Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) is often presented as a major reason why many libertarians associate with the Republican Party. There have been many times when I have attempted to convince a libertarian to affiliate with the Democratic Party and they have responded with the line, “Both of the parties aren’t very libertarian. But the Republicans have Ron Paul. Who do the Democrats have?” It is hard to attack Ron Paul’s libertarian credentials; he is a former Libertarian Presidential candidate and has one of the most ideologically consistent voting records. My best attempts at offering up Democratic politicians suitable to libertarians tend to fail when they compare him to Ron Paul.

The perception that Republicans are more open to libertarian ideas is further created by Ron Paul’s Liberty Caucus. The Liberty Caucus, made up of 23 Republicans in addition to Ron Paul and no Democratic members, gives the impression that there are other Republicans out there that, while not as ideologically consistent, at least tend to support an agenda consistent with a more conservative-libertarian outlook. There is also a Liberty Committee that sends out action alerts to political activists encouraging them to urge their Representatives to vote with Ron Paul on certain bills and amendments.

As a libertarian activist, I am subscribed to this mailing list. Activity reached a peak during the summer of 2005 as CAFTA moved through Congress. Although ideologically in support of free trade, Ron Paul and many other libertarians viewed the treaty as undermining American sovereignty and creating a managed trade system that would benefit multinational corporations. The Liberty Committee urged individuals to contact their Senators and Representatives and tell them to oppose CAFTA.

The final vote in the House, a narrow 217 to 215, was of great interest to me. It was then that out of curiosity I decided to look at how the members of the Liberty Caucus voted. I was surprised to find that only 8 members, including Ron Paul, voted against CAFTA. One did not vote. I continued to do some additional research with two other bills identified by the Liberty Committee as key votes and found again that the majority Liberty Caucus was not voting with Ron Paul. After posting my findings to my Freedom Democrats blog, I set this aside in my mind with the intention of coming back at the end of the first session of the 109th Congress to investigate further.

Now I’m back and the results are in. I went back through the various action alerts over the past year to find all of the votes specifically mentioned. In total there were eleven, although one was passage of an amendment through voice vote and was not recorded. We are left with ten votes in which Ron Paul and his Liberty Committee made a clear signal that there was a key vote. I do not think it is unusual to expect the members of the Liberty Caucus to vote with Ron Paul most of the time on these votes. Here is what actually happened. Before listing the ten votes, I would like to make a clear note. This scorecard is not a reflection of my political views or of Freedom Democrats in general. It is simply matching the rhetoric of Ron Paul and his Liberty Committee with the actual results of his Liberty Caucus.

H. R. 418. REAL ID Act. February 10, 2005. Passed 261 to 161. Ron Paul voted NO.

H. R. 841. Continuity in Representation Act. March 3, 2005. Passed 329 to 68. Ron Paul voted YES.

H. R. 1268. Emergency Supplemental Appropriations. March 16, 2005. Passed 388 to 43. Ron Paul voted NO.

H. J. Res. 27. Withdrawing from the WTO. June 9, 2005. Rejected 86 to 338. Ron Paul voted YES.

Amendment to H. R. 2862 to withdraw from the UN. June 16, 2005. Rejected 65 to 357. Ron Paul voted YES.

H. R. 2745. UN Reform Act. June 17, 2005. Passed 221 to 184. Ron Paul voted NO.

Amendment to H. R. 3010 banning funding of mandatory mental screenings of children. June 24, 2005. Rejected 97 to 304. Ron Paul voted YES.

DR-CAFTA Act. July 28, 2005. Passed 217 to 215. Ron Paul voted NO.

S. 397. Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. October 20, 2005. Passed 283 to 144. Ron Paul voted NO.

Conference Report. USA PATRIOT Reauthorization Act. Passed 251 to 174. Ron Paul voted NO.

Only 7 members of the 22 other members in the Liberty Caucus voted with Ron Paul most of the time in the above key votes. Two Congressmen, Virgil Goode of Virginia and Butch Otter of Idaho, voted with Ron Paul on six of the ten votes. Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, John Duncan of Tennessee, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, John Hostettler of Indiana, and Tom Tancredo of Colorado, voted with Ron Paul on five of the ten votes. The remaining 15 Congressmen did not even vote with Ron Paul half of the time. Steven Chabot of Ohio, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ric Keller of Florida, Jack Kingston of Georgia, Dennis Rehberg of Montana, John Shadegg of Arizona, and Zach Wamp of Tennessee voted with Ron Paul on only two of the ten votes in the scorecard.

When looking at all of the members of the House of Representatives, do any stand out as consistently voting with Ron Paul on these ten votes? Two Democrats voted with Ron Paul eighty percent of the time: Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. Thirty-three other Democrats, too long to list here, voted with Ron Paul seven times out of ten, more than any member of the Liberty Caucus. Even Bernie Sanders, professing a socialist ideology, voted with Ron Paul on seven of the ten votes.

Check out the attachment for the full scorecard. Congressmen in blue are members of the Liberty Caucus.

What is going on here? Looking at the votes, I think we can place them into categories. The REAL ID Act and the Patriot Act clearly are protection of civil liberties and it's arguable that Ron Paul's amendment dealing with banning federal funding of mandatory child mental screenings falls under this as well. H. R. 841 is largely a constitutional and procedural matter. We then have three votes (CAFTA and pulling out of UN and WTO) that I could call paleo-isolationism. Isolationists of both the left and the right could hypothetically agree here and a handful did. Throw in the Emergency Supplemental, which was full of pork, and it's hard to argue with the list of votes.

Only two votes stand out: Ron Paul's opposition to the UN Reform Act and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. Read the links to see why the Liberty Committee opposed them. In each case, Ron Paul found himself voting with most Democrats and the Republicans that voted with him tended to be the moderate members, not fellow conservative-libertarians. I've actually recalculated the scorecard without these two votes and the results are still interesting. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Cynthia McKinney of Georgia still come out on top, voting with Ron Paul on six out of the eight times. But they are joined by Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Butch Otter of Idaho, a member of the Liberty Caucus.

I must repeat that this scorecard is not a representation of my views or of Freedom Democrats. It is simply a scorecard based on the key votes identified by the Liberty Committee in the past year. And I would argue that it is strongly tilted towards votes concerning civil liberties, sovereignty, and upholding the general principles of the Constitution. As I have argued in the past, these are the key areas where Democrats have clearly and consistently shown that they are better than Republicans. The Liberty Committee rarely placed an emphasis on economic and fiscal votes as being the key votes. The scorecard reflects that, but that was not my decision.

Thoughts?