This is a reprint from an article posted at Gold America Group by AuGeo.
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What Your National Committee is Doing
by: AuGeo
Tue Aug 10, 2010 at 14:09:50 PM MDT
Forwarded from Liberty for America magazine Our many sources on the LNC send us various tidbits that we believe to be valid:So what did the LNC do last month? They met. There was a long discussion of Green Party vs LP, with no one looking at the GP budget and comparing with ours. David Nolan insulted the fine Libertarians of my region, and our representative Rachel Hawkridge, writing “The regional system has become ridiculous, with some containing states scattered across the USA.” He also correctly noted “Or we could easily find ourselves in a situation where the replacement represents views diametrically opposite the person who resigns (or is forced out, as with Angela Keaton).”
Mary Ruwart urged moving from elective politics to issue advocacy: “EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The 2008 election showed us that no matter how much people might love us, they are unlikely to give us reasonable vote totals in high level elections because of the “wasted vote” syndrome. The LP might therefore want to shift emphasis by focusing on changing public policy, something that we have been extremely successful in doing.” Her rationale for this was that Ron Paul, on the ballot in Louisiana where Bob Barr was not, got 0.8% of the vote, while Barr got only 0.8% of the vote in GeorgiaThe LNC had an extremely long argument over the LP.org front page position supporting the right of the private property owners in question to build an Islamic community center or mosque on Park Place.
In a much underappreciated — at least to judge from lack of LNC response — message to LNC-Discuss, National Chair Hinkle proposed a list of reasons why our party is doing poorly.
1. the majority of U.S. voters disagree with us on many issues (where they are wrong).
2. contributors, especially the large ones, want to buy favors from government that they can’t get in the free market….and should we be elected, they won’t get from us……so there’s no reason to curry our favor with a large donation. We can’t be bought.
3. we use reason, logic, and facts, whereas most voters can’t be bothered with actual critical thinking.
4. ballot access laws, gerrymandering, and a winner take all system, all stack the deck against us.
5. a majority of voters are now dependent on some form of government assistance.
6. our voter registration numbers (where people are allowed to register as Libertarians) are way low. Some places you can’t register as a libertarian at all. Thank you R’s and D’s very much!!! #sarcasm#
7. we don’t have a cadre of talented campaign managers who can run successful campaigns.
8. we don’t have strong, self supporting, affiliates in all 50 states.
9. we don’t have enough members and donors.
10. our LP HQ is significantly under staffed and under funded and our office is way too small.
Wayne Root endorsed and tried to raise money for Peter Schiff, who is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Connecticut. The LP.org front page denounced supporting Root as a waste of money. Root also tried to steer precious volunteers to Schiff. Mary Ruwart, writing to LNC-discuss, accused Wayne of unreported conflict of interest in supporting Schiff. She wrote:”This is an egregious conflict of interest for any LNC member, but especially for the Chair of the Libertarian Congressional Committee, which is supposed to fundraise for Libertarian Party candidates.” Dan Wiener, responding on LNC-discuss, couldn’t figure out what was wrong with an LNC At-Large member diverting donors and volunteers to a Republican: “I’m not finding any conflict of interest.”. David Nolan answered “Nice try, Dan. A few days ago, Wayne described himself on this very discussion group as “the face as voice of the LP on TV and radio across the country.” If that’s the case, then everything he says and does will be viewed as representing the LP – especially since he’s on the LNC and chair of the LNCC. Let’s not be disingenuous.”
Mary Ruwart tried again to explain: “There would be nothing wrong with Wayne fund-raising for Schiff if he were not 1) raising money for a competing party’s candidates while Chair of the committee that is supposed to be raising money for Libertarian Party candidates; 2) an LNC member, with a fiduciary responsibility to the Libertarian Party, helping candidates from a competing party get elected; 3) calling himself the spokesperson for the Libertarian Party, yet endorsing Republicans. Doing for a competing political party what you’ve pledged to do for the LP is a HUGE conflict of interest, not a “tactical disagreement.”
Then, with respect to a Tennessee libertarian who had run as a Republican, Wayne Root wrote “We should ABSOLUTELY list Libertarians elected as members of another party. [Ed.: on the LNC web site.] This is about PROGRESS. Voters support winners. We need to take credit for every big L and small l officeholder. ” He also mentioned supporting a number of other Republicans. Dan Karlan vigorously contradicted Root, claiming “What Mr. Root has done has no potential, deliberate or accidental, to grow the LP, but rather the strengthen the Republican Party..”
Wes Benedict noticed that one of our regular petitioners uses his off-duty hours to attack, vigorously, the Libertarian Party, and asked if perhaps we should move our petitioning dollars elsewhere.
The LNC was approached by a reporter who wanted to ask if Malcolm X has inspired our political activism. As it happens, out there is a Libertarian local candidate who is a member of the Nation of Islam, with which Malcolm X was long associated. Another LNC member had done a substantial study of Malcolm X. And…Wayne Root announced that he should be the person interviewed. This, incidentally was after he had gone on about Cordoba House. Root would not however, say positive things about Malcom X’s positions such as his support for education, a non-initiation of force doctrine just like ours, and his support for the second amendment.
