Stand Up for Liberty! Table of Contents
Stand Up for Liberty!
Chapter Six
Activities for Particular Groups
This Chapter considers Activities that are suited for federal, state, or local political parties, but not all of them. I begin with activities for the national party, and then work up to state and local groups, because this arrangement gives the clearest discussion. Many of th activities that I discuss are already performed by some groups. Other activities could be performed at a different level than the one that I propose.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FEDERAL LEVEL
We have a national committee and a national party because some actions are readily carried out at the federal level. There are also activities that need to happen in every single state, but some state organizations aren't ready to perform them, so it is in the interest of Libertarians from elsewhere in the country to see that they happen. State and local groups benefit when corresponding groups in other states become stronger.
Some activities must be done by the National Committee itself. Other activities need to get done by someone. The National Committee could do them, but other groups could take the National Committee's place. Finally, there are national activities that the National Committee can nurture, but not perform.
Activities Which the National Party Itself Must Perform:
* Cooperation with Other Libertarian Groups. A few simple principles are self- evident. State and Local Libertarian groups should be allies that the National Party actively supports, not competitors that it hinders. Independent libertarian groups such as the Cato Institute should be friends with which we actively collaborate, within the limits of tax and election laws, not hostile forces we resist or ignore. Outreach to the greater Libertarian movement is a necessary task for the National Party.
* Washington Lobbying and Congressional Testimony: Only the National Party can convincingly represent the Party to Congress. Why should we lobby? Lobbying on strategically chosen issues introduces Libertarians to reporters, columnists, and other lobbyists. Lobbying puts into play Libertarian ideas. Lobbying can reduce the damage done to the Unites States by the duopoly party before the Libertarian Party wins, as witness the DefendYourPrivacy web campaign. One can get carried away and spend too much time lobbying. However, some measures are cheap and effective.
Lobbying exposes members of other parties to libertarian ideas. The Republican Party has a home industry of proselytizing elected Democrats to convert them from one branch of the duopoly to the other. When the Libertarian Party begins to win elections, we will also grow by converting current public officials to our side. Lobbying, proving that the Libertarian Party is serious about real politics, prepares the ground for converting their elected officials to our party. I am reminded of an anecdote: Recently, a Massachusetts Libertarian Party member testified before the Massachusetts legislature. He began by saying that he represented the Libertarian Party. By report, the committee chair was startled. He said aloud that this marked the Libertarian Party becoming politically active in Massachusetts.
The National Party Should Make Some Things Happen:
The following activities are important for the Libertarian Party. They could be performed by the national party or by someone else, but the National Committee needs to make sure that these get done.
* 50-state ballot access for the Libertarian Presidential ticket. Many of our state parties generate ballot access by themselves. For example, the Massachusetts Libertarian Party chose to seek major party status in 1998, succeeded, and therefore will put our Presidential candidate on the November 2000 ballot without further ado. In other states, local activists choose to get our Presidential candidate on the ballot and can do so by themselves. In a few states, ballot access requirements are extremely onerous. Only by focusing the resources of the entire country's Libertarians on these few states can the Party have a Presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The Presidential candidate is the nominee of the national party. The National Committee has the resources, the information, and in some cases the legal standing needed to ensure 50-state ballot access. It is entirely appropriate for the LNC to ensure that our candidate is on the ballot everywhere. Alternatively, the Party could entrust 50-state ballot access to independent groups, but there is a history of financial questions associated with a few elements of this approach. When the Libertarian Party matures, the need for national activity to obtain ballot access will fade.
* Bolster State and Local Organizations. The National Party is responsible for noticing what its state affiliates and independent allies are doing. If difficulties arise within a state organization, the national party should notice and take appropriate action. Most often the appropriate action is to tell the state's activists what their problem is, and letting them handle their own challenges. You might think that local people would notice the difficulties they are wading through, but sometimes people do not see the forest for the trees. Sometimes a problem has been solved before, and passing along the solution will save much time and energy. Furthermore, the National Party does have funds of its own. One way to strengthen the Party as a whole is to identify weaker state groups that have enough good activists, and give those activists the material support needed to create a stronger state party.
* Produce activist training and support material. All across America, individual activists need to know how to solicit signatures, get out the vote, design trifolds, and help Libertarian friends Make Liberty Happen! by becoming activists themselves. Training and demonstrations using traditional (seminars, parallel sessions at conventions) and advanced technical (distance learning, video tapes, internet radio, web pages, streaming video) means can satisfy this need. Either the National Committee or its national competitors could usefully serve the Libertarian Party by developing and distributing training materials beyond those that already exist.
Activities the National Party Can Support But Not Perform
* Libertarian Congressional PAC. The Libertarian Party declared an intent to contest a majority of all Congressional seats. I'll explain in Chapter Chapter 7 why this is a good idea. In 1998, only two dozen of our campaigns filed with the FEC. A half-dozen of our U.S. House candidates raised $10,000 or so each. The rest raised almost no money. Modest fundraising for party-ID cable and radio advertising and bumper stickers in places with local activists ready to distribute them would substantially boost results from this in-place effort. To raise and distribute this money we need a Libertarian Congressional PAC charged with raising funds and supporting Libertarian candidates.
* Pro-Liberty Special Interest Groups. When Democrats and Republicans run for office, they get support from hordes of special interest groups, each pretending to speak for an issue but in reality working for a political party. I am referring equally to the pro-choice group that endorses pro-life Democrats over pro-choice candidates of other parties and to the pro-Second Amendment action groups that endorse gun-grabbing Republicans over pro-Bill-of-Rights candidates of other parties. Those groups support us on the issues, but they are not our friends and are not on our side. We need to replace them with pro-Liberty interest groups that support Libertarians.
For political victory, the Libertarian movement needs its own special interest groups, groups that support Libertarian candidates and points of view. If the Microbrewery Trade Association routinely tilts Democratic, we should launch a Samuel Adams Society and Brewers Club to lead members to Libertarian thinking. The National Party can't be too obvious about setting up special interest groups itself, not if those groups are to be credible. The National Party can find individual Libertarians with the right interests, incite them to create a Libertarian special interest group, and provide nurture and support to get the group off the ground. Special interest groups are so important that I devote Chapter 10 to them.
* Take Back The Internet. The wags say 'Libertarians rule the net.' This is a bit of a a stretch. The *.libertarian news groups are ineffective, swamped with cross-posts, and riddled with trolls. There is a simple technical fix. The technical fix is a *moderated* newsgroup. The activity is intrinsically national. The National Committee could perform the newsgroup group creation action itself, and find (if need be, help fund) moderators, but the Libertarian National Committee is not credible itself as the moderator.
From the above list, The national party organization has well-defined roles to fill. From forming alliances with other parts of the Libertarian movement and Washington lobbying to taking back the Internet, a range of important tasks are appropriate to all the country's Libertarians working together, or only need to be done once to aid Libertarians everywhere. Some activities are expensive. For example, 50-state ballot access is reported to have cost $400,000 for the 1996 campaign, and may cost a similar amount for the 2000 A.D. campaign. Subscription fulfillment and membership retention have a calculable marginal cost per member. Nonetheless, the National Party's budget must be kept proportionate to budgets of other parts of the Libertarian Party, so that money remains available for the most important tasks of the Party, the tasks performed by state and local organizations.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE STATE LEVEL
State groups have many appropriate activities that they should perform. State groups may run statewide candidates, and are certainly well-placed to publish newsletters. A state organization should support local groups and foster friendly competition between them.
A good state committee member spends his time travelling, telephoning, and using the net. He talks to people, finds people to develop local activism, and finds people who will run for office or work as campaign staff. A good state committee develops resources to support local groups and candidates, and develops expertise to advise local groups and help them develop their own people and resources.
A good state chair opens her conversation "How can we help you?". A good state chair knows her people, identifies what her people need even when her people don't know themselves, and makes sure that her people get the support that will let them succeed at what they are doing. A poor state chair spends his time running for office, using the state party's resources, contacts, and activists to support his campaign. A poor state chair opens his conversations with Party activists "Here's how you are going to help me."
All but the smallest states can usefully publish two state newsletters: First, an activist newsletter targeting real and prospective Libertarian Party workers. The second outreach newsletter, priced to the bare bones, targets prospective Libertarian voters and their friends.
The activist newsletter covers political action news, petitioning deadlines, and campaigning methods. It gives activists the information they need to be active effectively. The activist newsletter also supports healthy internal discussion on party policies. The activist newsletter is effectively used to promote healthy positive competition between different local groups. Who had the best election results? Who registered the most voters into our party? Who elected the most candidates to office? Challenging local groups to better their own records and the records set by their neighbors incites harder work by Libertarian activists.
The outreach newsletter covers Libertarian news and candidates to turn out the Libertarian voter base in their support. It writes about efforts of the duopoly parties to raise taxes and reduce freedom, presenting the news in a light that will motivate voters to Vote Libertarian! It encourages readers to take the first steps to activism, to support campaigns by displaying lawn signs and bumper stickers and contributing money. The voter-information newsletter is rationally run at the state level because: Most towns do not have enough political news to justify their own newsletter. Most people's interest in local politics stops short of the state line. Complications of gathering news town by town grow exponentially beyond the single-state level. I'm not aware of a state party that publishes a voter's information newsletter separate from the activist newsletter. By my analysis, quarterly publication with selected dates should be sufficient.
The state Party appropriately supports Statewide and Congressional campaigns, and focuses resources within the state on breakthrough opportunities. Statewide campaigns will vary from state to state. The Libertarian Party is still quite small. We do not have the masses of town committees, political consultants, elected officials, and activists that the Democratic and Republican parties have. Nonetheless, telling people who have volunteered to run for office that they should go run their own campaigns is an inept policy.
Statewide officers should not run everyone's campaigns for them. However, what good is a statewide organization that sits back and does not support its own party's candidates? The Libertarian movement has better uses for its limited income than supporting a state organization that does not return the favor. If we run candidates for offices above the city/town level, the state organization has the expertise in ballot access issues, the lists of donors and contacts, and the statewide media contacts that allow a serious campaign. A state organization must recognize its responsibility to support its party's people in their runs for office. If a state party does not support -- in a proportionate and appropriate way -- candidates across the state, it should be replaced.
A State Chair and State Committee must remember that except in the very smallest states they are primarily facilitators. The task of a facilitator is to contact Libertarian groups around the state, listen, offer advice, and provide support. Is that what your state committee is doing? Contact local groups around your state. Ask them pointblank how often they've had individual contact with a member of the state committee. Ask them pointblank how often the state organization has offered them advice. Ask them pointblank how often the state organization has supplied money or other resources for a campaign. The answers are an excellent measure of the quality of your state party's leadership.
A good state committee does not view itself as a prime source of major candidates. Look at the other major parties. When is the last time a national chair of the Republican Party ran for office? (Hint: Bill Miller, Vice President, Republican, 1964). Of course, a weak state organization may not have a choice. There may not be enough Libertarians to do all mission-critical tasks. Some people may have to multitask or key tasks will be left undone. You may need to run state committee members for office because no one else is available, and for whatever reason you absolutely positively must run least a minimum-commitment candidate. You may need to ask a major candidate to help run the state party, because she will do it better than the alternatives. As has been said, if you need something done quickly, get a busy person to do it.
However, once state party officers run for office, there is a difficulty. The two roles of committeeman and candidate have a very real conflict of interest. State committees typically raise money. In many states, this money can legally be used to support political campaigning. Should that money go to the campaigns of the state committee members, or to the campaigns of other Libertarians around the state? State Committees typically do have lists of potential donors. Should those lists be shared with all candidates? Or are they held for the campaigns of state committee members? In the words of one of our nation's leading Libertarian activists: "You can tell the corrupt state organizations. They routinely run their own officers for high office when they had other choices." Running state committee members for office does not have to lead to irregularities. In many states, it's perfectly legal. However, the temptations and opportunities are strong.
Activities for Local Groups
In the end, it is our local groups that will give us victory.
The foundation of Libertarian Victory is Local Organization. Local Organization will identify and develop local Libertarian political figures, giving us credible quality candidates for higher office. Local organizations build the Libertarian movement in every county, every town, every ward and precinct, giving us the strength to nominate and elect candidates to political office. Money and issues are not enough; without strong local issues and local support we cannot win elections. Local Organization fosters local meetings and personal contacts, creating opportunities to activate Libertarian members. Activated members become the specialists and activists, the volunteers and staffers and candidates, who will give us a Libertarian Party that wins elections from coast to coast.
Most important, Local Organization leads to Local Victory. Local Victory lets our friends and neighbors meet us and see who we really are. Local Victory lets our fellow Americans see Libertarian politicians putting into effect successful Libertarian solutions to community problems. Local Victory prepares the foundation for later victories at higher levels.
The Libertarian movement will most surely win higher office via Local Organization and local electoral campaigns. When there are strong Libertarian party groups in every city and town across our Republic, higher political offices will fall into our hands. When we have widespread local success, we will have strong activist organizations and a large Libertarian voter base over large areas. Then, and only then, will higher offices fall into our grasp. Until we have strong activist groups and many regular voters, elections to higher office will be hard to win and difficult to repeat.
In the words of the Virginia Libertarian Party, "let us accept the proposition that every precinct in which a Libertarian resides shall have a precinct captain". Getting those precinct captains requires a great deal of meeting and telephoning and cajoling. It requires regular contact, so that no Precinct Captain feels that she is working entirely alone. Getting good precinct captains equally requires a great deal of teaching, so that every precinct captain has some idea of what she is to do.
It is at the local level that campaigns are won and lost. It is local activists who erect lawn signs, distribute bumper stickers, go door to door dropping leaflets, run phone banks, and stage car pools to get out the vote. Philadelphia activists have demonstrated how well this approach works; in a three way race, the Libertarian candidate carried the precincts in which the Libertarian Party ran full-bore political campaigns. Local activists running for local, non-partisan or weakly partisan office are more easily elected than are candidates for higher office. These local victories let our friends and neighbors see how Libertarians behave as elected officials, and how sound Libertarian ideas will improve government, cut taxes, and increase freedom. Local victories will build the solid Libertarian voter base that we need for future elections.
Local organizations give personal contact. The Libertarian Supper club, meeting monthly to hear a Libertarian speaker, is a prime location for current activists to meet prospective activists. A prospective activist is someone who supports Libertarian principles but does not yet work to put those principles into practice. He may very well have heard the principle There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, but he doesn't believe it. He expects a ballot filled with Libertarian candidates at every election, even though he personally does nothing to get any candidates on the ballot. A prospective activist is someone who can perhaps be incited into activism. Libertarian supper clubs that do nothing except meet every month and talk about liberty make a modest contribution to building a stronger Libertarian Party. Precisely the same Supper club, attended regularly by activists using the meeting to identify and incite prospective activists, becomes the recruiting station of the army of freedom.
Elected Libertarians in local office are doing local activism that will build a strong voter base. Wales, Massachusetts has for some years had an active Libertarian in town government. He has been so successful that he was actively encouraged to move up from Town Finance Committee to Selectman. He makes no secret that he is a Libertarian, and that his contributions are a reflection of his Libertarian philosophy. In 1998, Libertarians running for statewide office got vote percentages in Wales that were several times higher than vote percentages in nearby towns. Similarly, in Washington County, Indiana, Libertarian candidates won partisan office in three-way races, and provided an updraft to the Party's statewide candidates. Libertarians who got 2-3% of the vote across the state got 12-15% of the vote in Washington County.
In short, local organizations have the people who actually do politics. They run candidates, build the party, and enlarge our voter base. Local organizations are the sole foundation on which we can build electoral success. State and national organizations have important, specific roles in supporting local organizations, in running candidates for higher office, and in creating the environment in which Libertarian candidates regularly win office.
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL GROUPS
Most Libertarians know for a fact that that a strong socialist central government will always be much less efficient than the invisible hand of the market and the collected wisdom of millions of human beings, each of whom is as smart as any government bureaucrat. The fundamental principle is that "strong effective central government" is an oxymoron. This principle applies equally to national governments and to the Libertarian movement. Just as socialist democratic centralism would be a wasteful and inefficient way to run the nation's steel industry, so also libertarian democratic centralism would be a wasteful and inefficient way to run the libertarian movement.
The market provides the invisible hand that guides men and women toward right decisions. The invisible hand is as efficient in the marketplace of ideas as in any other marketplace. A local organization may choose to sell itself to the marketplace by providing services. This is the free market case. A local organization could also choose to operate as a franchisee of a national organization. This is the democratic centralist case. As shown in Chapter 3, the free market approach used in the Local Organization strategy is the most effective approach for our Libertarian Party.
There is obviously no way that Libertarian democratic centralism can be as effective for the Libertarian Party as polite competition between Libertarian groups. We can use the market to identify the best ideas, but first we must allow the marketplace of ideas to function within our party. If we run state and local groups as dependent subsidiaries of national and state groups, the growth of those groups will inexorably be strangled by a central party bureaucracy. Local and state groups will compete with the national bureaucracy for the same resources, with the central bureaucracy writing the rules for dividing the pie. A political central bureaucracy is like a government central bureaucracy. No matter how much money and how many resources you feed a central bureaucracy, the bureaucracy has only one response: "More!"