Who was the more Libertarian candidate in past presdiential elections? (user search)
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  Who was the more Libertarian candidate in past presdiential elections? (search mode)
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Author Topic: Who was the more Libertarian candidate in past presdiential elections?  (Read 4357 times)
Liberté
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Posts: 707
« on: June 02, 2011, 03:52:18 PM »

All this is relative. In truth, very few of these men were 'libertarian' in any sense, and fewer still actively campaigned as one.

1896/1900: Both unlibertarian
1904: Alton Parker
1908/12: William Howard Taft
1916: Charles Evans Hughes
1920: Warren Harding
1924: Calvin Coolidge
1928: Al Smith
1932: Franklin Roosevelt (bear in mind he campaigned on a pledge to balance the budget)
1936: Both unlibertarian
1940: Wendell Wilkie, barely
1944: Both unlibertarian
1948: Thomas Dewey
1952: Adlai Stevenson
1956: Adlai Stevenson
1960: John F. Kennedy, barely
1964: Barry Goldwater
1968: All unlibertarian
1972: George McGovern
1976: Jimmy Carter
1980: Jimmy Carter
1984: Ronald Reagan
1988: Michael Dukakis, barely
1992: Bill Clinton, barely
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Both unlibertarian
2004: Both unlibertarian
2008: Both unlibertarian
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Liberté
Jr. Member
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Posts: 707
« Reply #1 on: June 02, 2011, 03:57:11 PM »

All this is relative. In truth, very few of these men were 'libertarian' in any sense, and fewer still actively campaigned as one.

1896/1900: Both unlibertarian
1904: Alton Parker
1908/12: William Howard Taft
1916: Charles Evans Hughes
1920: Warren Harding
1924: Calvin Coolidge
1928: Al Smith
1932: Franklin Roosevelt (bear in mind he campaigned on a pledge to balance the budget)
1936: Both unlibertarian
1940: Wendell Wilkie, barely
1944: Both unlibertarian
1948: Thomas Dewey
1952: Adlai Stevenson
1956: Adlai Stevenson
1960: John F. Kennedy, barely
1964: Barry Goldwater
1968: All unlibertarian
1972: George McGovern
1976: Jimmy Carter
1980: Jimmy Carter
1984: Ronald Reagan
1988: Michael Dukakis, barely
1992: Bill Clinton, barely
1996: Bob Dole
2000: Both unlibertarian
2004: Both unlibertarian
2008: Both unlibertarian

Also, of these, I'd only be comfortable in calling Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Al Smith, Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, and Jimmy Carter 'libertarian' in any sense of the word, though obviously not one of them were doctrinaire American-style libertarians.
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Liberté
Jr. Member
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Posts: 707
« Reply #2 on: June 02, 2011, 04:04:08 PM »

Well, I guess by "libertarian" you mean governed with more non-violence than violence.

Well, as I said, it's relative. George McGovern, my favorite off that list, proposed a guaranteed minimum income during his campaign - but so did Richard Nixon, though he obviously never fulfilled that pledge. Nixon's health-care plans were far to the left of McGovern's, and Nixon's military interventionism and stance on social issues (busing, Affirmative Action, etc.) were obviously unlibertarian. McGovern, on the hand, favored limited drug legalization, amnesty for draft dodgers, and took a state's-rights stance on the abortion issue. McGovern was clearly and obviously the more libertarian of the candidates, even if he wasn't a dogmatic Lew Rockwell-style 'paleolibertarian'.
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Liberté
Jr. Member
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Posts: 707
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2011, 05:08:53 PM »

I agree with a lot of your reasoning, but what makes you think Eisenhower was more libertarian than Stevenson? I'm genuinely curious. Stevenson, after all, was the once calling for a nuclear freeze and a more diplomatic approach to the Soviet question. Ike also initiated the largest public works programme in human history.
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