Mike Gravel is a Libertarian(?)

Yesterday, on the campaign website of former long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel, we find A Personal Message from Mike. The upshot of the message is that he’s joined the Libertarian Party because “the Democratic Party today is no longer the party of FDR. It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism—all of which I find anathema to my views.”

Now, whether the Democratic Party is still the party of FDR is one thing, but certainly FDR sustained war, itching to get the United States into the second world war. Clearly he was not anti-war, and one might argue that his policies might have had a tinge of imperialism to them. Let us also not forget that World War II and the subsequent Cold War gave us the military-industrial complex.

Now, one would think that, from Gravel’s statement, that since the Democratic Party is, in his view, no longer the party of FDR, and he is leaving it and joining the Libertarian Party because of that, that he believes that the Libertarian Party is the party of FDR, or the closest thing to it.

But has he not read the party’s platform? Does he not know what libertarianism is? Remember that FDR gave us Social Security and the beginnings of the modern welfare state. Now, anyone with but a cursory understanding of libertarianism knows that the welfare state is anathema to the libertarian. See Article II of the party’s platform: “We believe that all individuals have the right to dispose of the fruits of their labor as they see fit and that government has no right to take such wealth. We oppose government-enforced charity such as welfare programs and subsidies….” It is a core principle of libertarianism, founded in the notion of individual rights (especially property rights) to do away with the welfare state. I doubt severely, though, that Mike Gravel wants to, given what he’s said and what he’s stood for from the past through the present.

If Mike Gravel really is looking for “the party of FDR,” he certainly hasn’t found it in the Libertarian Party.

Technorati tags: politics, mike gravel, libertarianism, libertarian party