Mr. Westley’s opening remarks in this article call to mind some experiences of mine when I was campaigning for US Congress in 2000, to represent Texas’s 8th district. As the nominee of the Libertarian Party, I quixotically campaigned door-to-door in selected precincts, which taught me quite a bit about the political thought of the people in my district. One of the themes that emerged was that the grassroots Republican supporter was orders of magnitude more radical than their representatives.
Once, I happened to visit the home of a precinct chair of the Republican Party, and we found ourselves in agreement on a multitude of issues. We struck up quite a conversation, wherein he told me that his favorite author was Ludwig von Mises! He talked about having subscribed to the Freeman for many years and had been to a FEE seminar when in college. I told him about the then recently-published Scholar’s Edition of Human Action.
While at a debate, I mentioned this to my opponent, Kevin Brady, in private. He had never heard of Mises, and expressed no interest in learning about him. This prompted me to ask him during the debate who his favorite economist was. He produced not a single name, cloaking his ignorance in a dismissal of academic pursuits over the practicality of real life.
Another time, while campaining door-to-door, I came to the house of the local president of the Lion’s Club, a self-proclaimed Democrat. He liked my ideas of less government and lower taxes, and complained about welfare and unemployment and disability taxes, being a business owner. Why was he a Democrat? My understanding is that his daddy was one, and it would be dishonorable for him to desert his family’s party. Apparently, part of the solid South still remains.
My overall impression from having campaigned door-to-door over the course of four years (2 election cycles), is that with regard to actual views held, people in my district lean more toward classical liberalism and libertarianism than the precinct voting records would imply.
