“Most people do not value liberty,” says Libertarian Party founder David Nolan, “at least not as much as we do.” What does this mean for those who wish to spread the message of freedom?
Nolan believes that the “save the world” strategy of trying to educate people has not worked and that given the current economic decline, people who value freedom should focus more on protecting themselves, at least in the short term.
“So if in fact the ’save the world’ strategy has not worked, where are we?” Nolan asked during his talk, part of the opening ceremonies at the 2009 New Hampshire Liberty Forum.
Held annually by the Free State Project, the New Hampshire Liberty Forum is a weekend conference highlighting liberty and showing off New Hampshire as the Free State to which it invites libertarian activists to move and “exert the fullest practical effort toward the creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of life, liberty, and property.”
“My considered opinion is that libertarians should form enclaves in freedom-friendly states,” such as New Hampshire, Nolan says, “and work together to keep those areas as free from big government and big government oppression as we can. I think it’s time to get out of New York and Massachusetts and California. Those places are going to be real bad places to live starting real soon.”
Of course, you might think those places are already bad places to live, but it’s going to get much worse as Obama continues to push the economy down into depression.
Editor’s note: Technical issues delayed release of these videos. The remainder of the videos to be published will be released on schedule.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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IGnatius T Foobar
Mar 18, 2009
This article reads like a self-serving advertisement for the Free State Project. Nolan has had better days. Now he’s basically just saying “your state sux0rs; move to New Hampshire.”
There is no doubt that NY/MA/CA are liberal (read: “wannabe communist”) states, but Nolan isn’t really convincing here.
GlenGary
Mar 19, 2009
Being a subversive is bad. Bad Bad Bad.
Michael Hampton
Mar 20, 2009
Well, FSP participants have done more in a few short years than the Libertarian Party has done in almost 40. And I don’t think Nolan has to be very convincing; the governments themselves will convince, if they have not already, with what they have done to this point, and will do in the near future.
I don’t know about the self-serving part, though. The FSP isn’t paying me anything.
John Delano
Apr 05, 2009
Is it possible to embed these videos on another site?
Also, would it be ok to rip the audio from these so they can be downloaded alone to play on portable audio devices? Maybe they could be bundled into a single torrent if there is enough interest.
Michael Hampton
Apr 05, 2009
I set up the video player on very short notice and I haven’t had time to work on the embed code. Though I know lots of people want it, and so I’ll have it available as soon as I can.
As for audio only, that’s a very good idea. I’ll see if I can take care of both this afternoon.
John Delano
Apr 06, 2009
Is there a URL that will have them embed into a link post on Facebook the way that YouTubes do?
Jake Witmer
Jun 14, 2009
Libertarians don’t do the minimum things that it typically takes to get elected, and hence they don’t win. For a good overview of the things it takes to get elected, consider the following article, and all the points it makes.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040719/19point.1.htm
And here are a few of my own thoughts on the subject:
1) Libertarians start at a disadvantage, by entering their political races as late as the majors do. Solution: start early, contribute early, get the ballot access work done early in every state that that’s an option in. NEVER HAPPENS
2) Libertarians don’t value their political workers, and any petitioner who has worked for the party for more than 4 years has been tarred and feathered by konkinites and party infiltrators. The very absolute worst, most backstabbing LP state in the union happens to be Arizona (And although David himself didn’t take part in the backstabbing, he also was unable or unwilling to prevent or defray it.) Solution: Keep an accurate record of what work the petitioners have done, and make sure it’s objective. In 2003 and 2005, I did work in Arizona that noone else would do, and I was asked to stay. I refused, because I couldn’t afford to, at the rate I was losing money on transportation costs. Moreover, I was living in AK at the time, and driving back later would not be an option. My leaving angered GOP infiltrator George Squyres, and he blackballed me for it, so instead of being rehired for a job well done, I was blacklisted (and noone will even talk with me about it, except for Nolan, who offered no solution). Ironically, the AZ LP thanked “the petitioner who gained major party status in Coconino County” (me) at their 2009 State convention. So, LP: stop royally screwing your biggest allies and biggest proponents. The Democrats don’t screw over people who do good work for them, they promote them: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/040719/19point.1.htm
3) Libertarians don’t want to do political work. They want to be cool people in philosophy clubs. Those who never lift a finger languish in “leadership” positions for years because they have the philosophy figured out. (ie: they’ve read a few books by Rothbard, Konkin, and Browne) Solution: Nobody who fails to work remains in a leadership position. Establish metrics for a position by which that position can be ranked in terms of success. ANY LOGICAL METRICS WILL DO, THEY CAN BE REFINED LATER. Such as: The Chairman of the Party must get two letters to the editor published in a non-Libertarian newsletter per month, or the position comes up for a re-election, and must recruit candidates to run in every statewide race, or the equivalent number of state legislative seats. (Or similar metrics for local groups).
4) Libertarians play by rules designed to make them lose elections. (Part of this is starting too late, but this is the part that isn’t.)
—–a) We fail to walk our districts
—–b) We fail to hire people or run candidates who understand the mass media
—–c) We fail to take full advantage of the alternate media (at least prior to Ron Paul and terra eclipse) Solution: do the reverse of a-c above.
5) We shoot each ourselves in the foot in EVERY SINGLE national convention. We have a strong candidate who is kicking ass, who declares long in advance, and who burgeoningly pursues the mainstream media. (Gary Nolan in 2004, Wayne Root in 2008). This person loses when minor libertarian celebrities enter the race late, totally disrespecting the intelligence the early-starter exhibited by starting early. …But it doesn’t matter to them, because they’re “LIoBsERTARIANS”. The two runners up shoot each others’ feet off, paying no mind to strategical concerns, and cutting into each others’ votes. –The totally sub-optimal third-best choice wins (In Badnarik’s case, he had no campaign team. In Barr’s case, he was a quasi-libertarian who wanted to be Ron Paul, but without the consistent philosophy and without the good track record).
Solution: LISTEN TO THE GUY(S) WHO HAS HIS(THEIR) EAR TO THE RAIL WHEN HE(THEY) GIVES YOU ADVICE. IT MEANS THERE MIGHT BE A TRAIN A’COMIN’. (Listen to the people with the most decentralized knowledge, and the most expertise at interpreting what that means.)
6) If you’re in the Libertarian Party, don’t be a Konkinist trying to sabotage the LP’s efforts. It really doesn’t help you get closer to “libertarian Anarchy”, even though you think it does. This means: Rethink your position. Re-read Rothbard’s objections to Konkin’s advice to avoid electoral politics (free online).
—–a) a subsection of this argument is: Value political workers who share your philosophy. Will there be things you dislike about the inherent nature of not being able to “Tell the whole truth” to the people (based on polling data)? YES. THERE WILL BE. GET OVER IT. FREEDOM IS TOO IMPORTANT TO SACRIFICE FOR THAT REASON. RUN THE BEST YOU HAVE, DO THE BEST YOU CAN. IF YOU DON’T LIKE COMPROMISE, THERE IS A WAY AROUND IT, COVERED BY THE NEXT POINT (b).
—–b) Show the public that Libertarians have their best interests at heart by proving it to them: Actively and aggressively defend small business owners against smoking bans. Show up to city council meetings, prepared to side with the victims of statism, with facts and valid arguments that look good on TV. Show up on monday mornings when prospective jurors are showing up to your local courthouse and hand them FIJA http://www.fija.org information that will help acquit people of victimless crimes. Explain to everyone you can that the judge and prosecutor will try to eliminate people who show independence of thought, and explain that this was not considered constitutional until the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850. (After Northern juries refused to convict their neighbors of “harboring slaves”, Northern judges changed courtroom procedure to allow jury questioning, effectively eliminating random intelligence from the jury, killing the two words “common law” in the 6th amendment.) If people are smart and willing to listen, they will respect that historical information, and the fact that you’ve shown them how to uphold the Constitution. If they don’t want to listen, just give them a pamphlet (they will be disqualified if the judge sees it).
==================================================
So that’s why the Libertarian Party is as potentially strong, or weak, as it was in 1980. It’s personal decision to try to win political power, or not. But don’t bitch about being out of power if you’ve never actually tried to win it.
The Libertarian Party hasn’t earned the right to bitch about being out of power. Structually, their Constitution and by-laws are weaker than the admittedly failed U.S. Constitution. In fact, with the increasing tyranny of the state, there are more and more people waking up to the evil of statism. If we hunker down and prepare to get screwed, we will send a signal to the state that screwing us is exactly what they should be doing.
“Weakness invites aggression.” -Carla Howell
The first step toward a winning libertarian party is to not tolerate dishonesty, theft, and backstabbing (AKA giving “blacklisting” power to people who have not earned it by doing the labor of the person they are blacklisting. There are WAY too many chiefs in the LP and WAY too few braves. The braves are too often unprincipled mercenaries who can’t spell the word “libertarian”. If we think they are out making “new libertarians” while they are petitioning, we are delusional, and deserve to be put out of our misery, ASAP).
The thoughts above, if widespread, would allow the LP to win several statewide elections in 2010. Or I’m wrong, and someone can show me I’m wrong. So far, noone has any evidence to the contrary that holds up to scrutiny of any kind.
Especially noone who criticizes walking districts. Yet how many Libertarians have walked the district they live in, much less a district that is profiled to actually have a chance of a libertarian winning.
And one final note: Rich comfortable “supervoters” don’t change their vote. They should be worked to maximum effect, and those who agree to change their vote should be part of the GOTV. But they should not be worked to the detriment of new voter creation. In many counties in AZ, if libertarian activists were used instead of mercenaries, we’d already have enough registered libertarians to control tax allocation of entire counties.
Ironically, it was my agreement with this strategy of George Squyres that allowed me to come to AZ to be blacklisted by him. (In a similar way that Gary Fincher was blacklisted in New Mexico by Joseph Knight, who high-pressured Gary into filling in unrequired fields on Voter registration forms, as a precondition of being paid. When Fincher did so, he instantly acquired the malicious slander of “engaging in fraud” which has followed him ever since. And who upholds this vicious career-destroying slander? David Euchner, of Pima county LP, also one of my Arizona “friends” who upheld my blacklisting, nevermind all the hard work.)
So if the LP wants to succeed, they should first stop actively doing the work of the Democrats and Republicans. (First, do no harm. Stop doing all the things you criticize the government for doing, to your own workers.) Second, they should show the public “what they are going to do for them” (eliminate tyranny, show support for those fighting tyranny, something the other parties cannot do). Third, determine what level of philsophical consistency is necessary, in a candidate, and then get the full weight of the party behind that candidate, as early as possible, and don’t try to beat the Ds and Rs at accessing the mainstream media. Beat them at things we’re good at, assuming we can stop screwing over our own workers.
As a footnote, we should isolate those who are guilty of totally unforgivable mismanagement, and get their side of the story on the record (if not publicized), so that the truth comes out more quickly. Right now, the truth never comes out. Some people have told other people the truth, and it died with their apathy to correct the situation. If we can’t be transparent about our own mistakes, there is nothing that prevents infiltrators from destroying us from within, and never losing their positions of power.
So before the LP commits seppuku, and clears the way for C4L candidates only (who may or may not have a grasp on why immigration is a blessing, and who may or may not be as otherwise consistent as the good doctor has been), I’d like to give the LP another thousand chances to live up to their philosophy. …Unless the singularity arrives, and we all suddenly get a lot smarter.
If that happens, I guess I’ll completely join the “do away with elections” Stefan Molyneux crowd, because it would then be possible to build large enough voluntaryist competing DROs to deal with the problems of non-governmental organized crime, child abduction, rape, murder, and robbery.
For more on the last two options, feel free to throw away a year of your life reading everything at this web-address:
http://www.kurzweilai.net
Hopefully, someone, somewhere benefits from reading this. If so, let me know. Even if it’s only to tell me that you benefitted from learning what a jerk I am. At least then, I know I struck a nerve somewhere.
“If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
-Henry Ford
-Jake