One of my favorite writers is John Maxwell. Each month, I read John’s column “Maximum Leadership” in “Success” magazine. John’s December article “Be a Dealer in Hope” really struck a chord with me and my feelings regarding the Libertarian Party. In the article, there is a list containing the reactions of people who sense victory and people who sense defeat.
|
When People Sense Victory |
When People Sense Defeat |
| They sacrifice to succeed | They give us as little as possible |
| They look for ways to win | They look for excuses |
| They become energized | They become tired |
| They follow the game plan | They forsake the game plan |
| They help other team members | They hurt others |
Unfortunately, the more I thought about it and reflected upon the list, the more I started to visually see the sense of defeat libertarians have in their hearts. Below are just a few examples:
Money: Why is the Libertarian Party having difficulty raising money when candidates such as Peter Schiff and Rand Paul are raising millions of dollars? The answer is that those individuals donating to Rand Paul have a sense of victory. For the Libertarian Party, victory does not necessarily need to be winning a U.S. Senate race. I remember when Michael Badnarik ran for President in 2004. He raised almost as much money as former Congressman Bob Barr did in his 2008 Presidential campaign. Michael was able to raise that much money by doing productive things such as producing and actually running nationwide television advertisements. Libertarians donated money because they could see that their money was going to something productive other than keeping the lights on at Badnarik campaign headquarters. In 2008, libertarians didn’t see productive work being done and withheld contributions to the Barr campaign. In 2004, there was sense of victory even though no person in their right mind thought that Michael would win the election.
Excuses: If only the Libertarian Party would (insert excuse here) we would win elections. We cannot win because ballot access. We cannot win because the system is rigged against us…………
When we have a sense of victory the excuses will stop.
Hurt Others: “Now, you listen here you statist, communist, NAZI sympathizer who wants to ………………………………….” You have probably all heard this type of hyperbole attacking fellow libertarians for holding views that differ from another libertarian. When people sense defeat they often start blaming their own friends for the failure.
Fortunately, there is a solution. We must start to excite our fellow libertarians. We do this by:
Setting Goals:
What are the goals of the Libertarian Party? What are our objectives? If our goal is to win elections perhaps we should start by getting our members appointed to city boards and elected to city government across the nation. For example, a goal could be to increase the number of Libertarian party members elected to public office by 10% in a certain election year. Ballot access in all 50 states and D.C. in a Presidential election would also be good.
Planning
How are we going to reach our goal? If our goal was to increase the number of Libertarian party members elected to public office we could assist the state organizations with candidate recruitment. You cannot meet your goal if you don’t have anyone running.
Achieving Our Goals
When we do reach our goal we should publicize that we have won a small victory. This gives Libertarians hope.
Doing Productive Things
People are most likely to donate their precious money and time to things that they find productive. If we let people know that we are doing productive things such as advertising people will be more inclined to support us and work toward accomplishing our goals.
Great article, and so true.
I would suggest that focusing on running a “national” party when libertarians are mostly decentralists has been a stumbling block.
Why don’t we each focus on building a party in our home state to resist the Feds from the outside? I highly recommend the Tenth Amendment Center as a resource (http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/).
As we can see in professional sports, attempts at continent-wide organization lead to monopoly (American sports) while thinking local allows markets to function (European sports).
Respectfully,
Mike
Mike,
Thanks. I agree completely that the main focus should be on the state organizations.
FROM FREEDOM TO SLAVERY
In the 1858 debates with Senator Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln said; “[T]here is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” Keep in mind; Lincoln reflected the Hamilton-Clay interventionist ideals, where the central government and the “superiors” will determine the extent of federal “assistance” to infrastructure and industry in America, certainly opposite the hands-off policies of the 19th century state’s rights Democrats. The 20th century Democrat is closer to Lincoln’s policies than Jefferson’s. Modern Democrats tend to follow the ideals of Rousseau and Marx, where almost everyone, regardless of race, is inferior to the very few superior elite who must rule. Jefferson’s democrats were libertarians, and as such, figured individual freedom and a free market would establish superior and inferior by works and not by government or chains. Claysamerica.com