Last updated on July 23, 2024
With respect to some general issues, and the preferred resulting political strategies:
For much of the history of the Republic, on some issues there was geographic sorting of opinions, so that an issue or cause very popular in some places would be unpopular in others. Some of you are old enough to remember when the South was the Solid South, in which Republican Presidential candidates had no hope of winning. The can be dated back to the election of 1860, in which Lincoln did not even have slates of electors (no printed ballots back then, so ‘on the ballot’ would be an anachronism) in most of the slaveholding states. Only recently was much of the South solidly Republican. Now in some places abortion is unpopular, and in other places private gun ownership is unpopular.
We have a party whose unambiguous platform positions include “Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government’s treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration, or military service laws. Government does not have the authority to define, promote, license, or restrict personal relationships, regardless of the number of participants. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships.” (which includes LGBPL issues) and “We recognize the freedom of individuals to determine … the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care…” (which guarantees a woman’s absolute right to have an abortion.)
There are places in the country where these positions are less popular. What is our party to say about this? We are in the position of the abolitionist in the 1850s. We should campaign everywhere, so as to persuade our opponents of the error of their ways, while recognizing votes will not come equally from everywhere.
I would, however, point out that there are states identified by polling as ‘swing states’ will be buried in political advertising, while there are other states such as West Virginia or Massachusetts where one party or another has a certain victory, and therefore there will be little political advertising. It is in the latter states that our advertising will be most effective. Yes, in some states our position on abortion and gay marriage will be a hard sell, and in other states our support for private firearms ownership will be a hard sell, but that is a condition that should be endured, not fled from.
I do not see why a minor party would be doing any broad spectrum advertising at all. Minor parties need to be building up their base and that would rarely involve appeals to the general public.
There is something to be said for strategy that targets disaffected voters in one-party states like Massachusetts and West Virginia, as the editor suggests. But, as GP acknowledges, this is tricky given that the disaffected voters in West Virginia have issues that are probably different than disaffected voters in Massachusetts.
IMO, the most disaffected voters right now are RINOs, anti-Trump Republicans. They are probably attracted to libertarian issues on economics and personal rights. But, I suspect that they have a more interventionist foreign policy outlook than Libertarians, and are more willing to support NATO, Ukraine and Israel.
There is a party in Germany called the Free Democrats that are conservative on economic issues and liberal on social issues. They occupy the middle ground in Germany between the more conservative Christian Democrats and the more socialist Social Democrats. They never win outright, but they usually get enough votes to keep the left and right parties from getting a parliamentary majority, and often become members of coalition governments, in which they are able to promote those issues with which they share similar positions with the governing majority party.
While the US is not a parliamentary government, we see in the House of Representatives that a small classical liberal party with a handful of votes could hold the balance of power between the Republican and the Democrats. This party could have as its base the suburban constituencies of swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.