The Downsize DC Foundation, formerly known as the American Liberty Foundation, is a policy advocacy organization which aims to limit the size of government in the United States through awareness and petitioning. Though it claims to be non-partisan, it does have strong political ties to the libertarian movement. [1] It was founded by two-time Libertarian presidential candidate Harry Browne, [2] his former campaign staff members Perry Willis and Jim Babka, and former National Chair of the Libertarian Party Steve Dasbach. It is split into two organizations, the Downsize DC Foundation and DownsizeDC.org, for tax purposes. [3]
The chair of the Downsize DC Foundation is Jim Babka. Gary Nolan (Chair) and Rick Wiggins also serve on the Board of Directors.
DownsizeDC.org focuses both on preventing what it considers "bad" legislation – generally, legislation that grows government – from passing through Congress and on pushing for legislation that would reduce the size of or constrain the growth of government.
Harry Edson Browne was an American writer, politician, and investment advisor. He was the Libertarian Party's Presidential nominee in the U.S. elections of 1996 and 2000. He authored 12 books that in total have sold more than 2 million copies.
Gary P. Nolan is an American talk radio host and a former candidate for the Libertarian Party nomination for President of the United States.
Robert Laurence Barr Jr. is an American attorney and politician. He served as a federal prosecutor and as a U.S. Representative. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. During his time in the House of Representatives, he authored the Defense of Marriage Act, which was later overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013 and repealed by the 117th Congress.
Libertarians promote individual liberty and seek to minimize the role of the state. The abortion debate is mainly within right-libertarianism between cultural liberals and social conservatives as left-libertarians generally see it as a settled issue regarding individual rights, as they support legal access to abortion as part of what they consider to be a woman's right to control her body and its functions. Religious right and intellectual conservatives have attacked such libertarians for supporting abortion rights, especially after the demise of the Soviet Union. Libertarian conservatives claim libertarian principles such as the non-aggression principle (NAP) apply to human beings from conception and that the universal right to life applies to fetuses in the womb. Thus, some of those individuals express opposition to legal abortion. According to a 2013 survey, 5.7/10 of American Libertarians oppose making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion.
Individualist feminism is a libertarian feminist tradition that emphasizes individualism, personal autonomy, choice, consent, freedom from state-sanctioned discrimination against women, and equality under the law. It also opposes what is considered political or gender feminism.
Diana Louise DeGette is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for Colorado's 1st congressional district since 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, her district is based in Denver. DeGette was a Chief Deputy Whip from 2005 to 2019 and is the dean of Colorado's congressional delegation; she served as the Colorado State Representative for the 6th district from 1993 until her election to the U.S. House.
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is an American conservative, libertarian economic think tank. Founded in 1948 in New York City, FEE is now headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a member of the State Policy Network.
Jim Babka is an American writer, activist, former radio talk-show host, and president of the Downsize DC Foundation.
The Read the Bills Act (RTBA) is proposed legislation intended to require the United States Congress to read the legislation that it passes. It was originally written in 2006 by Downsize DC, a non-profit organization focused on decreasing the size of the federal government. The proposed act is a response to the passing of bills that are thousands of pages long and are passed without copies being made available to the members of Congress who vote on the bill. The bill is aimed at limiting the size and growth of the federal government.
William Bruce Redpath is a former Chairman, Treasurer and At-Large Representative of the Libertarian National Committee, and past Chairman of the Virginia Libertarian State Committee. An eight time candidate for public office, he is the Libertarian Party of Illinois nominee for United States Senate in 2022. In 2020, he was the Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois's 6th congressional district.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), established in 1975, is a "nonpartisan public officials’ association composed of sitting state legislators" from the states, territories and commonwealths of the United States.
The New Hampshire Liberty Forum is an annual convention-style conference hosted by the Free State Project. It has attracted attendees such as U.S. Presidential candidates, a sitting U.S. Senator, a sitting U.S. Representative, state legislators, well-known businesspersons, entrepreneurs, and numerous policy institutes.
The Libertarian Party of North Carolina (LPNC) is the North Carolina affiliate of the Libertarian Party.
Liberty International is a non-profit, libertarian educational and networking organization based near Austin, Texas. It encourages activism in libertarian and individual rights areas by the 'freely chosen strategies' of its members. Its history dates back to 1969 as the Society for Individual Liberty, founded by Don Ernsberger and Dave Walter. The previous name (ISIL) was adopted in 1989 after a merger with Libertarian International was coordinated by Vincent Miller, who became president of the new organization.
The Boston Tea Party (BTP) was a United States political party named after the event known as the Boston Tea Party of 1773.
Students For Liberty (SFL) is an international libertarian non-profit organization with origins in the United States. Formed in 2008, SFL grew to a network of 1,000 student organizations worldwide by 2014.
Charles G. and David H. Koch (1940–2019), commonly referred to as the Koch brothers, have become famous for their financial and political influence in United States politics. From around 2004 to 2019, with "foresight and perseverance", the brothers organized like-minded wealthy libertarian-oriented conservatives, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to build an "integrated" and "stealth" network of think tanks, foundations, "grassroots" movements, academic programs, advocacy and legal groups to "destroy the prevalent statist paradigm" and reshape public opinion to favor minimal government.
The 2012 presidential campaign of Gary Johnson, the 29th governor of New Mexico, was announced on April 21, 2011. He declared his candidacy for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. On December 28, 2011, Johnson withdrew his candidacy for the Republican nomination, and declared his candidacy for the 2012 presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party. The 2012 Libertarian National Convention was held during the first weekend of May 2012. On May 5, 2012, after promoting his libertarian-oriented political positions to delegates, Johnson received the most votes at the convention and became the official 2012 Libertarian presidential nominee. On November 6, 2012, Johnson received just under 1% of the popular vote in the general election, amounting to more than 1.2 million votes, more than double what the Barr/Root ticket received in 2008. This was the most successful result for a third-party presidential candidacy since 2000, and the best in the Libertarian Party's history by vote number at the time. Johnson ran again in 2016 and received nearly four times his 2012 vote total.
The 2000 Libertarian National Convention was held in Anaheim, California, from June 30 to July 4, 2000. Harry Browne was again chosen as the party's presidential nominee, becoming the first Libertarian Party candidate to be nominated twice for president.