Liberty, otherwise known as personal responsibility is as important to humanity as a belief in a higher power.  Those who know liberty, usually know god well.  Liberty is all about personal choice, self-ownership and the right to live and to pursue happiness in the complete absence of government intervention.

The problem with liberty is that so many who support it are so busy being individuals that they can never seem to get together enough to work as a group towards a common goal.  Thus, they work themselves into a constant cycle of defeat.

Today we have an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary challenge and I fear it will slip through our fingers like so many in the past.  The “Tea Party” tax protests are a sign that true conservatives, the concept of intervals ruling government not the other way around, is alive and well in America.

Many libertarians and freedom fighters will join these protests but fail to see the grand opportunity that is presented.  A strong and definitive political base.  A group of people willing to take time to make a difference if only – they were inspired by the right leaders.

Yes, I said the dreaded word.  Inspired.  Take a hard look at each presidential campaign of the last 30 years and you will see who inspired and who did not.  Barrack Obama is excellent in the inspirational part of politics.  So good that this relatively inexperienced lawmaker is now the most powerful man in the world having defeated a war hero, and long time lawmaker who clearly would have made a better “mechanical” president.

George Bush (senior) was another example.  He won in 1988 based almost entirely on the communication abilities of his predecessor (Ronald Reagan) and yes “a thousand points of light.”  Bill Clinton was simply better at it.

We libertarians are really good at chastising our enemies on how they have violated the constitution and how they have forgotten the principals of liberty.  What we have failed to do (aside from organize right, raise enough money and get the mechanics of elections right) is inspire people.

So much about the voting process is about getting people to the polls to pull the right lever for the candidate of choice.  And so much of that is done by our adversaries by choosing emotional hot buttons: abortion, gay marriage, gun control vs. the 2^nd amendment.

Its also important to understand the great Democrat-Republican contradiction.  Liberal Democrats say you can have an abortion, can’t own a gun and cannot be sentenced to death even if you kill a child.  Republicans say you CAN be sentenced to death, you CAN’T have an abortion but, you can have an AK-47 to shoot the federal officer who comes to arrest you for trying to have one.

Saying we are pro-choice on everything simply isn’t good enough.

If, as Tip O’Neil said, “all politics is local”, then we must make it personal to the individual voter.  We must reach out and touch them in a way they have not been touched before.  We must organize ourselves to a specific end goal, and start on a political journey with a clear and specified destination: control of both houses of congress and a president in the White House.

We must be willing to inspire voters and we must be willing to do that one other thing we libertarians are so reluctant to do: COMPROMISE.  If you wish to sit around news groups and discussion groups and yell at each other endlessly………….

If you want to win elections.  We might have something to talk about.