Excellent post. Well thought out, and well-reasoned. Congratulations. I would respond that my preferred strategy is not in your list. What I would preferably like to see for the overall libertarian movement is the following (which by the way is the one strategy that I actually think can work):
The Libertarian Party nominates a celebrity candidate for President; John Stossell, Dennis Miller, Neal Boortz, Walter Williams, Tom Mcclintock, Ron Paul, Leon Drolet, Tammy Bruce, Drew Carey, et.al. That candidate gets well over 1 million votes after running a spectacularly successful campagin which garnered excellent media attention. The American public now thinks "libertarians are cool." They're the hip ones in American politics. In the 2008 race Hillary gets clobbered by Mitt Romney, however, the Libertarian vote scared the pants off of the Republicans. So much so, in fact, that Romney and the Republicans are forced to pay attention to libertarian ideals. After all there's Election Year 2010. And the LP is coming on strong promising a top-notch slate of Congressional candidates for the mid-terms. The GOP, particularly the boys at RNC HQ, get more and more frightened of the LP's potential impact, and advise GOP candidates nationwide to start ADOPTING LIBERTARIAN POSITION. Moreover, they go all over the country looking for libertarian- leaning GOP candidates to run in 2010, even managing to steal a couple top-notch candidates away from the LP itself, by promising them all sorts of money and backing. It's a success. In 2010 the Democrats get slaughtered. The libertarian-leaning GOPers win. Once in Congress they start instituting their proposals to cut back on government, and President Romney signs the bills. --- In [email protected], "Eric S. Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > 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/
