Larry Elder - Politics

Politics

Elder's political views are philosophically libertarian, and have also been described as conservative. He supports free trade, school choice, same-sex marriage, and abortion rights. He opposes the income tax and supports replacing it with the FairTax, a national retail sales tax. He is also a firm opponent of the war on drugs and has been quoted as saying "Philosophically, I think that if somebody wants to sit around and get stoned that's up to him or her. And if that ruins your life, so be it.... So I am for drug legalization." Although he is not an Objectivist, he says that Atlas Shrugged, written by novelist Ayn Rand, is one of his favorite books.

He has called himself a "libertarian with a small 'l'" to distance himself from the national Libertarian Party concerning the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Elder was registered as Decline to State, but became a Republican in May 2003 in support of the War on Terror, to be more influential within the Republican Party and to open up the possibility of running for office. In his May 13, 2003 column for Jewish World Review, Elder explained reregistering as a Republican by quoting Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman, who said, "I am a Republican with a capital 'R,' and a libertarian with a small 'l.' I have a party membership as a Republican, not because they have any principles. But because that's the way I am the most useful and have the most influence. My philosophy is clearly libertarian." Elder ended his column by saying, "Make no mistake: My libertarian principles remain unchanged. But as writer Midge Decter once said, 'There comes a time to join the side you're on.'" Elder has said that the Libertarian Party differs in ways from the libertarian philosophy, which has roots in the Whig and Republican parties. Melding the two parties, he sometimes refers to himself as a "Republitarian," which he defines as a Republican Party member who holds libertarian political ideals.

Elder's name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (17 August 2006) that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Following Elder's reregistering as a Republican, in a 2008 interview with The New Individualist Magazine, he said, "A lot of my listeners will often call up and say, 'I preferred you when you were a Libertarian.' I always tell them I never was a 'capital-L Libertarian.' I am still 'small-l.' It’s a philosophy to me, not a party." Elder supported presidential candidates Harry Browne in 2000, George W. Bush in 2004, and John McCain in 2008.

Roll Call reported that Elder contemplated a possible run for the United States Senate against California Senator Barbara Boxer in 2010.