Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics asks, Will Feingold Get Swept Away by GOP Wave? I don’t know if Senator Feingold will be re-elected; I do know that his possible defeat should leave libertarians with mixed feelings. For although we oppose campaign finance restrictions and a big (spending) government, in many other ways Senator Feingold has been a strong advocate of civil liberties.
Feingold’s defeat would leave civil libertarians with one voice fewer on many rights issues. (Most Wisconsinites know little about Feingold’s likely Republican opponent, Ron Johnson. They do know that Feingold has supported individual privacy rights against state overreach time and again. It hasn’t always made him popular; it’s made him right.)
In a way, this is a risk that President Obama’s sagging popularity presents for libertarians: we oppose his economic policies, but we see his administration offers good policies in other areas. In any event, movement libertarians have no personal dislike toward him. (I don’t understand why some dislike Pres. Obama so personally; he seems generally likable to me, and surely no less so than Sen. McCain. Quick disclaimer: I voted for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr in 2008, and Barr’s a curmudgeon if ever there were one.)
This is a conservative year; some liberal politicians will feel its sting. After November, however, many libertarians may find that they’ll have a harder road ahead, with fewer officeholders in support of their commitment to individual privacy rights. Having no alternative, we’ll push on. We’ve never been the big-crowd type, in any event.