This is part of a discussion taking place on the Broward Libertarian People’s yahoo group. If you’d like to join in, head on over to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LP-Broward/

And sign up!

Mornin’ Jim,

There are a lot of questions and I think I need a better way to deal with them all. I’m thinking about answering some of them on my blog.

Voting for someone who is a libertarian in another party is understandable, though it’s not a good strategy for advancing liberty. Ron Paul has been at it for 30+ years and only recently has had some success. Had he done what I now advocate I don’t think we’d be in this position.

In addition, he has helped reinforce the mistaken idea that the GOP stands for smaller government. That is perhaps the most damaging thing.

Barr was a mistake from the beginning. He’s not a libertarian at all and was a horrible candidate as well. He’s exactly the type of candidate we should be guarding against and yet people keep advocating that we run candidates like him. Why do people want to keep making the same mistakes over and over again?

I was arguing that we (as in the LP) should not run statists just to "do something" or "get on the scoreboard" or something meaningless like that.

The LP ought to stand for something – libertarianism. We don’t need to sell out. It doesn’t work, has never worked, and will never work. It only means more problems later on.

The ideology is not the reason we aren’t doing better. The lack of focus and the lack of leadership is.

Right now the answer is in building a trained cadre, not in running candidates that are doomed from the start. That should have been our priority from the start.

For example, given its population Broward should have a cadre of maybe 250-500 people. With that we could not only run candidates but elect people as well.

Getting and training those 250 people should be our focus, and nothing else.

For example, one of the possible candidates is speaking at the meeting on Wednesday, right? The BLP should be able to have at least 100 people come out and see him speak. We should have a list of 10,000+ names right now (that have been invited to see him speak). But we don’t. And we won’t get anywhere near 100 people to come to the meeting. We’ll get 10 if we’re lucky.

I’m also going to disagree with you slightly about another related point. I don’t think we have to actually elect people (though that would be best). We just have to get big enough where we can’t be stopped and we look like a threat. Right now, we’re not really on their radar, so we’re pretty much meaningless.

Let me know if that answers your questions.

In Liberty,

sean

Libertarian Party Founder David F. Nolan expresses his concerns about the current direction of the LP in a letter distributed to the members of the Libertarian National Committee.by David F. Nolan

The following letter has been distributed to the members of the Libertarian National Committee, which is meeting in St. Louis the weekend of July 18-19.

Some excerpts:

"…that it pays to be bold. Notice that the grassroots uprising sparked by the Ron Paul campaign calls itself the Ron Paul REVOLUTION. Not the "Ron Paul gradual reform movement." They’re calling for ending the Federal personal income tax, not just mouthing empty platitudes about "lower taxes" or "more freedom." (Compared to what? What we have now? Obama’s proposals?) And they are gaining adherents far more rapidly than the Libertarian Party is; the C4L currently has five to ten times as many members as we do!…"

"As I see it, the Libertarian Party has gone far astray from its original mission. Somewhere along the way, our commitment to being The Party of Principle was replaced by a shallow, opportunistic goal of "winning elections now" — any election, anywhere. Principles be damned, according to the proponents of this vision. We should back off from "scary" positions, tone down our rhetoric, find out "what voters want," and tailor our message to what they want to hear."

"I would be hard-put to come up with a statement more antithetical to our beliefs and purpose. Just for starters, "winning" is not a principle at all; it might be a goal, or a strategy for achieving our goals, but it’s not a principle. And if it were, it’s not our principle. This is pure opportunistic rubbish — exactly what you’d expect from a Republican or Democratic party hack."

http://www.nolanchart.com/article6640.html

Visit the link and discuss below.

Libertarians condemn Obama’s still-skyrocketing unemployment numbers

Jobless rate explodes to over 9%, highest in 26 years as 14.5 million Americans jobless
Tax and regulatory relief would create “the jobs Americans need”

WASHINGTON — With unemployment exploding to 9.4 percent in May instead of decreasing as Obama promised with passage of his “stimulus” package, America’s third-largest party urges Congress to instead consider tax and regulatory relief to give the nation “the jobs Americans need.”

“There is no doubt our economy will recover. Americans have always overcome adversity with our tenacity, creativity and optimism,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. “But as unemployment continues to rise when it should be falling by now, it begs the question of how long will recovery be delayed by Obama’s Big Government agenda?”

“The Libertarian Party seems to be the only party promoting a smart program of tax and regulatory relief aimed at freeing up capital,” said Ferguson. “History shows it’s the most effective way to give those 14.5 million unemployed the jobs Americans need.”

“Sadly, Obama instead chose to exploit this tragic situation to advance his personal agenda of bigger, more expensive government – which has unemployment now skyrocketing to its highest levels in a quarter-century,” said Ferguson. “Because of Obama, our economic recovery has been seriously stunted and delayed.”

Figures released Friday by the Labor Department show unemployment rose to 9.4 percent in May from 8.9 percent in April as the number of unemployed persons increased by 787,000 to 14.5 million. Unemployment is highest among blacks (14.9 percent) and Hispanics (12.7 percent.) The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 268,000 over the month to 3.9 million according to the Labor Department.

“Unfortunately, it looks like the Libertarian Party was proven right when we said back in January that Obama’s explosive growth of government and out-of-control spending would delay our economic recovery. We should be further along in our recovery, but Republican and Democrat spending and bailouts are delaying that,” said Ferguson.

“History has proven time and time again that decreasing the size of government, cutting taxes and freeing up people to create jobs and business are the best way to stimulate growth,” said Ferguson. “Libertarian urge Congress and the White House to take these real, proven measures, instead of exploiting people’s misfortune to inflate the size of government.”

For more information on this issue, or to arrange an interview with the Libertarian Party, please call Director of Communications Donny Ferguson at 703-200-3669 or email DonnyFerguson@gmail.com.

The Libertarian Party is America’s third-largest political party, founded in 1971 as an alternative to the two main political parties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party by visiting http://www.LP.org. The Libertarian Party proudly stands for smaller government, lower taxes and more freedom.

This is Sean Galt speaking…

Dear Libertarian,

It is with great, great regret that I write this email.

As you may have read, there were some changes in the Broward LP last night. And, unfortunately, they were not changes for the good.

The short version is this…

Update – May 18th, 2009 – I have decided to edit this piece. Perhaps I will release it again in the future, perhaps not.

Why? Because I don’t want to focus too much on the negative. Yes, we must from time to time. The BLP is as good as dead, its officers corrupt and tainted. They can’t build on that rotten foundation. My hope is that they will come to realize this and change. But that may take a year or two. We’ll be watching and will let you know.

However, an honest libertarian movement can be built, here and now. Perhaps we don’t need a party. So, my hope is that there will be an interest in my BALM plan. If there is, we may be able to rescue civilization…must be some plan.

Well, it is.

I do maintain my position about evil men profiting from my work – I ain’t gonna allow that to happen.

Other than that, you’re welcome to join this group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/southfloridabtp/

It’s for the Boston Tea Party, America’s real libertarian party.

In Liberty,

sean

ps. “The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.” – Ayn Rand

I will have more info up soon.

Thanks.

sean