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The Alaska Libertarian Party Weekly Meeting -- & "How to be a successful 'big-L' Libertarian"

The Alaska Libertarian Party meets every wednesday evening at the Denny's at DeBarr and Bragaw. The meetings start at 6pm in the conference room, and go until 7pm.

The weekly nature of the meetings means that the "doers" who show up can coordinate a continual stream of action that actually has the chance of making a difference, instead of being a typical "Monthly philosophy meeting".

-BUT JAKE, WE CAN'T GET PEOPLE TO ATTEND OUR MONTHLY MEETING, HOW COULD WE EXPECT PEOPLE TO ATTEND A WEEKLY MEETING?, You ask? ...Well, The fact that the weekly meetings actually make a difference make it more likely that people will actually show up and get involved. Nobody wants to WASTE a single hour of their time. But people might SPEND four hours a month if it actually matters.

The first step: oppose big government that EVERYONE IN YOUR COMMUNITY OPPOSES. Something like eminent domain abuse: find out where it's happening. After Kelo V New London, it's happening everywhere. Form a PAC, and put up a TOPICAL SINGLE-ISSUE website to oppose it.

Put an initiative on the ballot to oppose the signle issue that you have widespread public support on ---if you live in a state with initiative & referenda (I&R). If you don't, MOVE TO ALASKA, Wyoming, or Montana.

Devote the party's resources single-mindedly to opposing the government intrusion that people agree with you on. Build coalitions. Punish errant politicians who support the intrusion. Win at the ballot box. Then, attach the LP's name to the issue, once everyone is on your side.

Trying to convince people to change DOES NOT WORK. Convincing people they already agreed with you WORKS IF DONE RIGHT. See above. Repeat. When you've reached three cross-over issues that have wide support from more than 45% of the voting public, start using the Libertarian Label to your candidates' benefit.

Until then, run in nonpartisan city council races, so you are positioned to support the LPers who are working on the issues.

Run races to cause the sponsors of unpopular new legislation to lose. Back their opponents. Doing this takes minimal energy, and just takes a chairman who isn't his own worst enemy. All he has to do is fire off (sign off on) a cogent letter to the editor backing the opposition, using a defense of property rights as his argument.

These are the strategies of success.

Arguing with people, or criticizing them is a strategy of failure.

Get with the program. If you live in a socialist hellhole like Chicago, NYC, or the State of California, contribute to the Alaska Libertarian Party, and the Wyoming Libertarian Party, or to individual Libertarians in Phillipsburg, Montana. These are areas where a single vote matters. These are the hotly contested areas that allow Libertarians to win territory.

If we focus our efforts there, we are winners, who have vision. If we spend them in our own fascistic hometowns, we get to feel good temporarily, and like idiots in the long run.

Sorry, I lost my temper, but it's hard not to. I know a lot of libertarians who are logical and play chess. Why can't they seem to use this strategical ability to win political races? -__Because they don't know how to talk to people who value emotions over logic__.

Better learn. Or lose every last drop of blood in your body, every last ounce of gold in your bank, and every last freedom in your tattered Bill of Rights.

-Jake Witmer

http://freealaska.blogspot.com
http://jcwitmer.blogspot.com
Fri 09 Feb 2007 at 01:08 AM
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