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Strategy/Organization/Ideas / Committee to make the Libertarian Party libertarian again
« on: June 06, 2016, 07:18:09 PM »
When I first joined the Libertarian Party in 1999, it was proudly known as “The Party of Principle.” We are now at a crossroads. One path is clean and clear and goes to the horizon. The other path, not so much. There’s potholes, there’s trees, there’s logs in the road. We have to work to clear the path. That path is the difficult path. The Pilgrims who came here four hundred years ago had a difficult path. The western settlers who traveled west on roads that did not exist had a difficult path. We are trying to go down that path if we stay true to liberty, or we can go down the path that looks clear. But at what appears to be the end of the horizon is a cliff. We must answer the question: Will the Party actually be the Party of Principle again?
The Libertarian Party Platform Preamble states Libertarians seek “a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.” And the Statement of Principles states, “We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.”
However, in the past couple of years I've encountered members of the Party who support taxation, regulation, and licensing in the name of “the greater good.” I've met Party members who want to restrict human migration, and members who want the military to intervene in conflicts around the globe. This hardly sounds like “challeng[ing] the cult of the omnipotent state and defend[ing] the rights of the individual”!
For too many election cycles the Libertarian Party has nominated Presidential candidates who have claimed they can bring more members to the Party or get a certain vote percentage by delivering a watered down message of liberty. I deliver this a warning about the future, because I have seen the past. In 1996 the Reform Party reached 8%. In 2000 it received a federal welfare check. There are some within this party that want the Libertarians to take a federal welfare check. I don’t want that to happen because it killed the Reform Party. In 2012 the Reform Party had ballot access in three states, just 12 years after getting a federal welfare check. If we, the members of the Libertarian Party, compromise what we believe to take a federal handout, this party will die. I don’t want that to happen. I want you to help me, help you make the Libertarian Party libertarian again.
Now is the time for the Libertarian Party to again be the Party of Principle. Now is the time to make the Libertarian Party libertarian again!
The Libertarian Party Platform Preamble states Libertarians seek “a world in which all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.” And the Statement of Principles states, “We, the members of the Libertarian Party, challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.”
However, in the past couple of years I've encountered members of the Party who support taxation, regulation, and licensing in the name of “the greater good.” I've met Party members who want to restrict human migration, and members who want the military to intervene in conflicts around the globe. This hardly sounds like “challeng[ing] the cult of the omnipotent state and defend[ing] the rights of the individual”!
For too many election cycles the Libertarian Party has nominated Presidential candidates who have claimed they can bring more members to the Party or get a certain vote percentage by delivering a watered down message of liberty. I deliver this a warning about the future, because I have seen the past. In 1996 the Reform Party reached 8%. In 2000 it received a federal welfare check. There are some within this party that want the Libertarians to take a federal welfare check. I don’t want that to happen because it killed the Reform Party. In 2012 the Reform Party had ballot access in three states, just 12 years after getting a federal welfare check. If we, the members of the Libertarian Party, compromise what we believe to take a federal handout, this party will die. I don’t want that to happen. I want you to help me, help you make the Libertarian Party libertarian again.
Now is the time for the Libertarian Party to again be the Party of Principle. Now is the time to make the Libertarian Party libertarian again!