Cooper runs to promote liberty in governor?s race

    Since the state of Iowa was admitted to the union in 1846, it has had 69 governors. Of those, only James Grimes of the Whig Party ? elected in 1854 ? was not a member of today?s two major political parties. The Libertarian Party of Iowa has fielded candidates to state offices since 1971, and this year hopes its gubernatorial candidate Eric Cooper will join Grimes on the list of third-party victors.   

    Cooper was born in Iowa City but grew up in Kansas. He obtained a bachelor?s degree in cognitive psychology from the University of Kansas and later obtained a doctorate in psychology from the University of Minnesota. He moved back to Iowa in 1994 to work as a professor at Iowa State University, where he teaches psychology and neuroscience.

    Cooper has been heavily involved in libertarian activism for more than a decade. In 1997, he helped found a university club called ISU Libertarians ? a club for which he has been the academic advisor since its birth. Cooper has run for the Iowa Legislature as a Libertarian five times, but this is his first time to seek the governorship.  

    He acknowledged that his chances of winning the race against Chet Culver and Terry Branstad are slim, and remarked that he has in mind a more reachable goal of 2 percent of the vote on Election Day. He said 2 percent is the magic number for third parties because it gives them major party status, which means they can have primaries and are automatically given a spot on the November ballot without having to petition to appear on it.   

    The long-term strategy of the Libertarian Party of Iowa is not to win elections, said Cooper. He said the party wants to receive 10 percent of the vote, which is usually enough to decide an election. Once the two major parties recognize the strength of the libertarian movement, said Cooper, they will poach issues from the party in order to attract libertarian voters.

    ?I think we can get our issues implemented without winning elections, provided we can get 10 percent on a regular basis,? he said.

    And what are those issues?

    Cooper said he cares deeply about liberty and thinks the government has gone much too far in curtailing it. He cites the smoking ban in restaurants as an example of the state overstepping its bounds. He said property owners should be able to set the terms for the use of their property.   

    ?Free individuals should be able to do whatever they want without government interference,? said Cooper.

    Cooper takes the same stance toward the prohibition against fireworks, which he said should be legal. 

    ?It almost makes me cry every Fourth of July that I can?t shoot off fireworks in my own backyard,? said Cooper. ?I can only see them at a government-approved fireworks show.?

    Even on an issue like public education, which Cooper believes should be subsidized, the government is more controlling than it should be. Cooper said that while it may make sense for the government to pay for education, it makes very little sense for the government to run the schools. He said children should be given money to purchase education from the school of their choice, just as people are given food stamps to spend at the grocery store of their choice. Cooper argues the quality of education would be higher if schools competed with each other for students. 

    Cooper sees the war on drugs as a costly endeavor that has wasted billions of dollars and incarcerated thousands of non-violent human beings. He said the problems caused by the drug war are exactly those caused by alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, which he said were a corrupt criminal justice system and the prevalence of criminal gangs that trafficked the illicit substance.  

For the full story, see our Oct. 5 print edition.