Libertarian Party Radical Caucus (2006)

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Radical Caucus
LP Radical Caucus Logo 2019.svg
General Information
Chartered: 2006
Officers
Chair: Susan Jane Hogarth
Vice-Chair: Dan Lewis
Secretary: Cullene Lang
Contact
Website: Website
Social Media
Facebook: Facebook


The Radical Caucus is a caucus within the Libertarian Party. It is the third caucus to carry the name, and picks up from the second.

Brief History

The Libertarian Party Radical Caucus (LPRadicals) is a caucus formed in 2006 within the United States Libertarian Party by Susan Hogarth, Marc Montoni, Morey Straus, and other party members who opposed removal of much of the material in the Party platform during the Portland Massacre at the 2006 National Party convention.[1]

In 2015 it began work on its own platform, the first caucus to do so. Despite its exact founding mission and Restore '04, it used the 2002 national platform as its reference and starting point.

After a decade of being very loosely organized, it restructured with bylaws and a board in 2016. It has since endorsed and made contributions to candidates, produced buttons and brochures, and made recommendations for bylaws and platform at national conventions.

Ideology

Radical Caucus Key Points

The Radical Caucus believes these four points are key strategic principles in furthering the work of the Libertarian Party toward, as our platform describes it, "a world set free in our lifetime".[2]

Rights Are Utilitarian: The central commitment of the Libertarian Party should be to individual liberty. Our goal should be to illustrate convincingly that there is no essential separation between rights and utilitarianism - that is, the morally correct choice will always yield the most benefit for the greatest number of people.

Radical Abolitionism: As the word radical means "going to the root" of something, radical Libertarians should not merely propose small changes to the status quo and debate the fine points of government policy with the opponents of freedom. Instead, Libertarians must always make clear that the outright removal of the injustice and interference of the State is our ultimate goal. Speaking from our basic principles avoids the quagmire of self-imposed, obligatory gradualism. Rather than offering compromise, we should demand what we really seek -- a free society -- and let our opponents offer the compromises.

Principled Populism: The Libertarian Party should be a mass-participation party operating in the electoral arena and elsewhere, devoted to consistent libertarian principle, and committed to liberty and justice for all. The Libertarian Party should trust in and rely on individuals to welcome a program of liberty and justice and should always aim to convince people of the soundness of libertarian principles. Simply repeating our basic principles and not proposing transition measures is ineffective in the short run because only a small part of the populace is interested in liberty in the abstract, and hiding or abandoning our principled positions is ineffective in the long run because it fails to sustain us as a movement and attract and retain new Libertarians.

No Particular Order: The removal of one harmful government policy should never be held hostage for the removal of another, as this throws self-imposed barriers in the path of liberty and removes potential pressures for change. For example, saying that borders may be opened only after welfare is eliminated is unacceptable; the proper position is to push for both changes. Should we succeed in achieving open borders only to find that welfare burdens are increased, this should be used as an additional argument to abolish welfare.

SHORT VERSION

The LP Radical Caucus Believes:

The Libertarian Party should support individual liberty because it's the right thing to do, and because it's the best way to benefit the greatest number of people.

The Libertarian Party is the only political party that traditionally advocates for real freedom from government interference. We should emphasize this revolutionary approach rather than watering it down with such uninspiring language as the current slogan "Smaller Government... Lower Taxes... More Freedom..." which is a de facto endorsement of the status quo.

Our language should inspire by reflecting our goals, not the compromises we may have to accept on the way to gaining them. The Libertarian Party should be active in all areas of the political sphere with the expectation that individuals who hear and understand our message of freedom and the steps we can take today to increase liberty will choose to join enthusiastically in our journey.

The Libertarian Party should always steadfastly oppose harmful government policies, regardless of any promise that supporting one bad policy will ensure that another is abolished.

Radical Caucus Platform

The initial Platform was created and adopted in 2016 and was modeled after earlier longer versions of the National Platform, particularly the 2002 National Platform. It is up for revision yearly.[3]

Bylaws

Board, Officers, and Other Position Holders

Materials

Buttons

Starting in 2016 at the Orlando national convention, the LPRC has provided message buttons on a variety of topics.

Popular messages as of 2023 include: Abolish the ATF, Abolish the Deep State, Abolish the TSA, Already Against the Next War, Deregulate Lemonade Stands, Free Assange, Free Ross, Good Ideas Don't Require Force, Print Guns Not Money, Sell the Pill from a Vending Machine, and Taxation is Theft.

Brochures

Starting in 2019, the LPRC has had a series of issue brochures. These brochures take their language directly from the LPRC Platform.

As of 2022, these brochures include:

  • Campaigns and Elections
  • The Drug War and Victimless "Crimes"
  • Freedom to be You
  • Law Enforcement
  • Our Global Community
  • Taxation and Debt
  • Traditional Civil Liberties

Endorsed Candidates

2016

2017

2018

2021

'This list is known to be incomplete

2022

'This list is known to be incomplete

2023

Graded Candidates

2020

'This list is known to be incomplete

Resolutions

  • The State Sucks! (2016)
  • Thanking Darryl Perry for running for the Presidential nomination (2016)


Logos

2016 LPRC Logo.png

(earlier versions of this from later on in 2016 used the Verlag and Chivo typefaces instead of Roboto 2014)

LPRC Logo Black.png

February 24, 2017 Spec Sheet

2019 Logo Revision

LP Radical Caucus Logo 2019.svg
Typeface for logo, wordmark, headlines, and titles was changed to Avant Garde at the 21 January 2019 branding committee meeting and announced at the 10 February 2019 board meeting.

Conventioneering

Other Radical Caucuses

A caucus calling itself the radical caucus (lowercase) was active from 1972 to sometime in the mid 1970s and was created by Samuel Edward Konkin III. SEK3 indicated that it was dissolved in 1974, but people continued to refer to themselves as members of the Radical Caucus afterward[4], and with the exodus of those wanting to dissolve the Libertarian Party and refuse to vote, it's possible that the post-1974 flavor of this caucus was more in line with subsequent radical caucuses.

The second Radical Caucus was founded by Justin Raimondo, Eric Garris, and Bob Costello in 1979 in order "to unify the party around radical and hardcore libertarian programs."[5] Raimondo led the caucus from inception until he abandoned the Libertarian Party in 1983. That Radical Caucus was dissolved in 1984.

The Rothbard Caucus was a previous attempt to resurrect the 1979-1984 Radical Caucus started by 2004.

Activities and Connected Efforts

Conventioneering

See Also

References

  1. ↑ Libertarian Party Radical Caucus
  2. ↑ LP Radical Caucus Bylaws
  3. ↑ LP Radical Caucus Platform
  4. ↑ Statement by Ohio LP members in favor of MacBride for President, which includes some identified as members of the radical caucus
  5. ↑ History of 1979 LP Radical Caucus
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