What libertarians see in Bernie Sanders

April McCullum | Free Press Staff Writer

KEENE, N.H. – While a trial jury deliberated over his disorderly conduct charges, libertarian activist James Cleaveland sat outside the courtroom and pointed to a laptop screen.

“According to this,” Cleaveland said, pointing to an online political survey on his laptop, “I side with Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders.”

“Rand Paul loses me on immigration, looks like, and then Bernie loses me on economics,” said Cleaveland, who also uses the nickname “Robin Hood of Keene” because he walks the streets to feed expired parking meters before enforcers can write a parking ticket.

“Maybe it’s like, I like the non-establishment candidate,” he said.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist from Vermont who has never fit neatly into a political party, has attracted a curious spectrum of interest in his bid for president. He will need to turn that interest into a broad base of support if he wants to overcome rival Hillary Clinton.

In New Hampshire, where Sanders will soon face his first presidential primary, libertarians are trying to convince 20,000 activists to take over the state on behalf of individual liberty and free markets — a movement known as the Free State Project.

Libertarians believe that individuals have a right to decide what do to with their bodies and lives without harming others. They often raise concerns, for example, about incarceration and drug laws, war, infringements on privacy, government-run health care and education, and income taxes.

Sanders may appeal to libertarians on military intervention and social issues, including privacy and gun rights, said Megan Remmel, an assistant professor of political science at Norwich University.

Then again, Sanders wants to implement a single-payer health care, raise tax rates on wealthy Americans and break up large banks. He often blasts campaign spending by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican presidential candidate who is admired by some libertarians, dismisses Sanders as a socialist in the vein of the Soviet Union.

Cleaveland and a handful of like-minded supporters spoke to a reporter Dec. 17 at the courthouse in Keene, where they waited for a verdict on charges they said arose from taking videos of the police.

Most New Hampshire libertarians interviewed for this article will back another candidate, such as Paul or a third-party choice — but through their lens, some aspects of Sanders’ platform and personality look attractive.

"You should always vote against the incumbents, keep them on their toes,” Cleaveland said.

Sanders fan disavows ‘government control’

Talking with Sanders supporters reveals a web of political views, rather than a spectrum.

Some voters will support Sanders for speaking out against a “rigged economy.” Some, such as a New Hampshire man who recently said he wants to see a Sanders-Donald Trump ticket, will support Sanders just for speaking out.

Mark Buckley, Sanders supporter Mark Buckley, 60, artist and Bernie Sanders supporter, talks about his political views before the Democratic presidential debate on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015, in Manchester, New Hampshire. He splits his time between New Hampshire and Florida.

At the courthouse, J.P. Freeman said he likes Sanders because of his views on law enforcement.

“I like his view on police accountability and corruption,” Freeman said. “And I catch a lot of heat in the libertarian community for liking him.”

Freeman often records police activity and encourages others to do the same. The day of Cleaveland's jury verdict, he wore a black long-sleeve T-shirt with the message, "Am I free to go?"

Sanders wants to require the use of police body cameras, establish new federal police training standards, increase civilian oversight of police and remove military equipment from police departments that make officers look like “invading armies.”

Sanders also says in his campaign platform that federal justice grants should be “slashed” for local communities that fail to make progress in police reform.

The proposals are wrapped into Sanders’ overall campaign theme of racial justice.

Freeman, who moved to New Hampshire from Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2007 and voted in the Republican primary in 2012, is unsure whether he’ll vote in February.

He believes little will change on the federal level no matter who is elected.

“The government control, their front line is the cops. It starts with local police,” Freeman said.

Not everyone believes Sanders is worthy of libertarian support.

“He’s also said that you don’t need 23 different types of deodorant to choose from,” said Darryl W. Perry, who moved from Texas to New Hampshire for the Free State Project in 2012. “I really like having choice.”

Sanders said in a May interview with CNBC that considering childhood hunger and climate change, Americans “don't necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants.” He told college students in September that they would still have their choice of pajamas under his brand of socialism.

For Amanda Bouldin, a Democratic legislator who represents Manchester, and is associated with the Free State Project, Sanders’ policies are too conservative.

On marijuana legalization, for example, Bouldin thinks Sanders is calculating when he says he wants to leave the decision to the states.

“That sounds like a cop-out to me,” Bouldin said in a telephone interview. “There’s clearly harm being done against people that really aren’t doing anything wrong.”

Melanie Johnson, who came to the Keene courthouse about a month after moving to New Hampshire and connecting with the Free State Project, is resolutely opposed to Sanders on economics.

“The stuff he wants to do is both immoral and won’t work,” Johnson said, although she seemed unclear on some of Sanders' positions. “I think it was 90 percent he said he wanted to have the highest tax bracket at," she said.

One media report in May suggested that Sanders would be open to the 90 percent tax rate under President Dwight D. Eisenhower — but in an October debate, Sanders said he had yet to settle on a number for the top tax rate, and it would be lower than 90 percent.

The Snowden thing

Johnson said she feels morally conflicted voting for any candidate this cycle, “ ’cause of the Snowden thing.”

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed confidential government surveillance programs, is a libertarian icon. Snowden has been charged with three felonies and remains in exile outside the country.

Snowden is expected to address a Free State Project convention in Manchester in February, less than two weeks after Sanders learns his fate in the New Hampshire primary.

Sanders said in 2014 that Snowden had broken the law, but that the government should grant Snowden clemency or a plea agreement that would avoid “a long prison sentence or permanent exile.”

He reiterated at an October debate that he believes Snowden should face a penalty, but “played a very important role in educating the American people to the degree in which our civil liberties and our constitutional rights are being undermined.”

Snowden recently returned the compliment.

Snowden tweeted during the Dec. 19 debate that Sanders was “unexpectedly more credible on foreign policy” than O’Malley and Clinton, who “repeat conventional wisdom that failed for a decade.”

In that debate, held in New Hampshire, Clinton argued that the United States needed to lead the fight against the Islamic State group.

“Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be,” said Sanders, who argued that the United States should not be expected to intervene in every international crisis.

That position could appeal to some libertarians. Just don’t expect Sanders to tailor his message to the libertarian voting bloc any time soon.

“It would require him to focus a little less or to emphasize a little less the economic issues,” said Remmel, the Norwich political scientist, “which I’m not entirely sure he is one, willing to do, or two, able to do.”

Cleaveland, the activist facing charges, was found not guilty of resisting arrest. A hung jury was unable to decide on the disorderly conduct charge, and the judge declared a mistrial, according to a Free State Project video of court proceedings. Cleaveland's supporters asked the prosecutor how much taxpayer money would be spent on his case.

This article was first published online Dec. 27, 2015. Contact April Burbank at 802-660-1863 or aburbank@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/AprilBurbank.