Good evening again, Douglas! Douglas Friedman wrote in response to Frank Reichert...
To be honest, I don't think it matters much whether the LP holds its national convention in 2007 or 2008. There's a marginal advantage with 2008 in that the C-Span junkies will see it and you may get a story or two here or there when people are paying attention, but unless the LP gets out of its little club mentality, no one is going to care who the nominee is or even whether there's a nominee, let alone when he was chosen.
I sense here a couple of things here, mainly, that (1) the LP has long ago lost relevance for addressing the real issues, and (2), if that is the case then finding a way to refocus on the real issues. Both of these, I believe, are probably the most important problems in trying to deal, or try and resolve, with the idea of when might be the best time to hold a political Convention.
In suggesting such, I understand that the national mainstream media has spent it's lot in confusing the real issues, which probably explains a lot as to why the LP Conventions have historically been ignored by the mainstream news. Most of the LP's self-proclaimed agenda is pictured in terms of dealing with such things as the 'war on drugs', and other rather wedge issues that don't seem to resonate very well with the mainstream public.
So, I wrote last time:
First, most LP State Party affiliates go through the usual primary and general election process during an election year with their own slate of candidates. They usually, if not all of them anyway, wear the coat-tails of the national Presidential platform. If no primary existed, the entire expectation of usual political rhetoric would be totally lost at both the national, state and local levels.
To which, you replied:
I don't agree with the coattails thing. When I ran for state Assembly in NYC in 1992, I got something like 660 votes (2%) while Andre Marrou drew around 104, IIRC, in my district.
Usually, local LP candidates do better in local elections. I know I did, at least twice, than the LP standard bearers at least. Probably that might be because local people are known best by the locals, and so they vote for them on the basis of what they know of the individuals running. When I have personally run for public office however, I have never divorced myself from our main issues. Often I have obfuscated these issues as not relevant particularly to my own campaign, and for that you might have a clue as to why local candidates to much better than the LP does on a national scale at the local level.
Of course an LP primary is a ho-hum thing at best for 99.5 percent of the population.
Admittedly, of course, that seems to be the case. Some of that is largely because we are stuck with the LP Platform issues, particularly on the abortion, border, and more radical issues revolving around the Drug War etc. But some of that might be changing now. The LP also was first onboard in renouncing the global 'War on Terror'! At least a large percentage of mainstream America may be rethinking the later one at least as I write this, since the greatest terror might be coming from our own government as we speak in the minds of many today.
Such a perception isn't all that bad, honestly, because a lot of us have been essentially saying that for decades already! The alter-math in saying such a thing is that might possibly bring you into a confrontation with the real terrorists in our midst, the Homeland Security forces that are looking for reasons to find a way to silence you.
Maybe I am simply suggesting that the LP today ought to be more relevant, and even perhaps vehemently so, by suggesting that the police state that we are becoming needs to be confronted and challenged. I know you are reluctant to call it that, that is, when I call in the fascist mindset that seems to be forming the basis of the neo-conservative basis for actions of this government. Well, at least in the 1960s, people were willing to call a spade a spade, and protest! We're starting to see some of that again, but not nearly enough to energize a real anti-establishment movement.
To define this somewhat, the establishment simply is the spin on everything that belongs to America today, why we do what we do. This certainly was the case in the 1960s, because I was there, and I, and almost everyone else within my age, knew where the battle lines were. I had to personally make a lot of choices. Everyone did, often siding with the establishment during those times, and sometimes siding with radical criticism also. There is a huge difference today. We are either with US, or we support the terrorists. That is chilling, to be sure.
I agree with your assessment, but I don't think the situation can be remedied. On national defense and foreign policy, the LP sounds like part of the nutcase leftist anti-American fringe. As long as it's there, it will be totally irrelevant, even an embarrassment to those of us who are pro-American libertarians.
Thank you. But I wish the LP could and would continue to be even more assertive and confront what is obviously a blatant attempt to demand blind obedience to the omnipotent STATE! It will be irrelevant only because it refuses to confront a rather obvious deification of GOVERNMENT over the lives and minds of individuals.
Honestly, it doesn't matter very much to me personally. A government that controls me, whether from a socialist or fascist mindset (really probably most of all from the same motive or mindset), which is really the same thing entirely, is an enemy that needs to be defeated in any way possible: By civil disobedience, by going to the ballot box, or, in the end, by picking up the guns and ammo and destroying it all, is all a matter considered for sound and reasoned minds to consider.
You might like the term "Pro-American". That's nice. But as a Libertarian, I am 'Pro-Liberty', and as an American that has to take a profound starting point in how I value such a definition of myself.
Kindest regards, Frank _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
