Houston, We Have a Problem!

I have voted Libertarian since I could vote. When I voted it was almost a straight ticket. Sure I fell for the don't waste your vote and the one exception was the president. Later, 911 scared the shit out of me and I fell for the Neo-Con line, still voted Libertarian for almost all local candidates. Then came Ron Paul, I voted for him in the Republican primary. In 2012, I worked hard for Ron Paul and a liberty leaning Republican for the house, her name was Kristi Risk. They both lost. In the general for the first time, I voted a straight Libertarian ballot. I did not particularly like Gary Johnson, but I was coming into the mindset that the Libertarian Party really was my only choice. In 2016, I again supported a Paul. Rand was no Ron, but he was better than Gary. He lost early. I said to myself, while watching an entire field of terrible GOP candidates, “I am only going to vote for Libertarians, I'm done with the GOP.” Their nomination of Trump insured that. I again voted a straight ticket.

By early 2017, I told my wife I think I might be done voting, unless somebody like, I don't know, Adam Kokesh runs. Well I met Adam in September, yeah he's running. He convinced me to actually join the LP. You have to understand me, I do very little half hearted. So here I was, ready to give the Libertarian Party my all. I had joined the party. This was the first time I actually paid to join any party. I had come to actually work on Adam's campaign and he had encouraged me to get involved.

I proudly walked into my first LP event filled with the anticipation of discussing our winning policies. When I introduced myself to the people in attendance and started talking, it was like I had stomped on their mothers head. “Policy? Oh we don't talk about policy, we just try to run candidates we think might have a chance to win.” I felt about as comfortable as an illegal immigrant at a Trump rally. That was when I realized something was wrong and Adam's run was about many things, and fixing this needed to be another one.

Since then, I have seen tons of infighting. I have seen leadership refusing to stand up for Libertarian ideas while applauding gun control activists. Personally , time and time again I watch the fear in Libertarian eyes as I walk in the door. Yeah, I keep going to those meetings. Backing down from my ideals is not an option and the Libertarian Party, for all its corruption and issues, is not dead yet. There certainly are members within it trying to kill it.

For god's sake, it is called, “The Party of Principle!” A leader who bragged about being in the party for decades actually said to me, “The Taxation is Theft meme is a joke.” He followed that up with, “The non-aggression principle is invalid and should have never had been required for membership.” I can get along with about anyone, and this would be just another opinion, if the man who spoke these words was not running for Vice Chair of the National Party! Again Houston, we have a problem.

I am sure that someone will say, oh you are just painting your opposition to gain politically. Let me be as clear as I can, I can't stand Bill Weld or his ilk. I did not work tirelessly for Ron Paul and against Mitt flippin' Romney to turn around and vote for his brother from another mother. I will not vote for Bill Weld. That being said, I get that others have different opinions, no matter how wrong I think they are. Some believe that as a party we need to cater to the middle of the political spectrum of left vs right. Being a watered down version of the other parties does not sound like a winning strategy. But, what do I know? I backed a whole host of losers, Paul, Paul, Johnson, And my friend in the GOP Kristi Risk. How many national seats are held in Washington by Libertarians using the centrist model? Oh yeah, that number is 0. Again when these Libertarians come to our campaign events, before or after Adam gets the nomination, I will greet them as allies in the fight, even if they don't vote for my candidate.

Political parties need people to be successful. There is no way to get ten people in a room and have them to agree on everything. I have a message for the Libertarian Party,

YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO PUSH PEOPLE AWAY!

I have just enough of a hard head and unending Will, to want to help this world. I will stay the course. Others may not. We are going to need help outside of our party and we will never achieve that if we cannot get along. So for now let us put aside our differences and embrace those who disagree with us on one or two issues and agree on a hundred.

We need each other to attract the Liberal Hippy who wants to smoke pot, and the conservative redneck who wants to protect his guns. If we are ever going to attract the Democrat, who wants all people of any race or sexual preference to be treated equally, to vote Libertarian, we have got to be successful enough to convince him that we stand together. That Republican businessman that wants the hand of government removed from his pocket needs to know that we will as a group be on his side.

It also does not have to be this divisive. Recently I attended a Constitution Party class on a book about the making of the Constitution. They knew that I was a member of the LP and was working for the Kokesh campaign. I was warmly welcomed as somebody, who was trying to fight for freedom. The State Chair, Vice Chair, and host of the event enthusiastically discussed Adam’s platform and ideas. We did not agree on everything but I did garner one big success. Everyone said that if they did not get ballot access for their candidates, they would seriously consider Adam and other Libertarian candidates.

This was not my only other success this month. I am a member of a nature preserve. Adam will be visiting it in a few weeks. The vast majority of its membership are socialists and members of either the Green Party or are Democrats. While discussing the logistics of where to put the 40' RV, No Force One, Adam is touring in, we talked a little about his positions. Again, these people were warm and accepting of radically different ideas than theirs. I was told things like, “if the Dems put up another person like Hillary, I might consider your Mr. Kokesh.” I was also told, “I agree with almost everything you Libertarians say, not everything but most.” No these two groups of people are not going to become card carrying LP members tomorrow. Need I remind you, I haven't had a card one year, yet.

So, why is this happening in the Libertarian Party. I have two answers. The least likely but possible, is that we have been invaded by government agents who are sowing discontent and trying to take down or control the opposition from the inside. I, again, think this is the less likely answer. Still do not kid yourself, it is happening to some degree. Just look into COINTEL PRO. I'm not going to discuss this in any length but it should give you pause when someone online seems to do nothing but cause division in our ranks.

The more likely reason is, that people get comfortable in their identities. Those who are comfortable fear change and fight against it. The Libertarian Party has been the underdog for a long time. Many of its members are used to complaining about losing. They see a new vibrant group of people coming in and disrupting their boys club. We, the freedom movement, bring energy, youth, women, and activists.

That first meeting was held in a former men's club. I being the outspoken one, had to send my wife upstairs away from the meeting to a large empty room with our young child because the downstairs was a bar. No one thought, it might be better to include her and move upstairs. I also sat across from people, largely men, smoking cigars and having drinks. I wanted to disrupt all that and talk about things of substance. Now, I need to back up and say that no one was outright unkind to me but it was obvious that I was not in their club. If you want a club, go join the Lions or the Elks, I hear they need members.

I want to win elections with a real set of principles and push an agenda based on Liberty. We're not going anywhere, let's start by coming together around this idea called “Localization.”