David Weigel of the Washington Post‘s “Right Now” blog (covering conservatives more than libertarians) writes about press coverage of Wayne Allyn Root, former vice presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in 2008. Root has never been popular — that’s a kind understatement — with left-leaning libertarians.
(They see him as a crypto-Republican. He is, however, popular with center-right members of the LP. Even a third party has factions.)
Root contends that he’s on a sensible and popular path, and Weigel quotes Root as contending, in his typically humble fashion, that
“If I’m not on the right track,” said Root when asked about his libertarian critics, “how can you explain Fox News, a conservative TV network, giving TV shows to Glenn Beck, Jon Stossel and Judge Andrew Napolitano – all strong libertarian thinkers? How can you explain the success of Ron Paul, Rand Paul and Sharron Angle? How can you explain [my coming] out of nowhere to become the 2008 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential nominee, and now becoming an overnight media sensation on Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC – doing 20 to 30 radio interviews a week across the country?”
In the end, Weigel’s observation about libertarians, the LP, and the Tea Party movement is partly correct: “There’s a natural constituency for Libertarians; it’s just that tea party activists are more comfortable in the GOP, and worried that splitting their votes would help Democrats.”
The Tea Party and libertarian movement aren’t the same thing; members of each have some shared interests, but they’ve differences, too. The groups are not so easy to unite as Weigel implies.
I am sure, however, that America will return to sound principles of limited government. She’s doing so now, all around us.