This brings up an important question...
Politically speaking, is there strength in numbers (of people), or is there
strength in dollars?
As Chris has pointed out more than once, if numbers of paid members
mattered, we'd no longer be a third party. By far, the LP has more paid
members than the Republican Party. And I dare say we have just as many
hard-working activists willing to table, attend conventions, etc.
But I think the hard lesson we've learned and are continuing to learn is
that the way to win votes, from old and young alike, is through paid
advertisements. It's sad, but there's a strong correlation between ad
dollars spent and votes received, no matter what the candidate says.
(Starchild, ask Aaron Russo if you don't believe me. He'll tell you that,
in politics, style always beats substance.)
So, if strength is in dollars when it comes to politics, how do we get more
dollars?
Again, the sad reality is by putting people who have lots of dollars in a
big hotel with a 50 story atrium with artwork suspended from the ceiling.
As dull and exclusive (as Starchild thinks) or as wasteful (as I think) such
ventures may be, they do, in fact, generate more ad dollars for the Party
than ten times as many such conventions held at college campuses or Motel 6
type venues.
Those who were in on the emails leading up to the Carnelian Room event know
that I wanted the dinner to be $75 a person (breaking even for the price of
dinner plus share of room rental), with the request that all attendees bring
their checkbook for their "real" donation. But more experienced people who
have run campaigns before wisely increased the dinner price to $250 and
still asked people to bring their checkbooks. And the Ds and Rs even have
the balls to charge $2000 for barbecue in some farmer's field, much less
gourmet delights while looking down at the top of the Transamerica pyramid.
Such is the reality of modern politics. Big money buys results. We don't
like it, but denying this reality is like denying a law of physics -- we may
feel superior thinking we can hover in the air ("yogic flying" as our
friends in the Natural Law Party call it), but the reality is that we're
still just hopping around on the floor with our legs crossed.
Wanna do a youth outreach event like the hip hop convention? Fine. Great
idea. Want to transform events that are not targeted towards youth (such as
national conventions) into hip hop style events? Nope. Terrible idea.
Youth outreach is important, so a fraction of LP events should be as
Starchild described, but the majority of events are absolutely on the right
track -- bigger, better, and, yes, more expensive every election cycle. Not
because we want to imitate the Ds and Rs, but because those types of events
are what generate the ad dollars (which is why the Ds and Rs do their events
that way in the first place).
My two cents,
Rob