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A Libertarian Perspective on the 2026 Election

Why we should vote "Democrat by Default" for federal offices - with a few rare exceptions. I build on a post by political philosopher Dan Shapiro.

Ilya Somin | 10.30.2026 6:47 PM

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I was going to write a post about why, in this election, the right thing for libertarians to do is vote for Democrats for all federal offices, unless either 1) the Dem candidate is DSA, or 2) the GOP candidate is one of those very rare Republicans who oppose all or most of Trump's awful policies. But libertarian political philosopher Dan Shapiro beat me to it, in an excellent post at the Bleeding Heart Libertarian substack. I agree with the vast bulk of what he says. But I have a few additions and caveats that I will append after quoting a few key passages from Dan's post. Before getting into detail, I will note that I generally believe in voting for the lesser evil among those candidates with a realistic chance to win. Thus, unlike Dan, I don't usually vote for third party candidates, even in more normal times. If you're opposed to "lesser evil" voting on principle, we have a disagreement that goes  far beyond the present election. But I would urge you to check out my defense of that practice, where I explain why you should even vote for the evil Queen Cersei over the even more evil Sauron, if those are the only available choices.

I don't expect this post or Dan's will change the outcome of the election. They almost certainly won't. But they might still be helpful in thinking through big issues we face in the current political moment.

Here's an excerpt from Dan's post:

Most of my voting life I voted for the Libertarian Party when they advocated classical liberal/libertarian policies. Now those who care about and prioritize liberty and a free society—however they label themselves—should vote Democratic unless the candidate is a Democratic Socialist….

There's been so much criminality and misdeeds in the Trump administration that it's exhausting to cover it all, but keeping "the land of the free and the home of the brave" means remembering the essentials. I provide links when the points I make are not common knowledge and/or might be controversial.

Violating the norm of peaceful transfer of political power

January 6: Trump is the only presidential candidate in the US who refused to concede that he lost. He told a crowd to "fight like hell," and the mob then stormed the Capitol to try to overturn the results. The House impeached him for "incitement of insurrection," and 57 senators, including seven Republicans, voted to convict—short of the two-thirds required. After his campaign of lies and deception and pressuring election officials to falsify the results failed to overturn the election, he later pardoned all the perpetrators of the violence.

Violating the rule of law, shredding due process, torture

ICE: masked secret police who kidnap people and send them to hellholes in El Salvador, where they were subject to constant beatings, sexual abuse, and torture; to the Central African Republic, in the midst of a brutal civil war with severe human rights abuses; to Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz," where........

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