Harvard College Libertarian Forum (HLF)

This bit of news comes from an Op-Ed piece in the Harvard Crimson. I think it's a fairly encouraging sign for libertarianism in general that such a school now recognizes a libertarian group on campus, especially considering the breadth of what this school has to offer its graduates and the potential for said graduates to effect political change in a real way.

Last November, the Committee on Campus Life voted to grant official status to the Harvard College Libertarian Forum (HLF), the College’s only libertarian group. The new group will provide a forum for discussion of a popular, comprehensive, consistent alternative political viewpoint as well as a voice for the College’s formerly excluded libertarians. HLF will bring speakers to campus, host debates, help students find scholarships and internships, engage in political activism, and—most importantly—foster discussion about libertarian issues and libertarianism.

Alexander N. Harris, president of the HLF, comments on the inherent problem with the 2 party system...

But it’s not just periodic crises and scandals that have left many disappointed with the two major political parties: the parties’ ideologies leave no room for people to form separate opinions on each policy issue. Harvard students vary in their political opinions as much as Harvard and Yale vary in their skills at playing football. Social security, the Patriot Act, tax cuts, affirmative action, gay marriage, drug prohibition deregulation, eminent domain, free trade: each student has an independent answer to each of these questions. Nonetheless, the two-party system forces people to pick one of two package deals of nonsensical and often contradictory opinions. If you favor gay marriage, you must oppose cuts in government spending; if you oppose racial profiling, you must believe in affirmative action; if you believe in free trade, you must oppose drug legalization.

The potential for the growth of libertarianism is there, and I think that each and every libertarian "activist" fighting for a seat at the table of ideas knows this. The Democratic and Republican parties are equally to blame for blatantly excluding other credible political parties in our, apparently, representative "democracy". If they're going to continue to push the idea that democracy works and is a political ideal, they could at least model their efforts as they did in Iraq here in the good ole "Land of the Free".

But what is libertarianism? Over 250 Harvard students list “libertarian” as their political affiliation on their facebook.com profiles. Hundreds more may be libertarian-leaning without even knowing it. People who describe themselves as “socially liberal but economically conservative” Democrats who want deregulation, free trade, and reduced government spending, Republicans who oppose restrictions on civil liberties, free speech, and gay marriage, and all those who want less government intrusion across the board have a name: libertarian.