O Libertarian, Where Is Thy Sting?

Richard Hofstadter famously observed that “third parties are like bees: once they have stung, they die.” By this standard, the Libertarian Party seems to have been born without a stinger…

Journal of Policy History, 19.4 (2007). p. 452-471.

First paragraph:

With the 2008 Democratic National Convention slated for Denver, the libertarian concerns of Western voters, denizens of the so-called purple states, have suddenly became of high interest. Pundits and commentators see in the “live and let live” ethos of the West a chance for the Democracy to reshape its faltering coalition and enter the twenty-first century rejuvenated and strong. Ryan Sager, a critic from the right, notes that from the Democratic perspective, “the West looks abundant with opportunities. And the same might be said of a long-neglected, long-suffering political demographic: libertarians.” This optimism in part underlay the party’s choice of Denver over the traditional Democratic bastion of New York. Colorado is often identified as a libertarian-leaning state, and it was where the Libertarian Party was founded. But what exactly is libertarianism? What role has it played in American politics in the twentieth century? Is libertarianism truly the wave of the future or has its moment come and gone? In this article I investigate these questions by looking at the first libertarian moment, the ferment of intellectual and political activity in the late 1960s and early 1970s that produced the modern Libertarian Party.

o_libertarian_where_is_thy_sting-_journal_of_policy_history_2007_.pdf