Running the uphill playing field

reprinted from 7/26/2003

Yesterday, our front-page friend TCB commented that "Being a Libertarian means never having to take responsibility for being in charge" which has certainly been largely true. Of course, that's a lot like saying that executed prisoners don't have to serve long prison terms.

Libertarians would love to be in charge, and a lot of you would find yourselves surprisingly delighted. A Libertarian President, for example, would be likely to immediately pardon all those convicted of non-violent offenses. How many of your friends and relatives would be returning home?

Libertarians are not afraid of taking responsibility... personal responsibility is a hallmark of the libertarian ideology. You would be hard-pressed to find a group of people working harder just to get the opportunity to prove that.

The D's and R's are afraid of competition.

It was once possible for an alternative political party to have a major impact. In 1854, the newly founded Republican Party won more Governor's seats, and sent more Representatives to the House, than did any other party. It was able to do so because there were no ballot-access laws until 1888.

We no longer have vigorous and active third parties because Democratic and Republican state legislatures passed restrictive laws that make it exceedingly difficult for third parties to get on the ballot in many states. These laws usually require third parties to gather signatures for a petition to be on the state ballot, and they often place strict deadlines for gathering such signatures. Every state has different requirements, and some are so oppressive that they handicap even the major parties.

In Minnesota, major party candidates pay a fee and get on the ballot. For a minor party to get a candidate on the ballot for Senator or any other statewide office requires 2,000 petition signatures from eligible Minnesota voters, carefully completed by each, with signature, name, address, and county... all gathered in a 2-week period of time.

For each U.S. Representative, 1,000 signatures are required, by eligible voters of that congressional district.

For each Minnesota legislative races, 500 votes are required, by eligible voters of that legislative district.

If you think any of that is simple, think again. It's not only a lot of work - there are pitfalls. Do you know what U.S. Congressional district you live in? What Minnesota legislative district? Most voters don't, and some don't even know which county they live in. Many people sign, but their information can't be checked because of illegibility. Scratch those. In the rush to get through a tiresome task, many people will "ditto" the information on the line above. Scratch those.

For a minor party to have a complete slate of 214 candidates would require gathering 118,500 valid signatures from all over Minnnesota , in less than two weeks.

A minor party can become a major party, avoiding petitioning in the next 2 elections, by getting 5% of the votes in a statewide race (Senator, Guv, Sec.of State, Attorney Gen., State Auditor). It doesn't happen often.

The simple truth is that minor parties spend so much effort, time and money on petitioning that they have very little left for campaigning, while major parties avoid petitioning and receive taxpayer money for their campaigns.

Add all the state requirements together for a national party and the problem becomes monumental. The extreme disparity of the burdens placed on old, established parties versus new parties has no parallel in any other democratic nation in the world.

As Libertarian Party Chair Steve Dasbach pointed out,

"a new party formed in the United States for the 1994 election needed to collect 3,501,629 valid petition signatures to run a full slate of state and federal candidates. By contrast, a new political party in Russia needs only 100,000 signatures to get on the ballot for all offices; and only 10,000 signatures are required in South Africa."

Nationally, there is public financing of the two major parties, which began for Presidential elections in 1974. Today, the Democrats and Republicans have their campaigns for President financed by the taxpayers. In 1996, the Republicans spent more on the stage for their convention than the Libertarians spent on the Presidential campaign. The difference? The GOP (and the Dems) were spending your money, while the Libertarians were spending donated money.

The Libertarian Party ran more than 1430 candidates in the 2000 elections, more than twice as many as all other third parties combined. We fielded candidates for 255 of the 435 seats in the U.S House as well as 25 of the 33 Senate seats up for election -- the first time in eighty years that any third party has contested a majority of the seats in Congress. Our slate of U.S. House candidates received 1.7 million votes, the first time any third party has received over a million votes for U.S. House.

Few of those candidates were able to even debate their opponents, because the major parties control those forums too.

I hope you're impressed at the supreme effort... with no taxpayer money, against huge obstacles, and with little or no media coverage - it isn't surprising that not one of those 280 Congressional candidates won.

What should surprise you is that with such an effort by so many thousands of dedicated volunteers and donors, Libertarians and other minor parties simply don't stand a chance.

Why try? Why use up our spare time and money for a cause that seems impossible? The reasons that drive D's and R's aren't relevant to Libertarians... we're not looking for political careers, and we're not looking for personal power... we want to REDUCE the power of government, and we're not looking for party power... we won't accept government money.

To make the task even more difficult, Libertarians do some things that handicap themselves. Most revolve around truth.

Political spin has become a way of life... a JOKE in America. Double-talk, deception, and deniability are the political guidelines of today. Telling you what you want to hear, and hiding that which you don't want to hear are the ways to garner votes from people who don't pay much attention any longer. Glorious-sounding platitudes, parading of "victims", and grandstanding photo ops are a political way of life... but not for Libertarians.

The libertarian ideology will not succeed unless people UNDERSTAND it and accept it... voluntarily. They cannot do that if they're tricked or forced into accepting it - NO FORCE, NO FRAUD. Thus, libertarians are required to tell the truth, in a way that can be understood. Doing otherwise just won't work. Some have tried to get the LP to adopt the methods of other parties, thinking that once we get control, we can return to our principles. In a very real sense, that is exactly what has happened to the D's and the R's, which were once, long ago, principled parties. Their use of political expediency has, naturally, turned them into mere propaganda facades disguising power-mongering control freaks who think they know better than you how to run your life, and everything connected to it.

Most Americans seem to sense that, each year, our nation moves further down the crapper. The ONLY way that will stop is for voters to wake up and take an active role in stopping that slide. Every single day, our government gets more powerful and further out of control.

There is only ONE ideology, and only ONE party that knows that you don't need either a nanny with a law, or a bully with a club looking over your shoulder telling you how to run your life. The LP has been fighting for your rights for 30 years. Isn't it about time you pitched in to help? It isn't difficult... just go join and then get involved locally.