Liberal Party USA | |
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Chairman | Trisha Butler |
Founded | December 3, 2022 (as Association of Liberty State Parties) February 12, 2024 (as Liberal Party USA) |
Split from | Libertarian Party |
Membership (2024) | 31,343 |
Ideology | Classical liberalism |
Website | |
www | |
Liberal Party USA (formerly known as Association of Liberty State Parties) is a liberal political party in the United States that is affiliated with multiple state parties. In 2022, the state libertarian parties from Massachusetts and New Mexico disaffiliated from the national United States Libertarian Party and affiliated with one another. [1] [2] The Libertarian Party of Virginia also split, with some members leaving to form a new party, the Virginia Classical Liberal Party that affiliated with Liberal Party USA. [3] Additionally, the Liberal Party of Pennsylvania is associated with the organization. [4]
At the 2022 Libertarian National Convention members of the Mises Caucus, a paleolibertarian group, successfully staged a takeover of the Libertarian Party and shifted the party in a rightward direction. [5] The caucus successfully got their members elected to sweep leadership positions, including Angela McArdle as chairwomen and Joshua Smith as vice-chairman. [5] After the takeover, many non-Mises-affiliated members walked out, criticizing the group for rejecting libertarian orthodoxy and for several allegedly racist statements Caucus members had made in the past. [5] More ardent members of the party started to splinter, with Pennsylvania, that state with the most elected Libertarian officeholders, seeing a hardliner Mises-affiliated member, Rob Cowburn being named chairman, resulting in dissidents splitting to form the Keystone Party of Pennsylvania. [5]
After the Mises-dominated Libertarian Party adopted the national divorce as part of the party's official core rallying cries, more moderate members of the party began to mutiny, with the state Libertarian affiliates in New Mexico and Virginia disaffiliation from the national party, and in the case of Virginia, dissolving itself. [1] The party in New Mexico also highlighted that according to LP bylaws, that there can never be more than two executive positions overturned in a single convention, making the Mises sweep illegal. [1] The Mises-dominated party quickly changed the bylaws after their sweep to amend this. [1] After Mises-affiliated libertarians in Virginia reformed their branch of the party quickly seeing backing from the national party, the dissidents then formed a splinter group, the Virginia Classical Liberal Party. [1] Additionally, after the Libertarian Association of Massachusetts disaffiliated, Mises hardliners formed the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts, which the national party recognized as the official libertarian branch in the state. [1] Mises was also able to block the disaffiliation of the New Hampshire party. [1]
The Association of Liberty State Parties (ALSP) was officially formed on December 3, 2022, as a national party committee between the Massachusetts and New Mexico parties, and the Virginian splinters. [2] The party's first goal was to organize a national convention for the nomination of candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, and to expand into more states. [2]
After briefly flirting with creating their own national political party, the Keystone Party of Pennsylvania announced that they would be joining a renamed and rebranded ALSP, which would become the Liberal Party USA on February 12, 2024. [6] As part of their new affiliation to the Liberal Party USA, the Keystone Party also announced that they would be changing their name to the Liberal Party of Pennsylvania. [7] [8] In May 2024, party co-founder, and former leader of the Keystone Party, Kevin Gaughen, announced the addition of three state affiliates in Missouri, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as the adoption of the party's official bylaws. [9] [10] The party also announced the creation of a Nebraska affiliate on their social media on July 26, 2024. [11]
The inaugural LPUSA National Convention is tentatively scheduled to be held December 7–8 in Houston, Texas in 2024. [12] The party backtracked on earlier promises and announced that they would not have a candidate for the 2024 United States presidential election. Additionally, the Massachusetts party has reported they will run Libertarian candidates Chase-Ter Maat on their ballot line. [10]
The Libertarian Party (LP) is a political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government. The party was conceived in August 1971 at meetings in the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado, and was officially formed on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs. The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration, the Vietnam War, conscription, and the introduction of fiat money.
Paleolibertarianism is a libertarian political activism strategy aimed at uniting libertarians and paleoconservatives. It was developed by American anarcho-capitalist theorists Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell in the American political context after the end of the Cold War. From 1989 to 1995, they sought to communicate libertarian notions of opposition to government intervention by using messages accessible to the working class and middle class people of the time. They combined libertarian free market views with the cultural conservatism of paleoconservatism, while also opposing protectionism. The strategy also embraced the paleoconservative reverence for tradition and religion. This approach, usually identified as right-wing populism, was intended to radicalize citizens against the state. The name they chose for this style of activism evoked the roots of modern libertarianism, hence the prefix paleo. That founding movement was American classical liberalism, which shared the anti-war and anti-New Deal sentiments of the Old Right in the first half of the 20th century. Paleolibertarianism is generally seen as a right-wing ideology.
The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) is a political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of individual liberty, limited government and free market economics within the Republican Party in the United States. It is part of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. It also operates a political action committee, the RLC-USA PAC.
In American politics, a Libertarian Republican is a politician or Republican Party member who has advocated libertarian policies while typically voting for and being involved with the Republican Party.
In the United States, libertarianism is a political philosophy promoting individual liberty. According to common meanings of conservatism and liberalism in the United States, libertarianism has been described as conservative on economic issues and liberal on personal freedom, often associated with a foreign policy of non-interventionism. Broadly, there are four principal traditions within libertarianism, namely the libertarianism that developed in the mid-20th century out of the revival tradition of classical liberalism in the United States after liberalism associated with the New Deal; the libertarianism developed in the 1950s by anarcho-capitalist author Murray Rothbard, who based it on the anti-New Deal Old Right and 19th-century libertarianism and American individualist anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner while rejecting the labor theory of value in favor of Austrian School economics and the subjective theory of value; the libertarianism developed in the 1970s by Robert Nozick and founded in American and European classical liberal traditions; and the libertarianism associated with the Libertarian Party, which was founded in 1971, including politicians such as David Nolan and Ron Paul.
The Libertarian National Committee (LNC) controls and manages the affairs, properties, and funds of the United States Libertarian Party. It is composed of the party officers, five at-large representatives elected every two years at the national convention, and a theoretical maximum of 10 regional representatives. The current chair is Angela McArdle, first elected at the 2022 Libertarian National Convention and re-elected at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention. Additional officers will be voted into office at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention in Washington DC between May 24 - 26.
The Libertarian Party of Oregon is a political party representing the national Libertarian Party in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is organized as a minor party for state election law, and recognized by the Oregon as a statewide nominating party.
The Libertarian Association of Massachusetts (LAMA), previously known as the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts, is a libertarian political party in Massachusetts. It was affiliated with the national Libertarian Party from its founding until 2022, and is now affiliated with Liberal Party USA.
The Libertarian Party of Nevada (LPN) is the affiliate of the Libertarian Party in the state of Nevada. It is headed by State Chair Charles Melchin.
The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania (LPPA) is the Pennsylvania affiliate of the Libertarian Party. Since March 2023, it has been chaired by Greg Deal.
The 2012 Libertarian National Convention, in which delegates of the Libertarian Party (LP) chose the party's nominees for president and vice president in the 2012 general election, was held May 2–6, 2012, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Red Rock Resort Spa and Casino. Former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson won the presidential nomination on the first ballot. Retired California state court judge Jim Gray won the vice presidential nomination, also on the first ballot. The convention also chose to replace most of the Libertarian National Committee party officers and members-at-large.
The Libertarian Party in the United States is composed of various factions, sometimes described as left and right, although many libertarians reject use of these terms to describe the political philosophy.
The 2020 Libertarian Party presidential primaries and caucuses were a series of electoral contests to indicate non-binding preferences for the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate in the 2020 United States presidential election. These differed from the Republican or Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses in that they do not appoint delegates to represent a candidate at the party's convention to select the party's presidential nominee.
The 2018 Libertarian National Convention was held from June 30 to July 3, 2018, in New Orleans, Louisiana. According to the Libertarian Party, the 2018 convention was the "biggest Libertarian National Convention ever," breaking previous records in attendance and fundraising.
The 2024 Libertarian Party presidential primaries and caucuses were a series of current electoral contests to indicate non-binding preferences for the Libertarian Party (LP) presidential nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election. These differed from the Republican or Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses in that they do not appoint delegates to represent a candidate at the party's convention to select the party's presidential nominee.
The Libertarian Party Mises Caucus (LPMC) is a caucus within the Libertarian Party in the United States that promotes paleolibertarianism, as well as a more radical version of American libertarianism associated with the presidential campaigns of former U.S. congressman Ron Paul. It was founded in 2017 by Michael Heise, mainly in opposition to Nicholas Sarwark's position as party chairman and the pragmatic faction of the party associated with the presidential campaigns of former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. It is named after economist Ludwig von Mises.
Angela Elise McArdle is an American politician from Texas and California who was elected on May 28, 2022 as the 22nd and current chair of the Libertarian National Committee. She was also the Secretary of the Libertarian Party of California from April 2018 to April 2019, and was a board member of the Mises Caucus.
The Liberal Party of Pennsylvania is a third party in Pennsylvania founded as the Keystone Party of Pennsylvania in 2022, rebranding to the Liberal moniker in 2024, with a focus on political solutions through the electoral process and Classical Liberalism.
The Unified Libertarians of Massachusetts (ULM), also known as the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts, is a libertarian political party in Massachusetts. It is affiliated with the national Libertarian Party. The party, which was formed in June 2022, claims the lineage and history of the Libertarian Party of Massachusetts, which continues to operate.