American Way: between Democrats and Republicans, a libertarian "third force" is emerging

The libertarian sentiment reflects the pitchfork politics that gave rise to the Tea Party on the right and the Occupy movements on the left that were both fuelled by public disillusion with the power of conventional politics to deliver anything other than the stagnant status quo.

Measuring the potential electoral impact of libertarianism is difficult precisely because it cuts across traditional party lines, which is both its protean strength and political weakness in an era of big money politics.

Put a capital 'L' on libertarianism and it largely evaporates Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate in 2012, won only 1 per cent of the popular vote (1.2m people), but research by the Cato Institute, the libertarian think-thank, points a much deeper pool of Americans with libertarian leanings.

When they asked voters if they considered themselves "fiscally conservative and socially liberal also known as libertarian", some 44 per cent of Americans were happy to be placed in that category.

The politician most obviously trying to capitalise on the idea that Americans aren't quite so easily pigeonholed into red and blue boxes is Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky who the bookies rate as a leading contender for 2016.

As the son of veteran libertarian Ron Paul, his formula will be to bring libertarian ideas off the fringe where his cranky dad always languished and into the mainstream, tapping that well of disaffection that resonates across party lines.

The younger Paul has demonstrated a knack for cutting through when it comes to popular issues.

When riot police overstepped the mark in Ferguson, Missouri following the shooting of a black teenager this summer, it was Mr Paul who spoke out about the obscene militarisation of American police forces, hitting a sweet spot with both young liberals and conservative anti-big government types.

In the same vein and in a rare moment of bipartisanship, Mr Paul is working with a Democrat colleague to end the mandatory sentencing laws that are clogging up America's bloated and broken jail system with non-violent offenders, at vast cost and to little good effect.

It is a bold gambit that could resonate both with minorities particularly African-Americans who are disproportionately sentenced and the young drug decriminalisation lobby which has gathered strength since Colorado and Washington state legalised marijuana in 2012.

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American Way: between Democrats and Republicans, a libertarian "third force" is emerging