Thank you for your comments. I agree that we should be able to do more, but
the sticking point has been in getting skilled volunteers. Are you
interested in volunteering for Phil Berg's campaign? You seem to be more
experienced at managing a campaign than Phil is. I'm sure he'd love to talk
with you about managing his campaign.
Our main concern is that when Cindy Sheehan ran against Pelosi in 2008, with
10 times as much money as the best-funded Libertarian Congressional campaign
in history (Badnarik in Texas in 2006) and 100 times as many volunteers,
still didn't receive any mainstream media attention, didn't ever get any
traction in the polls, and ended up with a huge campaign debt. Do you have
any ideas for how we could avoid a similar fate? As much as the local media
didn't like Sheehan for opposing their darling Pelosi, they adored Sheehan's
policy stances. Phil himself can tell you that the local editorial boards
will mock his policy stances to his face. The only way to get around such a
media blackout is to raise many millions of dollars to plaster every single
ad medium to make up for the media blackout. So far we've not come up with
a good strategy for dealing with that. Perhaps you can help us in that
regard.
Also, thank you for letting me know about his website. I will try to help
him get that resolved this weekend.
We'd love to have you join us at our next county central committee meeting
on December 5 from 3 to 5pm to discuss your campaign ideas. Would you be
available to attend?
John J's response to Getty raises the question of whether a response was
appropriate after all, but I do think your detailed reference to Cindy's
campaign was an excellent addition.
My own suspicion is that John Jeff (if that's a real name) is a
mainstream Democrat who's lying about donating against Harry Reid,
etc., and is trying to get us to undercut the Republicans (maybe John
Dennis in particular, maybe just the GOP in general) by seeking to
raise money from conservatives for a fight we can't win.
Same goes, of course, for you, too, Michael-and a few others. I don't
think there are any of our activists-except Marcy and Starchild!!-who
haven't felt their energy flagging lately, so it seems all the more
important to acknowledge the good work people still manage to do.
Speaking of flagging energy, I wish I could forward you all some of the
nonsense going on in the national Platform Committee. It's frankly
exhausting. When the PlatCom majority report comes out in late December,
please remember that there were a few of us who tried to stop the
conservatives who have the overwhelming majority on PlatCom. I just hope
all of you are budgeting time and money to attend the 2010 LP national
convention in St. Louis during Memorial Day weekend. The convention
delegates are the last possible hope of stopping the conservative takeover
of the LP.
I appreciate Mike A.'s kind words, and take the opportunity here to acknowledge that I also have fallen off the wagon! I have not attended a Tea Party Rally or a Campaign for Liberty Meetup in several months. I am still hanging in there with the Facebook postings, though.
And, speaking of Facebook, it would be great if more of us joined and committed to just one libertarian post per day. True, as I had said on this list before, most of the Friends I see on my Wall seem to be libertarians (small "l"), and I sometimes feel that I am again preaching to the converted. However, some Friends of Friends may also be looking at the posts, may not be libertarians, and we may benefit from their exposure to our posts.
We have a couple of ready-made reasons to join Facebook and post -- Phil Berg (what an excellent opportunity to hammer on the pretty mess Phil's opponent has helped create!); and Christina Tobin (third parties have no voice at ballot boxes without someone constantly fighting for fair ballot access).
And speaking of Phil. I apologize for forgetting the name of the person I wrote a "welcome" e-mail, and he e-mailed back to explain he was helping Phil with Phil's website and other technical chores. Maybe this person can get Phil started on Facebook, specially put up Phil's picture.
Very positive thinking on your part! I wish I could do likewise. The LP turned "conservative" a while back. Now, given the economic emphasis provided by Ron Paul libertarians, the anti-tax/small government emphasis provided by Tea Parties, and above all the desperate state of our economy, economic conservatives are bound to have an even stronger leg to stand on within the national LP; leaving the social liberals to fight for a voice.
Hopefully, national LP will become so mired in their own ineffectiveness, that they will not be forceful enough to cause a lot of harm. BTW, I loved George Philies newsletter this month, and his references to the LNC. He does not mince words.