James Buckley, cousin to William F. Buckley, had a long personal
background in Republican Party and conservative movement politics,
including a stint running Young Americans for Freedom in the 1970s.
He won a state legislative seat in Virginia in 1979. He lost his
seat after one term and says that “by the early ‘90s I had soured
on the Republican Party as a vehicle for expressing my political
principles”—not because his principles had changed that much, or
even that the Party’s lip service stated principles had, but that
no Republicans seemed to act on the free-market side of their
message.
After retiring from many years as an official with the U.S.
Court of Federal Claims, Buckley is running for Senate this year
from West Virginia, where he has a home with his same-sex partner,
with the Libertarian Party. The Washington Post
recognized the race as one of seven nationally where the L.P.
could be a player.
West Virginia is a state where the L.P. has, for now, ballot
access without the need for expensive and morale-wrecking ballot
access campaigns, thanks to the over-one-percent pull of their last
gubernatorial candidate in 2012, David Moran. Buckley was nominated
by the Party at a state convention in March. As usual with third
party candidates, he admits big fundraising is still a
chicken-and-egg problem of attention, and can only hope he gets
included in multi-candidate debates in the fall.
Reason: Why run for office with a third
party?
John Buckley: Republicans give a lot of lip
talk to the principles of limited government, and whether people
lose principles when they get to office, or even high party office,
or never had them to begin with didn’t really matter if ultimately
people lose those principles along the way and don’t advance the
cause of limited government and individual liberty. I’ve found a
more comfortable philosophical home within the L.P., while
recognizing it doesn’t have resources to be competitive in all the
races it has advanced candidates.
I was finishing a 12-year tenure in the U.S. Court of Federal
Claims, working for a federal judge under the restrictions of
judicial ethics I could not participate in any politics, electoral
campaign, even issue politics–which is as ought to be with federal
judges.
I was planning to retire. My partner and I had home in West
Virginia for 12 years initially purchased as a vacation home and
remodeled to be our anticipated home when one of us would. With an
open Senate seat with Jay Rockefeller retiring, it seemed an
opportunity to get back in and advance principles I believe in. I
think the country is going off in a terrible direction. I’m putting
as much as I can into it, all my resources of time and a modest
amount of personal funds to launch a campaign.
I’ve been seeking opportunities in any public forums where
groups will invite candidates to appear, speak, debate. Most
[of that action] I believe will be coming in the fall, after Labor
Day. But now I’m trying to get in front of the public at fairs,
festival and other public events, anywhere I can find to shake
hands, pass out literature. I’m using the late spring and summer
months to develop a campaign organization, raising what funds I
can, getting people involved and prepared pass out literature,
sings, bumper stickers, get organized across the state.
Reason: Is your Republican opponent vulnerable
to a Libertarian challenge?
Buckley: It’s an open seat, and the Republican
candidate is a 7-term congresswoman, Shelley Moore Capito. The
Democrat is Secretary of State Natalie Tennant. Capito is seen as
the frontrunner; most think West Virginia will be a net pickup seat
for the Republicans in their goal to take majority spot in U.S.
Senate.
As for Capito, it was shocking to me on almost every issue
possible, she was at best weak and otherwise wrong on everything.
She doesn’t have a record of exhibiting and committing to
principle, of the sort that leads you to believe you can trust
where she stands. I think she’s a setback for the cause of limited
government, these moderates in sheep’s clothing are often a viper
in the bosom. I was quite astonished at how assiduously she avoids
sticking her neck out on anything whatsoever.
Reason: What are some specifically West
Virginia issues at play?
Buckley: Grassroots conservatives in West
Virginia are concerned about jobs, the economy. They are sick and
tired of valuable tax dollars being wasted in forays across the
world to remake the world in our image. Whether Tea Party or
average cultural conservative, individuals in West Virginia are
tired of us sticking our neck out being the world’s policeman or
world’s nanny. It’s a lesson learned the hard way observing the
past 13 years of money being spend futilely in trying to accomplish
that. They don’t begrudge dollars spent for national defense, but
if not defending our country, at the grassroots level folks are not
wanting us to be adventurous, projecting our vision across the
world. They are a bit jaded, tired of that. [His opponents] say
nothing, don’t stick neck out [about Syria and Iraq]. They are so
afraid, both of them, of sticking their necks out in competition
against each other to prove who can be the most moderate of
moderates. We can’t afford to get the country forced back into that
conflict.
West Virginians want to know where you stand on coal and on
guns, of course. I am 100 percent in favor of Second Amendment
rights, including the right to self-defense, not just to hunt. Of
course people are told that by every politician in West Virginia
and more than asking candidates where they stand on guns,
when I have chance to engage in conversation with voters, I ask
whether [his opponents] exhibited any commitment to principle
anywhere anytime about anything. If you don’t know if they’ll stick
with principle, you get lots of political happy talk in West
Virginia on gun rights but you don’t know how staunchly Second
Amendment rights will be defended.
A huge portion of West Virginia is economically dependent on
coal and they are very concerned about high-handed arbitrary
regulations of the EPA. Both of my opponents say they will go to
Washington to fight these regulations, but Capito has been there 14
years and where is the effectiveness of her fight? Natalie Tennant,
it’s your party, your president, how can you be effective in
stopping Obama administration’s war on coal? Draconian EPA
regulations that are a bit beyond the purview of EPA, they
stretched their interpretation of regulatory power in enforcing
technology mandates that are not economically effective, like coal
sequestration. I raise more generically the idea of regulations
being promulgated by executive branch agencies without final say up
or down by Congress, this idea that Congress passes generalized
legislation like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act and the
executive branch agencies can run with regulations and have the
final say so, that is I think a mistake in the way separation of
powers should work. On the federal level I want a more fundamental
reconsideration of agency regulations, at least of a certain
economic burden, they ought to be required go back to Congress for
an affirmative vote.
Reason: You are one of the few openly gay
Senate candidates this year. How might that play into your
votes?
Buckley: Younger voters however conservative
politically or culturally they are have advanced light years
forward on the issue of marriage. For younger voters it’s really
not an issue at all, gay marriage. To the extent I raise it, I see
it as an issue among other issues about limited government, live
and let live, bringing economic freedom and personal civil
liberties together in a more consistent message. An illustrative
issue, certainly, but it’s not going to bring huge swaths of voters
my way. I cross a lot of lines in my candidacy on issues I hope
will get people at least to sit up and say, an interesting
combination this guy Buckley stands for, he’s confident enough to
stick with principles.
I’m also a pro-life libertarian, a minority positon in the
Libertarian Party. I find it a consistently defendable message even
along libertarian principles, not as a moral majoritarian
perspective. I recognize good, principled, decent people can
completely disagree on this issue, so I can reach out to social
conservatives in that respect even if on gay marriage they are
leery. I think I can win some social conservatives even though I’ve
made no bones about being an openly gay candidate.
Reason: Any lessons learned from having been a
successful one-term Republican state legislator in the ‘70s?
Buckley: It was shocking to me in the innocence
of youth, I was in my mid 20s, the extent to which people on the
level of the House of Delegates in Virginia were more concerned in
posturing and positioning themselves for re-election than
accomplishing the goals of better government that I presume led
them to want to be involved. Everyone in political office quickly
ends up measuring political success by longevity rather than by
policy accomplishment. It was so disheartening. Pressure from
special interests is so unrelenting and constant that you end up
giving into things because that’s your bread and butter for getting
re-elected.
Reason: Is there are a real non-partisan small
government movement you think you can appeal to, even as a
Libertarian?
Buckley: My campaign will be a test of the Tea
Party. When I go out chatting at fairs and festivals with most
people I get 30 seconds at most. I hand off a card, I’ll say I’m
not a big fan of Obama’s politics and get almost uniformly heads
nodding. Then I say I’m not a big business Republican either, not
for bailouts, subsidies, special interests taking over, and people
continue nodding. They’ll quickly glance through the brief text in
my handouts, and I have to hope they will continue to look at where
candidates stand more than party labels. My biggest hurdle is
getting it known that they have a genuine choice, it’s not just
Tennant v. Capito and vote based on which you dislike least, the
big government politics of Tennant and the moderate,
don’t-stick-neck-out-for anything politics of Capito.
Some people have chosen to advance their principles which I
share within the mechanism of the Republican Party. Many have told
me around the state they are voting for me, hoping I get as many
votes as possible, but have a party office in GOP or aspire to
party or public office in the Republican Party and thus they have
to be quiet about support for my candidacy. Lots of Republicans
recognize Capito doesn’t stand for what they believe in—I’m hoping
to position myself when some happy fortuitous break comes my way
that’s not my doing, things happen in context of political
campaigns, that I’m positioned to take advantage of those breaks
even if I’m not in the position resource-wise to make them
happen.
Reason: Immigration is another big issue right
now. Is that a thing in your campaign?
Buckley: That’s a tough issue. To the extent
voters perceive that open immigration is going to come at their
expense, they are wary of the direction the country is heading with
the borders and immigration. As a libertarian I’m kind of caught in
the middle, perhaps not as ideological as some of my brethren. I’m
not quite sure, despite economists and academicians saying
otherwise, if there aren’t short term problems over how to afford
all the public benefits courts and politicians have mandated, and
how we can afford them? Welcoming hard-working immigrants is part
and parcel of the character of America, but at the same time
figuring out how to afford keeping ourselves a beacon for those
across the world and to continue to fight against the welfare
society.
We have to create a mechanism to normalize people already here
in a way that doesn’t contravene one of our principles, which is
rule of law. That does not set the stage for more in the future to
say, get in illegal and stick around long enough, so really there
are no laws against illegal immigration. I don’t know how to do
that, since taking immigrants who are hardworking and contributing
and sending them back home countries they are not a part of any
longer is not practical either.
Reason: You’ve been pushing small-government
ideas since your YAF days—do you think the modern scene is more
open to them in a significant way?
Buckley: That’s a difficult question. In some
respects I’m a pessimist; I see the success of Obama and I see
capitulation on principles by Republicans in office who are at
least seen as being conservative. I think in some way every citizen
is wary of grandiose government programs and wars to remake
society. I think the average citizen is still ready for a genuine
small government candidate, but ever since Obama was elected I’ve
worried the country is past the tipping point. But I don’t want to
go down without a fight. I think there’s still an opportunity to
galvanize new coalitions of voters who maybe are starting to
realize they have more in common than they realize, Tea Partiers
and marriage equality advocates really have a lot in common but
don’t know it. They are positioned by media and their own
organizational leaders to see themselves as polar opposite but have
a lot in common if you want to just be left alone. I want to say to
gun rights advocates, Tea Party members, would you support personal
freedom for other people if tradeoff was, you get freedom you want?
From taxes, big government gun grabbing schemes, meddling across
the world—put the question to people that way. Maybe there is a new
mechanism to build a freedom coalition, and I don’t think it will
come from the Republican Party. That’s why I’m affiliated with
L.P., as much as I’m glad to see small “l” libertarians advancing
some with the Republican Party structure itself. In my 30-something
years of experience in the Republican Party ranks I don’t have
reason to believe they will ultimately prove successful.
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