When Republicans convened in Shreveport on June 2 for the Louisiana Republican State Convention, they planned on voting for 46 delegates for the Republican National Convention in August and going home.
Instead, a Republican rumble ensued between Ron Paul supporters and state party leaders, highlighting the inner-party tension between its libertarian-leaning members and establishment officials.
The struggle began when Paul supporters, who made up nearly two-thirds of the convention, filed a motion to remove convention chairman Roger Villere and elect a new chairman in his place.
However, supplementary rules passed on the eve of the convention by state party officials made it tougher to remove the chairman and lowered the quorum required to vote on delegates in case the Paul supporters walked out.
When the majority-elected chairman, Henry Herford, attempted to take control of the convention, off-duty Shreveport police officers were summoned to remove Herford from the premises.
In response, the Paul supporters turned their chairs away from Villere and the convention split in two.
The majority continued with their vote as if nothing had happened, electing 27 delegates to send to the National Convention. Meanwhile, a group of state party officials convened in a corner of the room to elect delegates of their own.
Thus, the convention became a showcase for the libertarian cause as Paul supporters found themselves facing the authoritarian control of state party leaders.
Using their positions of power in order to accumulate more authority, state party leaders gave the Paul supporters in attendance no choice but to fight for their rights.
The showdown should come as no surprise.
The libertarian position at its basic level calls for the defense of personal freedom and civil liberty. That they defended the majority opinion and democratic process from a small group of elites only shows how committed they are to their worldview.
Yet, state party leaders have argued that they changed the rules so that delegates would be allocated fairly and in proportion to the votes received during the primary and caucuses that occurred earlier in the year.
They feared Paul supporters would co-opt the delegates won by former presidential candidate Rick Santorum and current presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
However, this seems like punishing the Paul supporters for playing the game correctly. They did not design the way the Louisiana system works, they simply had the audacity to show up and participate in the process.
Still, these same fears have been expressed by Republican party leadership throughout the country, as struggles between Paul supporters and establishment leaders have occurred in various conventions during this election cycle.
In Maine and Nevada, Paul similarly came out ahead with a majority of delegates in their respective state conventions.
In Massachusetts, Paul supporters decried the party’s decision to possibly invalidate ballots won in its caucuses – caucuses won overwhelmingly by Paul. The Massachusetts Republican branch eventually decided the ballots would be counted.
Nonetheless, there is a definite pattern here, and it does not look good for the Republican party.
Libertarian-leaning Republicans are still a constituent base of the party, and are especially prominent among younger Republicans.
The crowds that gather for Paul on various college campuses, including this one, are a testament to that.
Alienating such a young and growing constituency may not be such a good long-term strategy.
As the years go by, the younger libertarian-leaning Republicans will begin to hold more sway over the party, especially if Paul continues to attract supporters.
Libertarian voters may even play a prominent role in the upcoming presidential election. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has a strong chance of taking a sizeable chunk of votes from the Republican presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, the votes Johnson takes from Obama may be negligible due to Obama’s strong ratings among the youth. However, accepting libertarians can be beneficial.
Libertarian positions can help the Republican party win over much of the youth vote that is so firmly held by Democrats, especially Obama.
Though if Republicans fail to court libertarians, I would not be surprised to see if the Libertarian party rises as the years go by.
David Scheuermann is a 20-year-old mass communication and computer science junior from Kenner. Follow him on Twitter at @TDR_dscheu.
 
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