Considering the Libertarian party

[Cassie Neilson]

Hi all,

After attending a recent convention for Minnesota republicans, having the Chairman Ron Carey stand up and, well, I think Marianne Stebbins says it best:

"At CD 3 and CD 7 this last Saturday, Ron Carey stepped in front of the conventions to call Ron Paul supporters a bunch of libertarian infiltrators who are going to destroy the party, neglecting to mention that our state coordinator has been a party activist for over 16 years, has been a party officer several times, been a staffer on GOP campaigns, and has run for office as a Republican. He then denounced us for running slates, which he waved around, and proceeded to order the delegates to vote for HIS slate if they didn't want to lose in November."

Long story short- I am extremely disenfranchised with the Republican party and am considering joining the Minnesota Libertarian party. I just wondered if anyone else is facing a similar situation at this point in the campaign?

[mdh]

The Libertarian Party is by and large an awesome group of people.

Don't take my word for it, though (I don't know anyone on the MI excomm), go to a meeting or two and talk to people. :)

If nothing else, I'm almost sure you'll find some new like-minded friends!

[ronpaulhawaii]

Hi all,

After attending a recent convention for Minnesota republicans, having the Chairman Ron Carey stand up and, well, I think Marianne Stebbins says it best:

"At CD 3 and CD 7 this last Saturday, Ron Carey stepped in front of the conventions to call Ron Paul supporters a bunch of libertarian infiltrators who are going to destroy the party, neglecting to mention that our state coordinator has been a party activist for over 16 years, has been a party officer several times, been a staffer on GOP campaigns, and has run for office as a Republican. He then denounced us for running slates, which he waved around, and proceeded to order the delegates to vote for HIS slate if they didn't want to lose in November."

Long story short- I am extremely disenfranchised with the Republican party and am considering joining the Minnesota Libertarian party. I just wondered if anyone else is facing a similar situation at this point in the campaign?

Lots of people are feeling the same. To me this only shows we are winning. It was never going to be easy; people play hardball. RP led us to the GOP for a reason. I'll stay the course and press on...

[Patrick_Henry]

I also live in Minnesota, and yes I feel exactly the same way. I really wanted to go to the LP State convention in the Cities not too long ago, but I couldn't make it.

I was thinking the LP needs to make a massive effort to get on the presidential ballot in MN. However, this is incredibly difficult due to the extremely large number of signatures needed in MN compared to other states.

Anyway, the Republican Party is going down, and I think if we can establish a good base for the LP it could eventually be a major party.

[ronpaulitician]

The harder the GOP fights us, the more we've accomplished.

[ronpaulhawaii]

The harder the GOP fights us, the more we've accomplished.

Yep, and dividing plays into the neo-cons hands.

[Hook]

More than half the people here are members of the LP. You can be a member of both, you know. Dr. Paul is.

[ronpaulhawaii]

More than half the people here are members of the LP. You can be a member of both, you know. Dr. Paul is.

Fair enough. Perhaps I just get a bit cynical with the, "leave the evil GOP", side of things

[G-Wohl]

I say go for it! The LP is a highly principled party, with extremely active and enthusiastic members. The same can simply not be said, by and large, about the GOP.

If you belong to the LP, then everyone else truly knows where your positions are and what you stand for.

[ronpaulhawaii]

I say go for it! The LP is a highly principled party, with extremely active and enthusiastic members. The same can simply not be said, by and large, about the GOP.

If you belong to the LP, then everyone else truly knows where your positions are and what you stand for.

Case in point regarding my cynicism.

The fact remains that the decrepit ol' GOP is the most efficient vehicle towards our goals. While I may well vote some LP in Nov, I understand that defection from the GOP is a neo-cons wetdream. It's one thing to advocate the support of third parties, quite another to advocate abandoning ship. One of the top goals I see for our new movement should be the breaking of the system that suppress third parties, but... we gotta be in it to win it.

... "I've not yet begun to fight" - John Paul Jones

[Carehn]

Its all about the LP girl! The republican party is only a sick shadow of what it once was. 4 out of 5 founding fathers approve of the LP :)

[familydog]

Many people in the LP are great. Go for it if it calls you. However, don't expect your fellow LP members to be winning any offices except maybe county coroner. They aren't very good at that.

[liberteebell]

If there's any one thing I've learned from the r3VOLution, it is that the power lies within participation in the parties, like it or not (and I don't). And sure, the two parties are probably the best vehicles within which to work.

I have chosen to work within the republican party (for the time being) but it's not in my nature to be a "joiner" and the republicans talk out of both sides of their mouths: they want to grow the party as long as it's not "those Ron Paul kooks". Locally, the LP and CP are welcoming the influx of new people with open arms. Many of my friends have chosen to go that direction and at first, I was really angry with them but after some thought, I've decided that each of us needs to do whatever works for us and that there is no "right" way to promote liberty.

I look at it this way: the presidency is but one office. A president Ron Paul could effect a lot of change, just by the stroke of a pen but it's still only one office and without freedom lovers filling congress, there's only so much a president can do.

As much as I'd love to see a Ron Paul presidency, our mission is a long-term project to change government at all levels. The lesser known parties can effect huge changes at the local and state levels. In a recent local election for state delegate, the LP candidate did extremely well, despite being outspent by a huge margin and having few volunteers to help with canvassing. So if the LP grows locally, the message of liberty is being spread; who cares what label it's under? Little by little, one mind at a time, we can "teach" people to put principle over party. Freedom really is popular, despite party labels and freedom transcends all party ideology.

As The Manifesto says: "... this is a long-term project that will persist far into the future. These ideas cannot be allowed to die, buried beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that constitute official political discourse in America."

[Truth Warrior]

Since the LP is, and has been since it's inception, mainly composed of disgruntled limited government conservative Republican ( somewhat smaller ) statists, many here would probably feel right at home there. :D

They merely stole the tag from the libertarians, kinda like the socialists stole the tag 'liberal' from the classical liberals. :p

[yongrel]

The members of the LP are great; it's the leadership that I can't stand.

[Patrick_Henry]

Another option that I've also been considering is the Republican Liberty Caucus. There was a little bit of talk about it on this forum before. It's a subgroup of the Republican Party. Ron Paul was the chair for a while. You should check out their website. www.rlc.org