And the other leader wanted people to have a positive and enjoyable evening. And from what I heard the “do it right” guy either quit in frustration or was half-driven out. :openedeyewink:
     
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