On Branding

16 September 2019

I am simply horrible at marketing so what do I know? But I think that David Nolan and his friends made a serious mistake in his living room in 1971 when they came up with the name “Libertarian Party.” I don’t mean to kvetch, I’m a big fan generally, and I’ve been voting Libertarian since 1976, but it’s been an uphill climb.

One of the reasons has to do with our name. I know, democrat or republican or soviet or parliamentary are all just procedural descriptions, whereas libertarian speaks to the very core of our philosophy. But it sounds weird. Sorry, but it just does. And it sounds too much like liberal, which is in undeservedly bad favor these days. People misread it as Librarian or Liberation or Libertine often, and many more conflate it with libertine. As a result, an embarrassed ex-rake like Tucker Carlson must now excoriate the “libertarians” who corrupted his youth as some sort of populist penance or purification ritual. Other reformed sybarites and iconoclasts have traveled that same arc from infatuation to regret. It’s also hard for many people to pronounce. I don’t know why, but I seem to mishear it a lot.

Democrat and Republican sound patriotic and American and solid and traditional. And so does Constitutionalist, but it has too many syllables. Republican is pushing it at four, and Libertarian has five. Constitution might pass, but that’s already taken. There is usually comity between members of the CP (that’s Connies, not Commies!) and the LP, so I shouldn‘t wish to jump their claim. For the most part I think they’re already on my side.

The first Federalist Party was not federalist at all, it was nationalist. In response, the actual federalists organized as the Democratic Republican Party. Of course, over time, the FP dissipated and the DRP downsized and their heirs re-aggregated as Repucrats and Demoblicans, but nationalists all. Which leaves the politically active federalists of today scattered across the landscape with some clusters among the Libertutionists and the Constitarians. The Constitution Party saved me from Bob Barr and I’ll always be grateful, but I returned for Gary Johnson’s double-header.

I think members of the CP and the LP and other interested parties should consider scrapping BOTH vehicles and organizing as
The Federalist Party.

Federalist sounds American.
It sounds solid and traditional and Patriotic.
And it’s up for grabs!