Republican / Libertarian Alliance

Something unprecedented happened in America on April 15, 2009, and the implications for the political landscape of Texas and America could turn out to be profound. A tenuous alliance between two political groups was formed that, if maintained, could reverse years of conservative losses and portend ill news for liberals.

What is happening is a gradual meeting of minds between conservatives and their distant cousins, the Libertarians.

“We’ll work with anybody that we feel is in agreement with our core beliefs,” said Pat Dixon, Libertarian Party of Texas chairman said of the growing alliance between the groups represented by the Tea Parties. “I think when there are ideas of economic freedom” the alliance makes sense.

Bryan Preston, a spokesman for the Texas GOP, said Republicans are reaching out and finding lots of common ground with Libertarians. That common ground traces its roots to opposition to President Obama’s agenda.

“I’m encouraged by the reaction that Obama is spawning among pretty much everyone who doesn’t want government controlling their lives,” Preston said. Pointing to a recent Gallup poll that shows 40 percent of Americans identifying themselves as conservatives, Preston said that Washington is growing increasingly “out of touch.”

Nowhere was that more evident than on April 15, 2009, when 20,000 Texans gathered at the Alamo in San Antonio. Thousands more gathered across Texas and the nation. The mainstream media dismissed the Tea Parties. MSNBC claimed the entire movement was under 100,000, even though confirmed attendance in Texas alone was close to that figure.

The stunning success of recent books by conservative talk show hosts-turned authors Glenn Beck (Glenn Beck’s Common Sense) and Mark Levin (Liberty and Tyranny) is further proof, if any is needed, of a groundswell of public hunger for a message and a movement. But what message, and what movement?

I attended the Tea Party at the Alamo, and I can tell you, these were no Republicans. Of, course, many of the GOP faithful were there, but many of the faces and agendas were quite different. If you wanted eggs thrown at you, there were two ways to get it: wear a T-shirt depicting Barack Obama or wear a shirt depicting George W. Bush.

That fact belies the assumption by many in the media that the event was manufactured by the GOP. In truth, Conservative groups such as Americans For Prosperity jumped onto the runaway bull that was the Tea Party Movement and tried to steer it, but the animal made it known that it had a will of its own and would defy attempts to Republicanize it. In Austin, Governor Rick Perry got boos on some clearly Republican lines and cheers on Libertarian ones.

What is a Republican and what is a Libertarian? See our related story here.

A “Natural Phenomenon”

Eric Dondero is the writer of the Libertarian Republican Blog, and says the alliance between the GOP and Libertarians is real, but predictable, given the current environment.

“It’s a natural phenomenon,” he said. “Of course that’s going to happen with the Democrats in charge of everything.”

Dondero, who straddles the line between the groups, said a lot of his Libertarian friends, who always liked to say that Republicans like George W. Bush were “just as bad as the Democrats” on government spending are now re-thinking their beliefs.

“Quite frankly, I think a lot of my Libertarian Friends have egg on their face now over spending,” he said. “And now those folks are silent. Libertarian Republicans like me are turning to them and saying, that they need to work with the Republicans.”

Dixon, and the Libertarian Party itself, is a little more circumspect. The only Republican that his party endorses outright is GOP Congressman Ron Paul, who has run for president both as a Libertarian and as a Republican. And Dixon isn’t exactly singing the praises of the newest crop of Republican leaders.

“In the past, there used to be more candidates in both parties” who is group could support, he said. “We’re finding over the course of time that there are fewer of them.”

The key to the alliance, then, is not candidates, but issues.

“We’re very willing to talk to anyone who is working on common issues with us,” Dixon said. “On specific issues, we’re always willing to go to committee meetings, to hearings, to do whatever needs to be done.”

Consolidating for 2010?

So far so good, one might say, when it comes to opposing Obama and Congressional Democrats. But what, other than giving the Democrats a black eye, can the alliance promise for the 2010 elections?

Libertarian candidates in various races take away votes from both parties, but in general, tend to sap GOP strength much more. Texas political insiders credit strong Libertarian candidates with costing the GOP a couple of seats in the Texas House of Representatives by pulling Republicans down just enough to allow Democrats to eke out a narrow win. With the House stuck on a 76-74 GOP majority, every seat counts.

Dixon won’t talk about not running Libertarian candidates, and the GOP is tactfully not asking them to step aside. But behind the scenes, moves are being made which seem to indicate a new strategy that will benefit both.

The Texas Libertarian Party has shifted a larger part of its efforts to local elections – often non-partisan ones in which candidates who are ideologically Libertarian can win. Although Dixon won’t say it, many of these Libertarians may also enjoy the ambiguity of local elections, because they can run without rejecting the GOP label for potential future runs for office.

The Libertarian Party has also put a greater emphasis on areas where it can have a more direct effect on policy. Statewide, the party only pulled in $140,000 in donations, but activists joined with like-minded Republicans to defeat two bills in the legislature that would have raised over $1 billion in taxes.

“I think we are being very effective,” Dixon said.

And then there’s the Tea Party. Started by Libertarians and quickly embraced by members of the like-minded Republican Liberty Caucus, the Tea Parties seized the momentum of opposition away from the GOP. This is an important distinction. During the 2008 elections, mainstream Republicans complaining about Obama’s proposals were virtually laughed off the stage following the party’s orgy of government spending in the last years of the Bush Administration.

But with a new, fresh leadership provided by the Tea Parties, the opposition to the Obama Administration quickly coalesced and took a philosophical high road that the old GOP could not assume. Glenn Beck, in effect, took over from Rush Limbaugh.

Now, as the regular GOP moves to join that group, Libertarians and pro-Liberty Republicans have abandoned the name-calling within the wider conservative movement in order to rally their forces for what many see as the Mother of All Battles Against Big Government.

Tea Parties the Catalyst

“The Tea Party started the dialogue,” Dondero said, adding that many mainstream Libertarians are now willing to work within the GOP, something that was not conceivable just a short time ago.

“I think you’re going to see the vast majority of Libertarians active in the Republican Party,” he said. But, he added, that isn’t a sellout.

“It’s not so much our Libertarians becoming more conservative, but our Conservative buddies have become more Libertarian,” he said. He pointed to Gov. Rick Perry’s strong comments in favor of state sovereignty at the April Tea Parties.

As long as the issues remain focused on the themes of big government vs. small government, high taxes vs. low taxes and health care choice vs. government mandates, the two groups will have common ground. And even on tricky social issues, Dondero said the two groups are not as far apart as they used to be. In the past, Dondero said, conservatives pushed social issues too much, but many of the younger generation of conservatives are starting to lighten up.

“Now conservatives have gotten hip and cool and they drink beer,” he said. “I’m not saying that social conservatives have got to become more liberal on all those issues, but just enough so that we can say, ‘We’re good with that.’”

The key for keeping that alliance strong, all three agree, is for that commonality of interests to manifest itself in real candidates, real positions – and ultimately – in real governance. With the GOP out of power in D.C. – and hence blameless for any new big government advances – and generally fiscally conservative in Texas, the alliance looks healthy. As long as the administration continues to drag the country in a direction that both sides feel is hostile to their principles, it is likely to grow even stronger.