3-way Race Strategy

Here we have a typical issue positioning of a three-way race involving a libertarian. This is the positioning favored in presidential races, as well as many lower-level races. The Republican is mixed on social issues and is better than nothing on economic issues. The Democrat is for more welfare and regulation, but perhaps for free trade. The Democrat is just as bad (or worse, consider Clinton) on the drug war issue and most other civil liberties as the Republican. So the Republican (in a great many, but not all cases) is a significant improvement on the Democrat.

So what does the Libertarian candidiate do? Run as Republican extra-strength! First, s/he runs farther from the center than anyone else in order to guarantee the fewest number of votes even without the "lesser of two evils" conundrum. Then, s/he runs to the right of the vertical axis in order to try to steal more votes from the lesser of the two evils. The gives small-l libertarians the choice of either ignoring the worse of two evils or letting their ideologically closest candidate suffer a humiliating defeat. The latter sends a most unpleasant signal to the media: that libertarian ideals are very unpopular.

Any wonder that many small-l libertarians resent the LP's existence?

Here, the Libertarian candidate has done a far wiser job of positioning herself. First, she has positioned herself between her opponent, so she doesn't help the worse of the two evils. Second, because she is in between the two other candidates, her supporters are far less vunerable to the "wasted vote" and "lesser of two evils" arguments, because she has placed herself where people are ambivalent about the other two candidates. Finally, she has placed herself toward the center, in order to be closer to where the voters are, but not so close as to be uninteresting to her supporters.

The results?

  1. Less harm done. The balance between Republican and Democrat is less affected by her participation.
  2. Many more votes! This sends a signal that there are more libertarians than people realized. It also sends a signal that the Libertarian Party is on the move.

    All these benefits are gained by positioning strategy. No extra resources are needed. But there is an even better opportunity available.

    Copyright 2000, Carl S. Milsted, Jr. All rights reserved.