Listening to the radio yesterday morning, I heard a former Øbama voter say he would not be voting for him again, but would vote for "the crazy old man", Ron Paul this time.
And it confirmed something I've been trying to convince my friends about for some time:
Liberals don't have a problem with Libertarians, while at the same time they virtually hate Conservatives.
The question becomes: What are Conservatives doing wrong? Our public image sucks. People who are not Conservatives themselves do not have a clue what we stand for, because we have allowed the other side to define us...but also because we have abdicated the responsibility to define ourselves.
The tiny Libertarian party, with no resources, almost no people, and very little media exposure, is understood pretty clearly and accurately by most marginally informed people. And from what they know of Libertarians, Liberals—those who aren't actually communist thugs—generally approve of them—even thought their message is unremittingly about severely limited government and maximum individual liberty—pretty much the exact opposite of the Democratic message!
WTF??
I think we have an opportunity here. And I think we can accomplish four important things at one time:
1) Take down the entrenched, establishment Republicans and their betrayal of conservative values.
2) Promote liberty in a way that people will "get" it.
3) Reach the youth with a straightforward message that is simple, clear, honest & honorable and promoted via the "new media".
4) Build a Liberty party that will stand as a staunch opponent of and a clear contrast to the Democrat Party's Imperial State with it's corruption, cronyism & serfdom for the rest of us.
This is how I think we can do it:
Join, take over, run and promote the Libertarian Party. It's sort of just sitting there, small, generally under-active, under-utilized, under-funded, under-appreciated...with great name-recognition and a generally positive reputation among voters.
Nobody hates Libertarians. Everybody kinda likes at least some of their policies.
Numbers matter. And the more of us that fill the ranks, the more power and influence the LP will have. Even if we don't replace the GOP immediately...by our enhanced presence, power and voice, we can influence BOTH parties to act in ways we want.
And I really like the idea of belonging to a party that actually values and acts on what it professes to believe.
It'll make a nice change.
The Gunslinger
Joebama American citizens 2024 print
11 months ago
Right. We have to remember that the parent/root of 'libertarian' is 'Liberty'.
ReplyDeleteNeither recognized party is the least concerned about our liberty or lives, so best to just do away with them.
Not that I agree with all of Paul's ideas, but I will admit he's the only candidate I've ever donated to. (And Honey, a dyed in the wool GOP, really hates me for it. But, 'give me Liberty or give me Death,' I'm not going to hold my nose and vote for the lesser of two evils.)
I don't buy this one bit. The Libertarian party will always be small and on the fringe because despites its few good ideas, there are too many ideas that are just looney, and many of those are just outright dangerous. Paul's position on Iran is a good example. What's the point of supporting the good ideas if the bad ones will get you killed?
ReplyDeleteAnd as for what it means to be a conservative, the left will ALWAYS try to define that in the worst of terms. Like, conservatives are mean spirited but those nice, quaint, cute and harmless libertarians are just, well, umm, err, nice, quaint, cute and harmless. If you succumb to the propaganda and relabel yourself, you have lost and the new label won't mean anything.