Libertarian Color
Various political parties in America are often asssociated with certain colours. This was the result of televised media, which assigned various colours to different parties so as to denote which party's presidential candidate won which state in the electoral college.
Official Colors
As per 2018, the official colors of the Libertarian Party are gold, black, and grey.
| Libertarian Gold | Libertarian Gray | Libertarian Black |
|---|---|---|
|
CMYK = 0 / 10 / 100 / 12 |
CMYK = 0 / 0 / 0 / 80 |
CMYK = 0 / 0 / 0 / 100 |
History
Despite having received an electoral vote back in 1972, the Libertarian Party has yet to win an entire state's electoral votes in an election. Therefore, no color has been popularly assigned to the Libertarian Party yet by the media.
Despite none of the major parties in America having officially adopted a color, red has become associated with the Republican Party, blue with the Democratic Party, and green with the Green Party.
Yellow or gold is the color most-often associated with the Libertarian Party.
Yellow
Yellow and gold have most likely become associated with the Libertarian Party for the following reasons:
A) yellow being associated with classical liberalism, and
B) yellow having the appearance of gold, which is itself associated with "capitalism" or the free market.
Official Color
Some have made calls for the Libertarian Party to adopt an official color and this has been adopted in the LNC Policy Manual as follows:
Graphic Symbols and Colors
The Statue of Liberty graphic and the Torch Eagle graphic are considered the appropriate graphic symbols to be used on Party materials. Yellow, black, and grey are the appropriate primary colors to be used on Party materials. The porcupine can be used in settings where it is typical for a graphical animal image to be used, such as in election coverages in races with the Democrats and Republicans in which the donkey and the elephant are used for their representations.
Arguments prior to this adoption for multiple colors are as follows:
Purple
Arguments for
Some maintain that since libertarianism shares beliefs of both the Republican and Democratic parties, which are themselves typically associated with red and blue respectively, it should be associated with purple.
Arguments against
Others maintain that since the phrase "purple state" has already entered the popular culture as meaning any state that is equally entrenched between selecting the Democratic or Republican option, to associate such a color with a third party would be a misnomer.
It has also been pointed out that purple is often associated with royalty and monarchy, which is itself associated with autocratic big government - the very opposite of what libertarians advocate.
Indigo
Arguments for
Indigo represents the color of the sky, the limitless opportunity of each individual citizen where through freedom of information there is no man-made ceiling blinding the individual from his/her true limitless potential, the ceiling being an artificial construct that may also be encasing a citizen into a versus/group-think mentality wherein fear of excommunication overrides fear of potential tyranny in the form of security within a provided structure.
Indigo is similar to blue, which may bridge the commonalities between the libertarian philosophy and that of the Democratic party, insofar as the socially progressive legislation encouraged by democrats manifests much akin to the limited federal legislation of personal morality taught by the libertarian school.
Arguments against
The close relation of indigo to the color blue can be considered an issue as blue is already associated primarily with the democratic party.
Yellow
Arguments for
Yellow is already associated with classical liberalism and libertarianism.
Yellow is often associated with gold, which is associated with prosperity and wealth, the products of a free market economy. Also, most libertarians support having a monetary system backed by metals, such as gold or silver. (See: gold standard.)
Arguments against
Yellow can be associated with fear or cowardice. Gold can be associated with greed. Yellow also completely disappears on a white background.
Pink
Arguments for
Pink was first indirectly associated with the libertarian party when used by CNN to represent Ron Paul during the 2012 race for the republican nomination throughout the delegate count match-ups as well as geographically on the CNN magic map.
Libertarians espouse fiscal conservatism and social progression, being against large government that may lead to a fiscal welfare state and/or federally legislated morality beyond being against rape, robbery, and murder. Compared to the fiscal mantra of the Republican party, the libertarian ideal lacks the unchecked defense spending that throughout history has often led to some form of imperial expansion in the form of war followed by the threat of retaliation, leading to more military spending, etc. Republican red combined with white (the independent color) appropriately contrasts the similarities and differences with the traditional republican philosophy.
In American culture the color pink is associated with the feminine. While masculinity has traditionally been associated with left-brained empirical mentality, the feminine has represented right-brained creative energy - thinking with the heart where the mind is merely the calculator. While the democratic and republican camps have been focused on winning elections at all costs, libertarians focus on the quest for truth and do not tend to sell out their principles for the sake of winning despite constant peer pressure to do so. This would undermine the existence of a third party challenging conventional politics in the first place, which has likely been part of the ultimate aim of the Democratic and Republican parties' peer pressure to conform from the onset.
Pink overall is an underutilized color compared to the primary colors red, blue, and yellow, and thus may represent a refinement compared to the basic primary colors. This also allows pink to have a shorter list of negative associations that have befallen the primary colors red, blue, and yellow, i.e. war, royalty, and cowardice, respectively.
Arguments against
In American culture the color pink is associated with the feminine. Still to this day, the feminine is associated with physical and emotional weakness.
Media
In 2004, CNN associated the Libertarian Party with yellow.[1]
A mock election held by USA Election Atlas also associated the Libertarian Party with yellow.[2]