Hi I've been reading articles from mises.org, have listened to ron paul debates, have watched my share of seminars by austrians and trying to finish books on libertarian topics and seen Gary Johnson debate and have signed on with the libertarian party.
Now I have my share of complaints with Johnson such as his almost i'll outdo Obama on abortion view and his lack of criticism of the 14th amendment and his general white washing of libertarianism to bring in liberals and paleoconservatives classic liberals etc.
But my question is if anyone has any insight on what kind of infighting goes on inside each state's libertarian party headquarters and if it was to get as big as some of us hope it to be with say the fed's 5% of the vote rule to allow it equal ballot access and federal funding and the growing number of converts to libertarian common sense ideas is it inevitable that it will be corrupted to a certain degree?
The biggest problem is that a third party can never gain traction under a first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system. Libertarians best shot for actual power is to take over the republican party. That's actually within our grasp today, as we're far more hardcore on spending and taxes that the RINOs. And they'll be discredited, and us empowered, with each new financial crisis.
today's libertarians are not classical liberals.
Classical liberals such as jefferson and adam smith were opposed to all centralized and concentrated power.
After the whole "Let's go with Bob Barr!" fiasco, I'd say the LP is doing well with their pick with Johnson. Hopefully that continues.
LibertyFest had a gigantic critique of Johnson. Which was extremeley awkward because Judge Gray (Johnson's VP) was also there and gave a speech.
Wheylous: LibertyFest had a gigantic critique of Johnson. Which was extremeley awkward because Judge Gray (Johnson's VP) was also there and gave a speech.
I saw Gray speak at Libertopia where he took part in a panel on whether libertarians should vote in elections. He, obviously, argued for it. But he made some very suspect statements.
For instance, he argued "you're always going to have a government" thus expressing minarchist sentiment. He said this over and over without explaining anything about it and was practically booed.
He also argued that if the libertarian party could just get 5% of the vote, they'd automatically get on the ballots and receive millions in taxpayer funding.
There's an innnate contradiction in taking taxpayer funding. The LP should pledge never to tak taxpayer funding! Getting on the ballot would be fine of course, but the party would soon be corrupted I think with any shot at power.
No, better to cultivate influence within the other parties if that's your personal goal for influencing things.
There was no communication or support for my state party coming from the national party. The LP affiliates tend to be just discussion groups. There was a strong resistance to re-organizing and having some "top down" requirements for the affiliates b/c people were to "individualist" even though the requirements would be created by the members and our organization is voluntary so I don't see how individualism played into it. Running 3rd party candidates is a waste of time.