Is the LP Now Counter-Productive to the Goal of REAL Freedom?
In a previous life, I ran a successful national campaign for the Libertarian Party, helping a vice-presidential candidate win their nomination (LP vice-presidential candidates are elected, not chosen by the presidential candidate). My takeaway after the race was that the LP was at a dead end. The party was knee-capped by the election laws that favored the incumbent parties, making it essentially impossible for the LP to compete. I went on to work at a libertarian think tank in DC instead.
Among other issues, the Libertarian Party simply can’t raise the money they need to wage a viable campaign. Back in my day, contributions were capped at $2300 before the primary and $2300 after the primary. That has now been raised to $3300 or $6600 across the entire cycle. So.. You can compete with Walmart, but you can only spend $6600 on advertising. Compounding the problem, the position of the Party was, and I assume it still is?, to reject taxpayer financing of campaigns on principle. This means that the incumbent parties get tens of millions of tax-payer financing while the LP candidate refuses to take taxpayer monies. Finally, the majority of the funds raised by the Libertarian Party itself usually go to getting ballot status in all 50 states, which entails having to pay professional signature gatherers $1-2 per signature to gather, in some states, 100,000 signatures JUST to get on the ballot.
In the races for House and Senate, the incumbents have the ability to send their constituents hundreds of thousands of dollars in free advertising disguised as communications with constituents (known as the Franking Privilege… where the Congressman gets to mail free by putting their signature or “Frank” on the envelope instead of a stamp. Each Senator and Congressman has dedicated employees known as “Constituent Services” that spend their days solving issues that voters have with government bureaucracies at taxpayer expense, generating the incumbent “reciprocity” with thousands and thousands of voters each year that is impossible for challengers to replicate similarly. Finally, the incumbents have professional video studios, full time staff, drivers, and a variety of other tax-payer funded advantages over 3rd party opponents.
Now, it appears the easily manipulated LP is being used, more often than not, to give small (l) libertarians a bad name. The party seems to have completely lost its way.
Here are some examples:
- Inviting Former President Trump, who is responsible for Project Warp Speed, which conservatively killed between 13-20 million people globally and injured 1 billion, to speak at its national convention… Where he mocked them for their 3% of the vote. – Which genius at the national LP made the decision to associate a criminal with the Libertarian Party?
- Nominating Chase Oliver, a former Democrat who supported masks, transitioning kids, and men in women’s sports as their Presidential candidate, making a mockery of libertarians everywhere. If you hadn’t figured out by November of 2020 that “The Covid” was a scam, you don’t deserve to be running for dog catcher.https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Mte3XbwLbqw?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0
- Resorting to deceptive fundraising tactics where the national leadership attempted to capitalize on the popularity of individual LP presidential candidates to fund the national Party when some candidates openly disagreed with the National Party and openly objected to the Party fundraising on their name.
While there are many good folks in the Libertarian Party who use the political cycle as an opportunity to discuss small (l) libertarian solutions and political philosophy with their neighbors and town, I am starting to believe the LP is doing more harm than good for a number of reasons.
- The LP legitimizes the easily rigged political process, the concept of “government” itself, and the illegitimacy of voting in obviously rigged elections with unauditable black box machines and mail-in ballots. – In “Government” – The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed, I argue that it is impossible to logically and morally have a legitimate government as it is impossible to delegate rights you don’t have yourself to a “representative” or a “government”; you can’t be bound by a social contract you didn’t sign, and if my girlfriend and myself can’t vote that you have to give us all your money because there are two of us and one of you, then no additional extra people make that legitimate.The LP, by participating, is essentially legitimizing the idea that the criminals in Washington DC get to rule us because 4-5 dozen slave owners on a continent of three million people got together in a room and wrote down on a fancy piece of paper that they alone get to make up rules for everyone and steal the wealth of others.
- The LP is easily hijacked by fake libertarians like Bob Barr, Bill Weld and Nick Sarwark AND/Or embarrasses libertarians everywhere by its ridiculous candidates, some of whom may be controlled opposition. Some recent examples include a candidate for national chair, James Weeks, who stripped down to a thong during the nationally televised convention in 2016 or the fact that two of the 2020 presidential candidates campaigned in costume headgear, including “Vermin Supreme,” who wore a boot on his head and promised voters ponies.
- The LP doesn’t advocate for things that would actually help the situation OR define REAL Freedom and the differences between them and statist politicians – If the LP’s presidential candidates were intellectually honest, then they would openly state that political authority is illegitimate. They would explain the moral and intellectual case for REAL freedom and campaign as Privaticians who pledge only to use “government” power defensively to protect lives, liberty and property, NEVER to steal and redistribute.
The LP’s candidate should be running on a platform of a peaceful dissolution of the US federal “government,” which are issues that a sizeable majority could get behind and would, in my opinion, result in tens of millions of legitimate “earned media”
- There are better things that Libertarians Could be Doing with their Time and Treasure – Yes, I agree that the good folks in the LP are effecting some amount of change by talking about small (l) libertarian solutions and explaining how the free market delivers the goods BUT there are other organizations that are doing a better job including:
The Advocates for Self-Government—Instead of door-knocking for a candidate who won’t win, man an Operation Politically Homeless booth at a fun event in your community. You can explain libertarian ideas and introduce the Advocates’ website and video channel of freedom resources.
The Art of Liberty Foundation – Our humble effort is to widely expose the illegitimacy of “government” on its face and open criminality. We are producing a “one-way revolution” as people realize HOW they have been tricked into supporting statism. Make censorship-proof, “sneaker-net” Liberator flash drives for free with the PDF of “Government”- The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed! for your friends, family and colleagues OR Print and distribute our flyer asking your neighbors not to vote to rob their neighbors and explaining the scam of “government.”
The Foundation for Economic Education – FEE’s mission is to inspire, educate and connect future leaders with the economic, ethical and legal principles of a free society.
The Mises Institute – The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard
The White Rose – The White Rose is an international group of activists that make pro-liberty, anti-lockdown, anti-covid stickers available globally for gas pumps, bathroom doors, airports, and police cars. The campaigners make a file of stickers available for free, and anyone with a low-cost Brother QL 800 label printer (~$100 new or $40-$60 used on E-bay) can print cool, hard-hitting stickers at a very low cost. They also distribute free stickers worldwide via postal mail (follow the directions on their Telegram page to get yours). The stickers are distributed in bulk at liberty events like Porcupine Freedom Festival, Jackalope, FreedomFest, The Rainbow Gathering, and others! They have stickers that promote “Government”- The Biggest Scam in History Exposed! and the Art of Liberty Foundation makes a series of free POSTERS available that expose organized crime “governments”
About the Author
Etienne de la Boetie2 is the founder of the Art of Liberty Foundation, the author of “Government” – The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed! and the editor of the Art of Liberty Daily News on Substack and Five Meme Friday, which delivers hard-hitting voluntaryist memes and the best of the alternative media.
In his youth, Etienne ran a successful national Libertarian Party campaign that elected an LP vice presidential candidate to the LP’s national ticket.
He is the author of The Covid-19 Suspects and Their Ties to Eugenics and Population Control/Reduction and Solving Covid – The Covid 19, Eugenics, and Vaccine/Drug Scam Timeline
About the Art of Liberty Foundation
A start-up public policy organization: Voluntaryist crime fighters exposing inter-generational organized crime’s control of the “government,” media and academia. The foundation is the publisher of “Government” – The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed!– How Inter-Generational Organized Crime Runs the”Government,” Media and Academia.
We publish The Daily News, a free survey of the best of the alternative media, censored videos, and documentaries, and the Daily News Digest, a once-per-day-summary of the Daily News as a premium service for paid subscribers of any Art of Liberty Foundation Substack and Five Meme Friday – a free weekly e-mail or Telegram summary of the best of the alternative media, censored truth videos, and at least five hot, fresh, dank liberty memes every week, and “Government,” Media, and Academia Exposed! – A Telegram summary of the best mainstream and alternative news stories proving our thesis that all three are being hierarchically controlled by inter-generational organized crime interests. You can read our 2023 Annual Report here.
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