Compared to the Constitution Party, the LP has been more successful at accomplishing some necessary steps, and some highly preliminary phases of other necessary steps. I'm not sure that's saying much.
Losing the race for president with less than 1% of the vote I would call a highly preliminary phase of a necessary step, at best. Doing it chronically isn't a success, by any stretch, especially as the trend line is not upward. (I note that the LP website no longer seems to list the presidential candidates and their vote totals. Or if the list is there, it's damned hard to find. For some reason.) Those things listed below are milestones and metrics of progress, but they aren't successes. Successes would be things like repealing the federal drug laws, or stopping the Social Security boondoggle (even if were "merely" replaced by a Chile-style mandatory IRA-/401(k)-like account of the sort that gives dogmatic Libertarians the screaming meemies), or having no more of a military presence in other countries than they have in ours (like "none"). Neither party has actually succeeded at reducing government and increasing freedom. The LP's pace is glacial, even at accomplishing these intermediate goals. And a celebrity candidate won't help quicken the pace, I believe. YMMV. Here's an experiment to consider. Rank these events in the order you expect them to occur: o The Social Security administration pays more benefits than it receives in Social Security taxes. o The LP gets rid of the "oath" membership requirement. o The number of U.S. military personnel inside Iraq is less than the total number of U.S. military deaths in this Iraq war. o The LP's members of at least one house of Congress number more than the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans; the Libertarian Caucus is the swing bloc in that house. o Federal spending declines, one year to the next. o The LP nominates a "celebrity" candidate for president, such as those in the quoted text below. o The LP presidential candidate is elected. If you draw up a list and yours is in a dramatically different order from this, I'd be interested in the reasoning that lead to that particular ordering. If I don't find the reasoning convincing, perhaps a wager is in order. You may end up paying or being paid by my estate before the list is exhausted, as I'm over 50. Even my maternal ancestors only lived into their 80s. -Eric Eric Dondero Rittberg wrote: > Intrguied by your comments on the Constitution Party. > > But fact is the Libertarian Party is and has been 10 times more > successful over the years, when you measure vote totals both in > Presidential races and local races, actual elected officials, > membership, fundraising, and most especially ballot access. > > The LP, hapless as it is, has the CP beat in every category. > > There was a brief period a couple years ago, when the CP pulled > ahead of the LP in one single category; elected officials. > > Ron Jore in Montana switched from GOP to Constitution Party for a > few months. But then something happened and he switched back. > (Still quite curious about that whole affair; never got a complete > explanation???) > > For that period, I'd agree the CP WAS AHEAD of the LP, but as of > this moment as far as I know the CP has less than 10 elected > officials nationwide highest office being some town councilman in > Iowa. > > While the LP has over 500, highest being a couple City Councilman in > Troy, MI (pop. 70,000), a Councilman in a Denver suburb, a couple > small town Mayors and a couple County Supervisors. > > Plus the ballot access situation shows a profound difference. In > every election cycle in the past two decades the LP has made it on > the ballot in either all 50 states of over 46 states. The CP in > comparison is lucky to get over 30. > > > No, if there's gonna be any viable third party movement in the US in > 2008, it's going to be with the Libertarian Party. > > Let's hope the LP smartens up and nominates a Jesse Ventura, fmr. NM > Gov. Gary Johnson, John Stossell, Walter Williams, Charles Murray or > some other celebrity this time, and doesn't go with a Party hack/No > name Michael Badnarik type. [snipped: old quoted quoted text] -- Eric S. Harris If this address ever fails, try visiting http://www.returnpath.net ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
