“By Michael Tanner

Foreign aid is little more than welfare for nations — with the same disastrous effects as domestic welfare programs.

The U.S. currently spends approximately $14 billion per year on foreign aid — far less than most people believe, but still a substantial sum. Since the end of World War II, the United States has spent more than $400 billion on aid to other countries. But there is little evidence that any of these programs has significantly improved the lives of the people in countries receiving this aid. Instead, foreign aid has typically slowed economic development and created dependence.”

If at some point you decide my advice is actually worth paying for, and you have real money, I’m available for that as well.

We laugh off the truely outrageous comments while taking from those comments that are rational and thought-provoking. Besides, it is delusional to expect everyone to just agree with such an endeavor, sign-up and be happy.

Sometimes my comments may come off harsher than intended.

I’m really not as hateful as I sometimes act.

Keep reading my comments. I throw my ideas out there pretty frequently (along with a lot of other stuff I write). Any time you see anything you feel could be applicable to your party, you are certainly free to implement it.

I think the grassroots Ron Paul people were doing a lot of good strategies (and some that were not so good), so there is a lot to learn from there.

Also, check out campaign tips and manuals from other parties and mainstream political consultants. For example,

http://www.campaignhottips.com/

Campaigns and Elections magazine, etc.

While I realize you don’t have a high personal opinion of the movement I am helping to build, I know we would really appreciate any specific ideas based on your experience that you want to throw our way.

Also, we get many emails and postings every day from people similar to the one copied below. I think it’s indicitive of the LP’s current situation.

“Hi all, brand new to the site, followed a link here posted on a gaming site I frequent. I am a 41-year-old former Army Linguist/Journalist who identified with the Libertarians until their endorsement of Bob Barr as their candidate. I am a fervent fiscal conservative while being a complete social liberal. I am looking for a viable third party to support as I have become totally disenfranchised with the mainstream parties, and even with the better-known third-party options. Hopefully this party has some fresh ideas on governance, Lord knows we could use some.”

Some people, yes. But I’ve been doing this for a while, and that has actually improved quite a bit.

Barr dragged the main party toward the GOP image at exactly the wrong time

I agree with that part. But I also still hold out hope that we can balance that out.

In my opinion, the LP needs to tear it all down and start over.

The BTP is trying to do that. I don’t think that’s any kind of magic bullet, but it may be needed if I turn out to be wrong about the potential to balance things out to the left.

I do have a lot of specific ideas about what we need to do, but few people listen to me.

I have found that many people do have libertarian tendencies, but if you call them a “libertarian”, they become defensive like it’s a bad thing. For us young people, I think it’s because the LP has been around for so long that it has become marginalized and always kind of viewed as part of outside the mainstream.

Mr. Phillies is right about the libertarian movement not knowing how to reach this new target. Sadly, I have yet to see the LP or any libertarian offshoot rebrand the staid image of the movement. In fact, I think such efforts have failed as they draw the libertarian image farther to the extremes while the LP with Barr dragged the main party toward the GOP image at exactly the wrong time.

In my opinion, the LP needs to tear it all down and start over.

It’s true that parties (the DP and RP, anyway) are given *support* by the state, and I absolutely agree the state should not do things such as conduct party primaries, for instance. That just entrenches the parties already in power.

But, on the other hand, I’m not sure how the mere existence of a party platform precludes you from making an individual choice irrespective of that platform by studying individual candidates as you wish.

Most folks have little enough time for reviewing a few platforms to see which most closely aligns with their interests and beliefs; reviewing dozens more is simply impossible for most people trying to simply get by and enrich their lives and communities.

To me, a Party platform is a ‘brand’ – which *should* offer lots of information about a particular candidate. If I vote Libertarian, I can be reasonably sure to get a candidate who shares my sense of urgency about getting government out of the business of running people’s lives.

The problem as I see it is that you have so many pols who do NOT hew to their own parties’ platforms, so you wind up not getting much information from the ‘brand name’, and have to do the individual research anyway. One of my goals as a Libertarian party activist is to help ensure that our ‘brand’ – our principles and positions as expressed through our platform – are reasonably consistent wherever you happen to see a Libertarian candidate. This takes lots of ‘inreach’ – educating and supporting Libertarians activists and candidates in the nuances of their own party’s positions – and has been somewhat neglected by the Party. I hope to see that change in the next few years.

Nah, couldn’t have anything to do with a lot of Republicans attitude towards immigrants.

How about some other people for a change?

There are a lot of reasons why people adopt or reject political parties, and more of them have to do with short-term-self-interest rather than deep philosophical thought. Mr. Phillies says, “recently arrived ethnic minorities are rejecting the Republicans by 2-1, 3-1, and even 15-1.” What if that has less to do with accusations of Republican white male bigotry – and more to do with the fact that it’s often Democrats who mandate free health care and economic stimulus payments to illegal immigrants?

There is certainly plenty to criticize Republicans and Democrats, but when we oversimplify, over-dramatize, assign motives from baseless assumptions, and scream like a toddler throwing a tantrum, we just marginalize ourselves.

Phillies: The Obama International Socialist Democrats are continuing the scheme, which was overwhelmingly rejected by the American people. American taxpayers have no use for the two and a half trillion in additional Federal borrowing — this year — let alone for the thieving anticapitalist plundercrats who are taking the loot, not to mention their media tools who propagandized for the bail (that’s spelled L-O-O-T) out. The probable failure of the Obama spending campaign — every dollar Obama gives to someone to spend is a dollar sucked vampirically from the pocket of some other spender — stands likely to create a crisis for the American Keynesian welfare state.

The Obama Democratic Party has apparently decided to continue the Bush Republican war party campaign against the people of Afghanistan. The Kingdom of Afghanistan is justly remembered as the graveyard of empires. The British Imperialists invaded it during the First Afghan War. A British army went in. A single Briton escaped to report the fate of his fellows. The Russian Soviet Imperialists invaded near the end of the Cold War. Much of their army escaped. The Russian Soviet Empire did not survive the experience. Now an American Army has invaded Afghanistan, imposed a satrap who lives only because his bodyguard is composed largely of American mercenaries, and is noticing that Afghani patriots have substantially disrupted the American supply line through the Khyber pass. The Obama Democratic Party offers more war, when the American people desire peace.

This doesn’t sound like he is taking it easy on the Democrats to me.

Hope this is the correct e-dress and that you don’t mind me writing. If you do, my apologies.

See:

http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2009/02/libertarian-party-blog-free-republic-poster-gives-republicans-a-recent-history-lesson/comment-page-2/#comment-40267

If you would prefer to talk about any of these ideas on the phone rather than in print, my number is 415.690.6352. I got unlimited calls, and plenty of time until I get over being sick and go back out on the road.

Paulie from IPR

Aren’t political parties outdated?