Libertarianism attracting college students looking for political alternative

WASHINGTON Rebecca Coates used to call herself a Republican, but increasingly found she had to be more specific.

"For a long time I thought I was a Republican, but I was always having to add addendums like, 'I'm Republican, but I think drugs should be legal,' or 'I'm Republican, but I don't want us to be at war overseas,' "' said Coates, a student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and a member of the campus's College Libertarians.

Across much of the country, libertarianism is attracting college students and others looking for an alternative. Libertarianism is becoming especially popular among younger voters, many of whom are tired of the stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in Washington, as evidenced by the 16-day government shutdown.

"I think the congressional dysfunction ... only makes people more interested in other viewpoints," said Michael Ben-Horin, a Students For Liberty campus coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic region and president of the George Washington University College Libertarians.

A 2011 Pew Research Center Poll found that 9 percent of Americans identify as libertarian.

The growth in popularity of libertarianism seems to be closely related to the emergence of the tea party movement.

Theda Skocpol, professor of politics and sociology at Harvard University, co-authored 'The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism' in 2011, and discovered an overlap between tea party and libertarian identification.

"When we did our research in 2011 ... we found that as many as 40 percent of (tea party supporters) in Virginia considered themselves libertarian," Skocpol said.

In this year's Virginia governor's race, Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis was third with 11 percent in an Oct. 15 poll by Christopher Newport University's Judy Ford Watson Center for Public Policy.

Libertarians in the United States are predominantly male, highly critical of government and disapproving of social welfare programs, according to the Pew poll, although some libertarians find that definition stifling and inaccurate.

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Libertarianism attracting college students looking for political alternative