Memorial Day Weekend we spent with other party faithful in St. Louis at our bi-annual convention. It was filled with energy and passion. It is regrettable that any Libertarians missed the energy this event generates. If you missed the excitement in St. Louis, we hope you will make a personal commitment to participate in the convention in 2012 when we will nominate our candidate for President.
Among other party business, we chose new leadership. It is an election that gives everyone present an opportunity to consider what they believe is important for the future of our party. As we all know, some believe our first priority is to be true to our principles by publically standing on each one; others believe our first priority is to get candidates elected to office without compromising our principles but not necessarily making all of them a campaign issue.
We were personally disappointed by the criticism we heard directed toward our outgoing chairman, Bill Redpath. While your editor is not a personal friend of Mr. Redpath’s, we recognize he served as a volunteer for our organization. We also realize that no leader will be universally embraced by everyone. Thus, we are inclined to give our leaders a great deal of latitude in their job performance.
Our new Chairman is Mark Hinkle. Being new on the job he will, of course, bring new energy to the challenges and opportunities ahead. Going forward, we are confident the will make decisions and set policies that upset some segment of our party faithful. Before this happens, we urge all Libertarians to remember: 1) he is a volunteer in this position; 2) we doubt he will do anything to deliberately undermine our party; 3) there are many different ways to successfully accomplish any task.
With the new direction of our party taking shape, it is important for each of us who are in the trenches to continue working hard to shape the local party of the future. It is said that all politics is local. If that is true, what are each of us doing to gain local support?
It is unreasonable to expect Mark Hinkle to win our local elections for us.
It is unreasonable to blame our national party for our own failure at the polls.
To win elections, we must identify the 3-4 issues that are important to the local voters and work on articulating Libertarian solutions that address those issues. During an election, voters are not interested in an extended debate or philosophical discussion; they support candidates who understand their pain and will seek viable solutions that address their perceived problems. We will win when we can show voters we have those solutions.
If you are running for office, what are the 3-4 issues you have identified that are of concern to voters in your race and what are your positions of each of them? Perhaps your answers will help candidates in other races.
Weekly Tidbits:
To end this week’s message, we remind our patient readers about some prior promises from our government.
* In 2006, the Congressional Budget Office figured Social Security payouts would outpace revenue come 2019. This year, CBO concedes it’s happening … this year
* When the Medicare prescription drug program was passed in 2003, the projected cost was $395 billion over 10 years. By 2005, the projected cost tripled to $1.2 trillion … and that was before the program was formally launched in 2006.
* The original Medicare program, when passed in 1965, was forecast to cost $12 billion by 1990 (after adjusting for inflation). Actual figure in 1990: $107 billion.
