The Party and the Pendulum
By Scott Williamson
When we meet another libertarian we often spend the first few minutes sizing them up and trying to determine the nuances of their philosophy. Once we have this piece of the puzzle we too often create a relationship based on if a person is one of “us” or one of “them”. The fact of the matter is the “them” is never our fellow libertarians, but those statists who wave the flag with one hand while stealing our liberties with the other.
A pendulum swinging back and forth never moves forward. We can have a national committee full of self described “radicals” that refuse to let any “reformer” have input. The following convention the “reformers” can take over the national committee and shut out the “radicals”. In the end we are back where we started. We will never manage to move forward if part of the national committee spends its time trying to silence members who disagree with them. We will not survive if we continue to allow LNC subcommittees to hold meetings in which some members were excluded because other members disagreed with them.
The Libertarian National Committee needs to live up to the libertarian philosophy of personal liberty. We have to accept that our fellow libertarians will sometimes disagree with us. We can only create a libertarian society when we spend less time as a party fighting over how we word our message and more time spreading our message.
The party must stand firm on its principals of individual liberty and personal responsibility. With the Democrat pendulum swinging to the left and the Republican pendulum swinging to the right, some argue the Libertarian Party needs to rush into the void. By moving our party to the left or the right we are just creating another void “up”. We cannot and should not compromise our philosophy to fill a void. Where would this leave our party when the Republican or Democrat pendulum swings back? Instead of moving into the void we should reach into the void. Through outreach and education we will bring those who are left politically homeless by their parties into the Libertarian Party.
We should never mistake the Libertarian National Committee for our Libertarian Party. Our party is not a committee of seventeen. Our Libertarian Party is the people who run for office, donate money, and volunteer their time. The party is those who are activist working to change the world. Our Libertarian Party is us.
Our Libertarian National Committee needs to listen to our members, the people who elect the committee, to listen where they want their donations spent and on which path they want to go. Then our LNC should lead the way. Our National Committee should learn what our party actually needs from a national office and then find an economical way to meet our needs. When we listen to activist on the front line and meet their needs we will move our party and our society into a bright future of freedom.
Scott Williamson is a candidate for LNC Regional Representative and can be contacted at [email protected]
I would like to know if Mr. Williamson disagrees with anything in the following draft St. Louis Accord.
The Party’s purpose is to implement and give voice to the Statement of Principles by uniting voters who want more personal and economic liberty behind the electoral choices that will most move public policy in a libertarian direction. The Party’s ultimate goal is to banish force initiation and fraud from human relationships. The Party does not claim to know how close our society can come to this ideal, but we are united in our conviction that governments must never add to the amount of aggression in the world. Principled libertarians can disagree about how best to reduce aggression or even about precisely what constitutes aggression, but we are united in defending the full rights of each person to his body, labor, peaceful production, and voluntary exchanges. Principled libertarians can disagree about whether every function of government can be performed by the free market, but we are united in opposing government’s growth beyond the protection of the rights of every individual to her life, liberty and property. Principled libertarians can disagree about how best we may each serve the cause of freedom, but we are determined to build a Party that welcomes and unites all those who want more personal and economic liberty. We defenders of freedom are too few, and the enemies of freedom are too many, for us to indulge in seeking heretics in our midst, rather than awakening allies across this freedom-loving land.
However Libertarians may differ on ‘ways and means’, the Statement of Principles defines limits on those ‘ways and means’. Any strategy or tactic that conflicts with or undercuts the aspirations of the Statement of Principles demoralizes members and potential members.
Many conflicts are resolvable by moving the discussion from personalities and motives to a discussion of consistency with the Statement of Principles. Attempting to evade this test can indicate a lack of intellectual rigor or personal integrity. People are very susceptible – sincerely susceptible – to these flaws sometimes.
If we all just read and think of the concepts in the Statement of Principles as we seek to devise ‘ways and means’ to advance liberty through the Libertarian Party, then some conflicts need not arise that waste the energy of all.
So long as the members of the Libertarian Party do not sacrifice our vision, the ideas of our adversaries will not prevail; nor, will the lack of success within a fundamentally corrupt polity weaken the moral attraction of our ideas. Indeed, the Libertarian Party was spawned by a moral revulsion to that corruption.
Perhaps ‘the only thing we have to fear’ is the fear of failure within ourselves. There is no lack of moral revulsion for our adversaries.
Scott,
Good to see your comments here. Specifically, I’m glad to hear you affirm that:
• outreach and education are important parts of the Libertarian Party’s mission
• the LNC is not the Party, but “those who are activist working to change the world.”
• “the party must stand firm on its principals of individual liberty and personal responsibility.”
And it’s true that the more time we spend fighting with each other, the less time we spend spreading the message of liberty outside the party.
Unfortunately though, if we are not vigilant in resisting the political temptations to compromise in order to win votes and attract supporters, the message the party spreads won’t remain a libertarian message. Gradually it will warp into something more palatable to the “mainstream”.
Some LP members seem to believe that the party can simply focus on the nuts and bolts of political action, especially winning elections, and the ideology will take care of itself. It won’t. It is a tree that needs care and watering.
Most people have some significantly non-libertarian views when they first join the party, but become gradually more libertarian over time. However this process of radicalization will only happen to the extent that we have a radical libertarian culture in the party and teach and discuss our ideas with newcomers.
A key to getting the LP ideologically back on track and reducing the amount of disagreement among party members is to have strong “inreach” — party communications that reinforce fundamental values, most importantly the Non-Aggression Principle which is the heart and soul of libertarianism.
If you get on the LNC, I hope that you will make it a priority to get more and stronger libertarian content into the party’s communications. I also urge you be mindful of the Five Key Values of the Grassroots Libertarians Caucus (see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/grassrootslibertarians/) and consider how each decision you face may effect:
• Whether the party becomes more top-down or more bottom-up
• Whether the party can appeal equally to left and right
• Whether the party’s culture will be one that is bold, creative, and fun-loving.
• Whether the party will stand up strongly and proudly for its ideals
• Whether the party will effectively appeal to young people
• The party’s