DECISION 2020
Third-Party Challenge to the Two-Party Schism In the 2020 election, the Libertarian Party will once again appear on the ballot in all 50 states. With that in mind, Joe Bishop-Henchman, the party’s national chairman, sat down with Luckbox to describe the party’s path forward. By Jeff Joseph
How would you summarize libertarian principals? Joe Bishop-Henchman: One single
sentence: “Don’t hurt people and don’t take their stuff.” That really summarizes our platform. I would also recommend the writings of Frederick Hayek and Ludvig von Mises, and books by Harry Brown, David Boaz and Ayn Rand. (See “Read Free or Die,” opposite page.)
In 2016, the libertarian party’s presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, received 4.4 million votes or about 3.28% of the popular vote and more than the difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Recently, Trump declared that he would have won the popular vote in 2016 had it not been for the Libertarian candidate. What can you tell us about Libertarian voter demographics in 2016?
I have two responses to that. We’re sometimes described as socially liberal and economically conservative. Some people think that’s a little overly simplistic or misleading, but generally that’s how we’re described. It stands to reason that we have a lot of liberals, those who really care about social issues and aren’t necessarily driven by economic issues. Similarly, we have a lot of conservatives who are primarily motivated by economic issues and
Joe Bishop-Henchman • Newly elected chair of the Libertarian Party • Vice president of tax policy and litigation at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation • Scholar with a law degree from George Washington University and bachelor’s in political science and public policy from the University of California, Berkeley
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Presidential elections have been designed to make people think they have only two choices.
luckbox | november 2020
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