Guess who’s back?
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
This November, Alabama voters will have another choice on their ballots. In addition to the old and tried “Red” Republicans and “Blue” Democrats, for the first time in 20 years, there will be the option to vote for “Gold” Libertarians.
The last time the Libertarian Party had statewide ballot access in Alabama was in 2002. Under Alabama law, a political party must gather signatures of registered voters in numbers equal to at least 3% of those who voted in the last general election for governor, which based upon the number of votes in 2018, equated to 51,588 signatures.
The Libertarian Party of Alabama recently turned in more than 80,000 signatures to Alabama’s Secretary of State Office. John Merrill, the secretary of state for Alabama, stated that the Libertarian Party of Alabama comfortably cleared the minimum number with 82% of those submitted deemed as valid.
Libertarians certified 69 candidates for the general election, including candidates for the U.S. Senate, governor and in all seven of Alabama’s races for the U.S. House. There are 12 candidates for the State Senate, 32 for the State House of Representatives, as well as many other local candidates.
This is the highest number of candidates the Libertarians have ever fielded for an upcoming Alabama election.
So, “what is a Libertarian” you may ask? There are many people that like to think of the Libertarian Party as the best of both worlds, while some have described Libertarians as “socially liberal, while fiscally conservative,” but those generic descriptions can be slightly misleading.
What it boils down to is that those who adhere to Libertarian ideology want the same freedoms and liberties that our nation was founded upon, with recognition of course to the several amendments to our Constitution over the past 200-plus years.
We want a government that is limited to what it is authorized to do by the Constitution. We want the freedom to choose what is best for ourselves as individuals, and families and communities. What we do not want is for any government entity, at any level, to dictate to us what should be personal choices.
Libertarians believe that, in politics, liberty is the most important value. Almost everyone wants freedom for themselves, but Libertarians also seek to protect and expand the freedom of others. When people are free, they can create a more just, more prosperous, safer, and better world for everyone.
It is unfortunate that far too many Americans have been misled into believing that our government was designed to be a two-party system and that the Republicans and the Democrats are the only two options, when in reality our federal system was designed to insure that minority opinions were still heard, while leaving to the states to choose for themselves what is best for their citizens.
Most Libertarians see both the Democratic and Republican parties as simply fighting each other over which can claim more power over our freedoms and liberties and which can bankrupt our nation first!
In contrast, the Libertarian Party is actively working to try and restore constitutional and inalienable rights to the people, while trying to rein in the reckless spending that happens at all levels of government.
The Libertarian Party is not fighting for a three-party system; they are fighting for the ability for all views to be heard in the democratic process, and Alabama voters should understand that they will not be wasting their vote if they choose to support a Libertarian candidate this coming November.