Libertarian Party now not recognized in Maryland

By: Dylan Brennan, Columnist

Admittedly, I was short on ideas to write on this week: Jussie Smollett may have been let off the hook locally, but potential federal investigations are in the air; the Mueller report won’t be released for weeks; the cuts towards the Special Olympics keep bouncing around. However, one idea I had for writing came in the form of an official letter sent to me this weekend. The paper was titled “Loss of Party Recognition Letter,” and it told me that the Libertarian Party was no longer recognized in the state of Maryland. I now have the choice to either affiliate with the Democratic Party, Republican Party or the newly-founded Bread and Roses Party (whose days are numbered if you ask me). Should I not act, I’ll be branded “Others-Libertarian” until I choose.

I won’t act like I’m the most devout Libertarian in America. To be frank, the main reason I joined the party as a form of protest to prove there were other options. This latest event has just taken that away. I am sorely disappointed in Maryland’s political realm to give in to Democrat and Republican hegemony, without giving third parties the chance they deserve. How is America the land of the free if people must be categorized into one of two parties? When people apply for important things in life like jobs or college, they do not choose between just A and B. Yet when people apply to the equally important voter registration, they are all but forced to choose between red and blue.

Whether or not you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or couldn’t care less about politics, I hope you stand with the Libertarian Party in their fight for reinstatement to prove that this is not a two-horse town, or donkey and elephant for that matter. There is absolutely more than enough room for third parties, and critics push us further towards an us-or-them mentality in politics. Being third party does not mean you’re a fence-sitter, it means you forge your own path in a world of apples and oranges. I only wish for the best for the Libertarian Party’s future in Maryland, as well as the future of this column’s Libertarian angle and Towson’s treatment of Libertarians as a whole. I’ve been made aware that the Libertarian Club was not invited to this year’s debates unlike last year. I have yet to find an heir to this column to report outside of the Democratic and Republican organizations on campus for an outsider’s perspective on politics. It is my wish that Towson and Marylanders stand up for freedom of political parties’ right to exist, now more than ever. It is up to Towson and Marylanders to make it happen.