Stand Up for Liberty! Table of Contents
Stand Up for Liberty!
Introduction
Introduction
What are you reading?
Stand Up for Liberty! discusses political strategy. Political strategy is a tool. Like every other tool, political strategy has a purpose. The purpose of good political strategy is to create conditions under which we win elections. We already win isolated elections now and then. Good political strategy will let us win lots of elections from Maine to Florida to Hawaii to Alaska.
To my knowledge, you are holding the only recent book focused entirely on Libertarian political strategy. There are several fine references on political tactics -- what to do during a single election campaign. There are plenty of books on Libertarian theory -- what Libertarians would do if they took political power. This book focuses on turning "if" into "Libertarians won lots of elections and brought the Libertarian future to America."
Strategy prepares the foundation for electoral victory, so when you and your fellow Libertarians all run for office, you win lots of elections. Strategy is about creating an environment in which Libertarians are routinely elected to office. Strategy is about creating an environment in which Libertarian policies routinely go into effect.
Stand Up for Liberty! advocates a particular political strategy for the Libertarian Party. That strategy has been discussed for years. Stand Up for Liberty! is an implementation proposal. Stand Up for Liberty! discusses turning strategic concepts into concrete strategic actions.
Stand Up for Liberty! is not about campaign tactics. If you are running for office right now, this book won't tell you how to win. When you are down in the trenches, it's too late for strategy. It's time for tactics. It's time to press the flesh and get out your vote. If you want more tactical material, and are running for office, contact me for a copy of the Libertarian Candidate Support CD-ROM.
Don't get me wrong. Just because this book isn't about campaign tactics, don't suppose that I am against campaigning. After all, I've done it myself. Running for office is a very important part of the strategy I advocate here. However, there's more to winning the Libertarian future than fielding candidates.
When you play chess, every good move has at least two purposes. When you run for office, your campaign should also have two purposes. It has a tactical purpose: Get you elected!. It has a strategic purpose: Build an environment in which Libertarians win! The tactical and strategic purposes of a well-executed campaign never conflict.
How did I get here?
In 1996, I accepted the nomination of the Libertarian Association of Massachusetts. I agreed to be their candidate for the United States Senate, running against Republican Bill Weld and Democrat John Kerry. In the end, the Massachusetts Libertarian Party failed to get me on the ballot.
I learned from my experience. Success demands understanding, targeting, planning, and initiative. If you don't understand where you are, it's hard to know where to go. If you don't target a destination, you'll have no idea which course to set. If you set off with no plan, you're unlikely to get where you were going. If you never take the initiative to start, you'll probably never get anywhere.
Of course, sitting and waiting, eyes and ears closed with no planning, is a strategy. It's even a good strategy if you're a rock and your objective is to help the moss grow. It's not a good strategy if you're a Libertarian and want to reach the Libertarian future during your lifetime.
Real success demands understanding of the objective circumstances of your situation. Before you decide what your situation allows you to do, you need to learn what your situation is. You can't play the game until you learn enough rules. Real success demands targeting, because you must choose your goals for yourself. Real success demands sound planning based on your goals and your objective circumstances. The ship Liberty steers better after a course has been set for her. Finally, success demands initiative. In order to win, you -- yes, you the reader -- need to Stand Up for Liberty! and Make Liberty Happen!
In 1998, I again accepted the nomination of the Libertarian Association of Massachusetts. I agreed to Stand Up for Liberty! and run for the United States Congress in the Massachusetts Third District. This time, I'd studied the situation carefully. I made a sound plan with good safety margins. I took the initiative, rather than waiting for someone else to run me for office.
In the end, I got on the ballot without a glitch. I did the things a serious candidate does: Advertise. Meet voters. Send out press releases. Distribute bumper stickers. I was in a dozen debates against my two opponents. Four days before the election, 7PM Eastern Standard Time, our three-way debate from Channel 3 Worcester went out on C-SPAN2. For a full hour, a million viewers from coast to coast got to compare my Libertarian principles with the stale policies of the Democratic-Republican duopoly.
I knew that winning the race would be extremely challenging. However, in 1998, I had studied the objective situation. I learned enough of the rules of game. I identified my target. I Stood Up for Liberty! and ran for office. My plans executed as expected within the limits of my resources. My vote total more than doubled the vote percentage achieved in my District by our 1996 Libertarian Presidential candidate.
As it happened, I did not win. For us to win consistently requires a new environment, not just a new candidate. As a candidate, I did my bit to move America toward that environment, an environment that supports the Libertarian ideals of freedom, prosperity, and peace. We are not there yet. To reach the Libertarian world in our lifetimes, we must all apply our resources effectively. I wrote this book to show how we might better invest our resources. Stand Up for Liberty! sets out a path to invest our resources and attain our goals. Stand Up for Liberty! outlines how Libertarians should apply their resources to promote their political philosophy. How can you best invest your time, money, and votes? Like many Libertarians, I want to see a future in which the Libertarian Party and libertarian political philosophy bring the United States to the Libertarian Future of peace, freedom, and prosperity. In Stand Up for Liberty I describe the path for reaching that future.
Am I a Libertarian?
While some people will take good ideas wherever they find them, others worry about their provenance. To some readers, an idea can be no better than its author. What, then, are my Libertarian credentials?
I'm a Libertarian. I want to move America in the direction of far smaller government, far lower taxes, and far higher respect for the personal liberties of every single American. I'm not an anarchist. I have no interest in abolishing government, though I will not complain if someone shows me something that's better in principle and in practice. Nor do I expect that a Libertarian future will be utopia. Our real world is limited by material constraints and human failings. Utopia is only limited by the outer envelope of human imagination.
I expect that a Libertarian future will have difficulties and challenges, many of which we will fail to anticipate before they happen. I also expect that a Libertarian future will have fewer difficulties than the alternatives. I am firmly convinced that "better than the alternatives" is all that really matters. We may not end disease, but a Libertarian future will have fewer obstacles between the sick and new cures. We may not cure poverty, but a poor man in a Libertarian future will enjoy comforts beyond the imagination of our forefathers. We may not end assaults on freedom, but in a Libertarian future government will as its primary duty protect the person, property, and freedom of every citizen, not enslave that citizen, destroy her property, and end her liberties.
What are you not reading?
As I type, it's 1999. Go to your book store. In 1999, you can find stacks of books about Libertarian ideas. There are books discussing which ideas a Libertarian must support. There are books explaining how tell if a new idea is really Libertarian at its core. There are even books explaining which ideas a Libertarian cannot possibly support.
Stand Up for Liberty! is not one of those books.
I didn't write this book to tell you what Libertarianism is. If you want to find out what different Libertarians think Libertarianism is, read the Libertarian Party Platform, not to mention books by Boaz, Hayek, Ruwart, and Lott.
I didn't write this book to convert our country's liberals, populists, and conservatives to libertarianism. I want them to convert, preferably before I run for office again, but that's not why I wrote this book.
Nor did I write this book so I could sing hymns at the choir. All too many Libertarians are only expert at preaching the libertarian gospel to the faithful.
If you are one of our country's Democrats or Reformers or Republicans, after reading this book you will still be a Democrat or Reformer or Republican. This book wasn't written to persuade you to change parties. It was written to create political circumstances in which you and your children discover for yourselves, in your own ways, that the Libertarian Party is the Party of the American Dream. It was written to create the political circumstances in which you too will voluntarily choose to Stand Up for Liberty! and Vote Libertarian!
[However, suppose you are a Democrat or Reformer or Republican. Ask yourself: Where are my party's strategy books? Where does my party debate the path to Democratic/Reform/Republican victory? What is our plan -- as opposed to this year's fundraising gimmick -- for winning elections? If Libertarian Party members debate strategy, and individual members of my party do not, what does that say about my party's openness? Is my party run by its owners, or by a small elite? If Libertarians do more thinking about strategy than my party does, do they think more carefully about their political ideas, too?] That question is for another book.
I note with thanks:
The Libertarian Party has at its disposal a host of armchair strategists and practical campaigners. Many of these people have set out their own ideas on what we should do. I've been heavily influenced by these people in my reading, my conversations, and my EMail exchanges. I claim no monopoly or originality for any idea here. Up to the limits of a faulty memory, the words are mine.
If I appear to see farther than some other Libertarians, it's because like a certain fellow physicist I stand on the shoulders of giants. I acknowledge being influenced by the words and ideas of many fellow Libertarians, not all of whom agree with me, including in alphabetical order Jorge Amador, Jackie Bradbury, John Brickner, Gene Cisewski, John Famularo, Mike Hihn, Mark Hilginberg, Gail Lightfoot, Jesse Markowitz, Ken Peterson, Janice Presser, Gary Reams, Jim Robinson, Bonnie Scott, Michael Sensor, and Ken Sturz.
Could I have written Stand Up for Liberty! at less length? Probably. I'm a college professor. I'm long winded. My private employer pays me to be long winded. It's implicit in my job description. If you want to read a condensed version of this book, just be patient. If the demand is sufficient, the market will provide.
So how do we reach the Libertarian future?
Stand Up for Liberty! presents the Local Organization strategy, the path to Libertarian Victory. The core ideas reduce to pat phrases. Implementing the core ideas is a bit more challenging.
In economics, there's no such thing as a free lunch. There's no free lunch at the ballot box, either. If you sit back and wait for someone else to give you free money, you may have a bit of a wait ahead of you. If you sit back and wait for someone else to Stand Up for Liberty! on your behalf, you may have a very long wait indeed. Candidates do not appear on the ballot by magic. They appear because people like you convinced them to run, got them on the ballot, and gave them a serious campaign.
If you want America to move toward the Libertarian future, you yourself need to challenge the Democratic-Republican duopoly party. You need to challenge them in your ward and precinct. You need to challenge them in your town, your county, your state, even in the halls of the Federal Congress.
Not everyone will Stand Up for Liberty! in the same way. Some of you will run for office. Others will donate their time or money. Others will speak up for the cause of freedom, write letters to the Editor, or sound off on the Internet. Only one outcome is certain. If we all sit around and do nothing, if we refuse to Stand Up for Liberty!, the defeat of liberty is assured. Only when we all Stand Up for Liberty!, each in our own way, is there a possibility of Libertarian victory.