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RLC
Membership Survey 2000 A Slight Drift to the Right |
by Clifford F. Thies | |||
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RLC
Membership Survey 2000 A Slight Drift to the Right |
by Clifford F. Thies | |||
| In December 2000, the Republican Liberty Caucus conducted its second quadrennial membership survey. Members were questioned as to their political beliefs on issues ranging from abortion to social security reform. One hundred and forty forms were returned. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The overwhelming majority - 72 percent - identified themselves as having a "libertarian" political philosophy (see Table 1). (The few who checked both "conservative" and "libertarian" were allocated one-half to each category. Such allocation is indicated by the letter "a.") The trend, over the past four years has been for the organization to become more "conservative" and more "Republican." | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Members, on average, placed themselves on a LiberGraph having a scale of zero-to-one hundred, with fifty representing the median voter, at 95 on the axis pertaining to economic liberties and 92 on the axis pertaining to personal liberties (see Table 3, column 2). This was about where members placed themselves four years ago. In an eight-question test, four concerning economic liberties and four personal liberties, they scored, on average, 83 and 83 (column 3), somewhat less on economic liberties than they scored four years ago. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It is interesting to note that the average score in the economic liberties dimension of the LiberGraph has fallen, along with the percentages describing themselves as "Conservative" and "Republican" going up. Perhaps the organization has been attracting more populists, who for the own reasons join libertarian organizations, but who are inclined to certain government interventions in the economy and in people’s personal lives. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The four questions dealing with economic liberties considered the minimum wage, a Medicare drug benefit, Social Security privatization and International Trade. |
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| Averages were calculated assigning 2 to "strongly agree with the libertarian position," 1 to "agree," 0 to "neutral," –1 to "disagree, and –2 to "strongly disagree." Thus, an average of 2 would represent unanimous strong agreement. Only two of these questions were asked four years ago. Although fully embraced by a small number of states, the federal mandate of a welfare entitlement has been ended. And, although there has been some back-sliding, the Freedom to Farm Act is phasing-out farm subsidies for most commodities. So, these two issues are no longer on the cutting-edge. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Although members were no longer so unanimous in opposing an increase in the minimum wage, they otherwise remained strongly in favor of free-market economics. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The four questions dealing with personal liberties considered U.S. participation in U.N. "peacekeeping missions," gun controls, registration and the regulation of so-called hate speech. There was also some turnover of questions on this part of the survey, the questions of the prior survey involving mandatory drug testing and allowing improperly-obtained evidence to be used in court in addition to gun control and draft registration. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Members
tended to oppose government intervention into people’s personal
lives, as well as to oppose foreign interventionism.
On the issue of taxes, almost all members favored lowering taxes, with a smaller percentage qualifying their support of tax cuts by reference to balancing the budget. Reduced concern for a balanced budget is understandable since, whether Social Security cash flows are considered or not, the federal budget is now in surplus. On the issue of education, about two-thirds of members remain in favor of vouchers, most of them with a complete separation of education and state as an ultimate goal. Regarding abortion, there has been a shift of about 10 percentage points in the "pro-life" direction. There remains, however, no consensus on this issue among libertarian - Republicans. Regarding drugs, about three - fourths favor some form of legalization, most with retention of age and prescription-type restrictions on access.
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| An additional four questions addressed economic and personal liberty issues using a different format. Large numbers of members put a high priority on Legal Reform, Social Security Reform, Tax Reform and on liberalizing natural resource exploration and development. A lower priority is placed on Term Limits. Members place a low priority, which may be another way of saying oppose, regulation of television and the internet, Campaign Finance Reform and ending striker replacement. (see Table 9). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The support of exploration and development of natural resources relative to the lack of support for ending striker replacement may reflect the ability of politicians to focus public attention on issues. During the 2000 Presidential race, Bush and Cheney made energy policy a high priority and apparently sensitized many people potentially sympathetic to their argument. Striker replacement remained an esoteric issue at best. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| In 2000, the Republican presidential candidate did better among members than did his counterpart in 1996, receiving the support of about two-thirds of members as opposed to about half. Republican congressional candidates did about the same (Table 10). |
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In 1996,
about half the members thought the main effect of the Libertarian
Party was to educate the voter, and about a quarter to keep the
Republicans from compromising too much (see Table 11). In 2000,
about eight percent fewer members thought the main purpose of the LP
was to educate the voter, and a nearly equal number more thought it
was to keep the RP from compromising too much. A not insignificant
number of members wrote-in that the Libertarian Party is
ineffective. (The "v" indicates a volunteered response.)
In 2000, an analogous question was posed regarding the Green Party. Fewer members thought the Green Party’s main effect was to educate the voter. A much larger percentage thought it was to elect the Republican or even to win. |
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A slightly larger majority of members considered the Republican
Party of today to be more effective in the cause of Liberty than the
Libertarian Party (see Table 12). Their opinion about the situation
ten years ago was quite mixed. Relative scores were calculated by
assigning +2 to those indicating "definitely RP," +1 to
"probably RP," -2 to "definitely LP," -1 to
"probably LP," and zero to all others. These relative
scores indicate a shift from zero ten years ago, to +0.8 today
(which is just about "probably the Republican Party"). |
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While a large majority of members indicated they want us to equally emphasize economic and personal liberties in our lobbying efforts in 1996, in the recent survey, the membership was split on this issue, as many promoting economic liberties as promoting both economic and personal liberties (see Table 13, rows 2 through 4). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Today, a substantial majority would have us compromise and win, whereas four years ago, a substantial majority indicated that they would rather we stick to our principles and lose (rows 5 and 6). |
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 Clifford F. Thies e-mail Past Chairman, Republican Liberty Caucus Professor of Economics and Finance, Shenandoah University |
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