by Pete Blome, 3/10/2015
On March the 2nd, 2015, in a sparsely filled Collier County Florida Courtroom, Adrian Wyllie, the recent Libertarian candidate for Florida Governor, stood at the defense podium. He had no entourage or throng of supporters. This was his third appearance before judges on the matter of driving without a license. He refused to succumb to the invasive questioning required by the Real ID Act and have his personal information added to a national database without a warrant simply to get the privilege of a state issued driver’s license.
The details of Adrian’s civil disobedience did not impress the judge. He quickly cut short the defense presentation. The court would not listen to the violations of the U.S. and Florida Constitutions that inspired Adrian to stand alone, nor would it record the finely worded arguments of his lawyer. No one in the court would hear how the law robbed them of privacy or how the tentacles of surveillance were spreading throughout their lives. The recent years of sweat, worry, and sacrifice would come down to a few perfunctory words from a county judge.
He found him guilty. The judge said he applauded the defendant for his principles, and levied a $150 fine. Whether the judge was genuinely trying to enforce the law, victimize him, condescend to him, or simply following the path of legal least resistance, is anyone’s guess. It could have been worse. As a three time loser Adrian could easily have gone to jail.
A small matter in a small court about small people. It never would have happened at all except for Adrian’s persistent love of liberty. He thinks liberty is what makes living in the USA worthwhile. He wants others to feel as he does.
Unlike most of us, the cost of that love has been very real for him. Not having a driver’s license has limited his life in ways most of us do not even think about. He has court costs that he must pay out of pocket.
His business suffers. A simple trip to the bank becomes a convoluted task of proving one’s identity. Renting a vehicle becomes impossible.
Every drive to the store could result in trading in a comfortable night
at home for a cold cell in the county jail. Worry became a part of
his, and his family’s, way of life. He was jabbed by society in general in a dozen unseen ways every day for not having his papers. Still, he stuck to it.
To some, that was a foolish thing to do. Why suffer over this? Is defying the Real ID Act worth it? Since Adrian was active politically wouldn’t he do better moving as a free man than hobbled by self-imposed restrictions? The comfortable would say there are better ways of getting the point across without sacrifice. For them, we can live our lives, and can go home feeling secure in the knowledge we are free and have value. However, the contrast between the national myth and the reality is getting greater. What Adrian Wyllie shows is that we have the protection of the Bill of Rights, it seems, until we actually want to use them.
He still faces an uncertain future with real consequences. The legal penalties for defying the law will only become greater from this point on, and he has to decide what his next step will be. For every “Patrick Henry” that actually affects change there are dozens of unknown names that stood alone in courtrooms, like Collier County, and were consumed by the legal system no matter what protections citizens are supposed to have. Do the comfortable really know, or care, what happens to these people? Probably not. It’s not right, but that is just the way it is.
Good on you, Adrian, for going through all of this for the sake of
liberty. As Churchill once said, success is never final, and failure
never fatal, it is courage that counts.
Pete Blome is Chair of the Northwest Florida Libertarian Party and attended the trial of Adrian Wyllie 2 March.
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Monday, June 13, 2011
The Trouble with Libertarians
By Tom Rhodes
Vice-Chair Libertarian Party of Citrus County
Chairman LPF Platform Committee
6/13/2011
Today’s editorial by WND editor has the same title as my blog entry, The Trouble with Libertarians. Economically, philosophically, and morally, libertarian ideas have been proven to be what is best for the vast majority of people, but the implementation of libertarian ideas by Libertarians have made the Libertarian Party unpalatable for the majority of Americans.
There is a paradigm shift in this country happening, it’s not Republican/Democrat or Left/Right, or Conservative/Liberal. The people are realizing that there is now a war between those who love liberty and all it entails and statists who want to control everything. The Libertarian Party should take advantage of this paradigm shift, but as our 40 year history has shown, we once again we shoot ourselves in the foot. We have again furthered our image of Amoral Atheistic Anarchists. This unfortunately accurate combination of descriptors will insure that the American people will only rarely elect Libertarian candidates. Ron Paul, arguably the most successful candidate wearing the libertarian moniker, is not a member of the Libertarian Party. Because he has realized that to win elections and have a positive affect for liberty for all Americans, he had to abandon the LP. Americans will not elect Amoral Atheistic Anarchists.
Last week’s press release by LP Chairman, Mark Hinkle, unnecessarily alienated over half the US population and hypocritically compromised libertarian principles. By saying that, "Permitting couples to marry when they are of the same gender is a step in the direction of equality before the law” he said the LP is willing to compromise its principles, and willing to alienate the majority of the population which hold the more than 5000 year old belief that marriage is between a man and a woman; thus supporting the idea that a small minority can use the force of government to change the very definition accepted for thousands of years, and force not only tolerance but acceptance of their beliefs and silence the majority. This at its core is contrary the Principles of Liberty.
Hinkle was quite right when he said that "the idea that someone's legal rights should depend on whether they've entered a government-approved relationship ought to be repugnant to all of us." The Christian principle of Equality under the Law, properly adopted by both our founding fathers and the Libertarian Party, should make the idea of providing any special privileges or punishments to anybody repugnant. Saying that expanding the special privileges of some to include a few more only strengthens the idea that unequal treatment under the law is acceptable, and undermines Libertarians calling themselves “The Party of Principle.”
Most Americans firmly believe that all people should be free to do as they wish so long as they don’t infringe upon the rights of others. That means that most Americans tolerate but do not condone, approve, or even accept the amoral behavior of others, only that they accept that with liberty and freedom one must tolerate socially abhorrent behavior if it doesn’t infringe upon the rights of another. Thus to protect the free speech of everybody, we tolerate the racist bigoted hateful speech of both the KKK and Black Panthers. Toleration of such speech does not mean Americans condone it.
The LP could have taken a far more principled stand, and opened the LP up to both the LBGT community, and the majority of Americans who tolerate but don’t condone homosexuality. People are free to voluntarily enter into binding contracts, and the government’s duty is to justly honor and protect those contracts through the judicial system, but in no way should any person be given any special privileges or punishments based upon the voluntary private contracts that they enter. The LP’s sole position on marriage should be that it is not the job of the government to sanction marriage, the government’s purpose is to protect the rights of all people equally. To further that end our judicial system was created to justly administer criminal law and civil contracts.
From a moral or philosophical perspective how can justifying or supporting unequal treatment of singles or couples who choose not to enter legal contracts, over those who choose to be in contractual partnerships, be construed as a libertarian principle? The very idea, that expanding unequal treatment to include another sub-group is acceptable, is hypocritical pandering that makes the LP look no better or different than the Democrats or Republicans, and further hurts the reputation and image of the LP in the eyes of Americans. What Libertarian Principle justifies laws that treat some people different than others?
Today’s WND editorial, will reach more people than all the Libertarian press releases, blogs, and other stories combined. WND has more libertarian commentators than almost any other source, and regularly supports libertarian principles. At WND you can regularly find the writings of Wayne Allen Root, Walter E. Williams, John Stossel, Thomas Sowell, VoxDay, Lew Rockwell, and virtually every other credible libertarian of note. WND reflects the position of most Americans, who support libertarian ideology but reject the Libertarian Party.
Other libertarian organizations quite purposefully do not associate themselves with the LP. The reason they don’t is because they realize that their credibility with the American public is suspect if they do. The biggest ground swell in American politics in the last have century is the TEA Party movement. It’s a true grass roots movement made of many small organizations with no central control or authority. Any attempt by some to claim leadership is quite obviously a lie, as the many grass root TEA Parties throughout the country get very upset at some distant person they didn’t choose and not affiliated to their group claiming to be their leader. The TEA Party clearly embraces the Philosophy of Liberty and more than half the country associated itself with the TEA Party movement. The reason the American people have gravitated to it and not the LP, which should be their natural home, is because of the LP image.
Columnist Dick Morris, wrote in the National Review about libertarianism and the TEA party, "The libertarian strain in the American electorate has long been neglected by the mainstream media. But, through the tea party, it has gained ascendancy on the right. Those who want the government to stay out of both boardrooms and bedrooms have come to dominate the [Republican] party and its nominating process." He totally ignored the LP, because he believes it is irrelevant.
The Libertarian Party (LP) has remained virtually the same small portion of the electorate for decades. We can open ourselves up to a far larger segment of the population not only small special interest groups like the LBGT community, but also the far larger majority of the US population which still holds to Christian principles. Libertarian ideology is rooted in the same principles that were used to form our constitution. Whether we want to admit it or not those are Judeo-Christian principles. Christ’s example was to tolerate, help, and pray for sinners, he never condoned sinful behavior, but did recognize the free will God gave all men, and never advocated force to gain acceptance. If we continue to alienate over half the population by compromising our principles in order to trash Judeo-Christian beliefs, we will continue to have the same results, and remain a very small group, and virtually powerless except as a foil or joke for political pundits. Libertarian principles and values are main stream but Libertarians aren’t.
To be successful the LP must quit shooting ourselves in the foot. LP Chairman, Mark Hinkle’s last press release did nothing to help the LP, and only confirmed the image most Americans have of the LP, an image the people have consistently said with their vote is not compatible who they want to lead our country. Our party is insane to think that we can continue to embrace our Amoral Atheistic Anarchist image, and have any different acceptance by the American people. The LP is almost powerless because not only do we have to deal with all the inherent inequalities that being a third party entails, we have embraced an image the American people have rejected. The LP must stand by its principles; but to be effective in American politics we must also shed our Amoral Atheistic Anarchist image. I believe we can do both, but our leadership must recognize that we have an image problem and address it.
Vice-Chair Libertarian Party of Citrus County
Chairman LPF Platform Committee
6/13/2011
Today’s editorial by WND editor has the same title as my blog entry, The Trouble with Libertarians. Economically, philosophically, and morally, libertarian ideas have been proven to be what is best for the vast majority of people, but the implementation of libertarian ideas by Libertarians have made the Libertarian Party unpalatable for the majority of Americans.
There is a paradigm shift in this country happening, it’s not Republican/Democrat or Left/Right, or Conservative/Liberal. The people are realizing that there is now a war between those who love liberty and all it entails and statists who want to control everything. The Libertarian Party should take advantage of this paradigm shift, but as our 40 year history has shown, we once again we shoot ourselves in the foot. We have again furthered our image of Amoral Atheistic Anarchists. This unfortunately accurate combination of descriptors will insure that the American people will only rarely elect Libertarian candidates. Ron Paul, arguably the most successful candidate wearing the libertarian moniker, is not a member of the Libertarian Party. Because he has realized that to win elections and have a positive affect for liberty for all Americans, he had to abandon the LP. Americans will not elect Amoral Atheistic Anarchists.
Last week’s press release by LP Chairman, Mark Hinkle, unnecessarily alienated over half the US population and hypocritically compromised libertarian principles. By saying that, "Permitting couples to marry when they are of the same gender is a step in the direction of equality before the law” he said the LP is willing to compromise its principles, and willing to alienate the majority of the population which hold the more than 5000 year old belief that marriage is between a man and a woman; thus supporting the idea that a small minority can use the force of government to change the very definition accepted for thousands of years, and force not only tolerance but acceptance of their beliefs and silence the majority. This at its core is contrary the Principles of Liberty.
Hinkle was quite right when he said that "the idea that someone's legal rights should depend on whether they've entered a government-approved relationship ought to be repugnant to all of us." The Christian principle of Equality under the Law, properly adopted by both our founding fathers and the Libertarian Party, should make the idea of providing any special privileges or punishments to anybody repugnant. Saying that expanding the special privileges of some to include a few more only strengthens the idea that unequal treatment under the law is acceptable, and undermines Libertarians calling themselves “The Party of Principle.”
Most Americans firmly believe that all people should be free to do as they wish so long as they don’t infringe upon the rights of others. That means that most Americans tolerate but do not condone, approve, or even accept the amoral behavior of others, only that they accept that with liberty and freedom one must tolerate socially abhorrent behavior if it doesn’t infringe upon the rights of another. Thus to protect the free speech of everybody, we tolerate the racist bigoted hateful speech of both the KKK and Black Panthers. Toleration of such speech does not mean Americans condone it.
The LP could have taken a far more principled stand, and opened the LP up to both the LBGT community, and the majority of Americans who tolerate but don’t condone homosexuality. People are free to voluntarily enter into binding contracts, and the government’s duty is to justly honor and protect those contracts through the judicial system, but in no way should any person be given any special privileges or punishments based upon the voluntary private contracts that they enter. The LP’s sole position on marriage should be that it is not the job of the government to sanction marriage, the government’s purpose is to protect the rights of all people equally. To further that end our judicial system was created to justly administer criminal law and civil contracts.
From a moral or philosophical perspective how can justifying or supporting unequal treatment of singles or couples who choose not to enter legal contracts, over those who choose to be in contractual partnerships, be construed as a libertarian principle? The very idea, that expanding unequal treatment to include another sub-group is acceptable, is hypocritical pandering that makes the LP look no better or different than the Democrats or Republicans, and further hurts the reputation and image of the LP in the eyes of Americans. What Libertarian Principle justifies laws that treat some people different than others?
Today’s WND editorial, will reach more people than all the Libertarian press releases, blogs, and other stories combined. WND has more libertarian commentators than almost any other source, and regularly supports libertarian principles. At WND you can regularly find the writings of Wayne Allen Root, Walter E. Williams, John Stossel, Thomas Sowell, VoxDay, Lew Rockwell, and virtually every other credible libertarian of note. WND reflects the position of most Americans, who support libertarian ideology but reject the Libertarian Party.
Other libertarian organizations quite purposefully do not associate themselves with the LP. The reason they don’t is because they realize that their credibility with the American public is suspect if they do. The biggest ground swell in American politics in the last have century is the TEA Party movement. It’s a true grass roots movement made of many small organizations with no central control or authority. Any attempt by some to claim leadership is quite obviously a lie, as the many grass root TEA Parties throughout the country get very upset at some distant person they didn’t choose and not affiliated to their group claiming to be their leader. The TEA Party clearly embraces the Philosophy of Liberty and more than half the country associated itself with the TEA Party movement. The reason the American people have gravitated to it and not the LP, which should be their natural home, is because of the LP image.
Columnist Dick Morris, wrote in the National Review about libertarianism and the TEA party, "The libertarian strain in the American electorate has long been neglected by the mainstream media. But, through the tea party, it has gained ascendancy on the right. Those who want the government to stay out of both boardrooms and bedrooms have come to dominate the [Republican] party and its nominating process." He totally ignored the LP, because he believes it is irrelevant.
The Libertarian Party (LP) has remained virtually the same small portion of the electorate for decades. We can open ourselves up to a far larger segment of the population not only small special interest groups like the LBGT community, but also the far larger majority of the US population which still holds to Christian principles. Libertarian ideology is rooted in the same principles that were used to form our constitution. Whether we want to admit it or not those are Judeo-Christian principles. Christ’s example was to tolerate, help, and pray for sinners, he never condoned sinful behavior, but did recognize the free will God gave all men, and never advocated force to gain acceptance. If we continue to alienate over half the population by compromising our principles in order to trash Judeo-Christian beliefs, we will continue to have the same results, and remain a very small group, and virtually powerless except as a foil or joke for political pundits. Libertarian principles and values are main stream but Libertarians aren’t.
To be successful the LP must quit shooting ourselves in the foot. LP Chairman, Mark Hinkle’s last press release did nothing to help the LP, and only confirmed the image most Americans have of the LP, an image the people have consistently said with their vote is not compatible who they want to lead our country. Our party is insane to think that we can continue to embrace our Amoral Atheistic Anarchist image, and have any different acceptance by the American people. The LP is almost powerless because not only do we have to deal with all the inherent inequalities that being a third party entails, we have embraced an image the American people have rejected. The LP must stand by its principles; but to be effective in American politics we must also shed our Amoral Atheistic Anarchist image. I believe we can do both, but our leadership must recognize that we have an image problem and address it.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Are we a Serious Political Party?
It’s the Day after the election, the Libertarian Party, and the Libertarian Party of Florida (LPF) specifically performed as expected. We lost. Actually we didn’t lose; we weren’t even in the game. Not a surprise, not a shock, not a setback. No rational person would have expected any less, the leadership in the LPF keeps doing what it’s always done and keeps getting the same results. Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” The LPF keeps doing the same thing and keeps getting the same result. Either as Libertarians we are insane or we don’t want to be a serious political party and win elections.
The Libertarian Party of Florida is run by the Executive Committee (EC). This consists of the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, directors at large, and area representatives. The LPF cannot fill all the area representative positions, because that position requires a large expenditure of personal time and money. The State party doesn’t even cover the mileage area representatives put on their cars doing party business. As I’ve said before the LPF and EC acts more like a social debate club than the third largest party in the Great State of Florida. The EC meets regularly but if you are a mere LPF member or even an officer in a county affiliate you would never know. Since the beginning of 2009, as an officer of the Libertarian Party of Citrus County, I can attest that our local affiliate received exactly ZERO communications from the EC.
After the election of Obama, it became obvious that change was necessary because both the major parties were leading us down the road to socialism. So I like a lot of people decided to do something. The TEA party hadn’t started, I’d been a registered Libertarian for decades, so I decided to go to an LP meeting and get involved. I left that meeting as the affiliate treasurer and committed to creating a webpage/blog for the county affiliate. Now the Citrus County Libertarian Party, is very small, Citrus County has only about 150 registered libertarians, and fewer than ½ a dozen want to be active. I’m now the Vice Chair, and the Chair is Greg Lennon. Once our affiliate became real, both Greg and I started hitting the LPF for help, we were totally new to politics, and were hoping for some help. There wasn’t any help from the state. The state wanted our help, but offered nothing. Greg kept driving and driving the LPF to become more professional, asking hard questions and offering solutions, and put in countless hours to gather information. I don’t know all the ins and outs but before you know it, Greg was secretary of the LPF. His hard driving has forced some changes. In January 2010, at his request I researched and presented a plan to help the county affiliates look more professional, it was a small gesture to supply professional looking 10X10 canopies from EZ-Up so that the affiliates would present an uniform image of the LPF, look professional at political rallies, and so that the LPF would demonstrate some support for the affiliates. Because it was not free the EC shot it down completely. For an example of how do-nothing the LPF is, try to find a single expenditure for a table, booth, or participation in any rally, gun show, state fair, or convention of any sort in the state of Florida. Zero - Zip - Nada participation. When former the Region 2 Director asked why, the answer from the current LPF Chair Vicki Kirkland was “Because the LPF is too cheap.” At least it was an honest answer.
At the 2010 state convention the treasures report for the 2009 fiscal year indicated that the LPF spent a whopping $2400 in 2009. The State of Florida has the third largest number of registered Libertarians in the nation, and the party did all its business, support, advertising, and everything else spending less than $2500 all year, and still had about the same $50,000 in the bank it had at the end of 2008; clearly the party did not waste funds. So when the opportunity from the floor of the State Convention to comment came, I openly accused the EC of fiscal malfeasance. Not for miss use of LPF funds but for failure to use the funds entrusted to grow, promote, and further the LPF. Jesus told a parable about that, Mathew 25:14-30, Christ calld the man who did nothing with the gold he was entrusted, a “You wicked, lazy servant!” In no way could the third largest political party in the State of Florida be considered a serious political party and spend a less than $2500 in a year. Zero dollars were spent supporting candidates. Zero dollars were spent fund raising. The only money spent was to cover minimal administration costs. This includes all money the state party spent on the annual state convention. The leaders of the LPF have shown themselves to be wicked, lazy servants to the members of the Libertarian Party of Florida.
At the end of the summer I saw a new picture on the LPF web page for our chair person but it still had JJ’s name. Because Greg was secretary, and I’m fairly active, I know a couple of members of the EC. I called and found out that the EC forced the resignation of former Chair JJ McCurry. I asked a couple EC members why there was no news of this to the county affiliates and why the web page had a new picture for the chairperson with the old name. Within a day or two there was a brief welcome letter from the new chair and the web page was fixed, I called the Chairs of all the major metro area county affiliates, and of a few minor county affiliates, to find out if any of them had heard that our Chairperson had resigned (or if they knew he had been forced to resign)? None knew, in fact none had ever received any communications from the EC for years until this year when our secretary send out administrative requests for county affiliation. I was told by virtually all the active Libertarian Party county affiliates that they simply ignore the state, as it never does anything (see LPF financial reports for verification). Since we have gotten a new party chair, there have been a handful of emails from the Chair to the entire LPF email list. No details of EC meetings, or what the EC is doing but it is an improvement. The EC still totally ignores its county affiliates, and if not for the works of some new blood in the party would still do totally nothing. That might be unfair, the EC meets a lot, and probably does stuff, but it is not visible to the public, the libertarian party membership, or the leaders of Libertarian County Affiliates. So whatever it is that the EC does do is totally invisible.
Over the past two years the shinning achievement of the EC, and LPF leadership was to recruit Alex Snitker to be a Libertarian. Alex Snitker this year’s LP Candidate for U.S. Senate, has done more for the LP and motivated more LP members to be active, than the LPF leadership has done in several decades. At this year’s state convention, the members and representatives from the local counties, and Snitker had to shame the EC into doing anything to help local chapters, they committed to purchasing the canopies that they had earlier turned down, and getting T-Shirts to help with fund raising. The EC did let loose of $9,999 to help Alex Snitker pay the state fee and get on the Florida Ballot. The EC did not appear happy that the membership was forcing them to do something that they had previously decided they didn’t want to do.
So when I accused the EC of fiscal malfeasance, I was told that 2009 was not an election year, and we’d see the action and activity in 2010. Well it’s the day after the election and the LPF has around $35K in the bank. It looks like other than the $10K to Alex Snitker to get on the ballot, the money for rally canopies and some T-Shirts that the affiliates forced the EC to spend, and the usual minimal administration expenses; all financial indicators show that the LPF has again done nothing. This year we have all seen the people of the nation and State of Florida horribly upset at both the GOP and Democrats, the opportunity to expose the LPF to the citizens of Florida and have the message of Liberty heard has never been better. The current leadership of the LPF failed to act. Since they have shown that they can run the state party on a mere $2500 a year, what excuse do they have not to have spent every penny in the treasury to do everything they could to show Florida that the LPF is a serious party, with serious ideas, and a serious mission to protect the Liberty for every Florida citizen. The only visible activity of the EC has been lots of changes in EC membership, so it appears that the only visible actions of the Executive Council members have been political fighting amongst themselves.
Like I said at the start it’s the day after the election, the Libertarian Party, and the LPF specifically performed as expected. We lost. The LPF keeps doing the same thing (nothing) and getting the same results. Why? I believe it is because the LPF has poor leadership, and the majority of the EC just want a social debate club not a serious political party. The EC has done nothing to expose the members of the Libertarian party to the libertarian message much less the citizens of Florida. The EC has no vision: If the EC does have a vision it clearly hasn’t articulated it, and isn’t ineffective at reaching whatever that vision might be. The Executive Committee of the Libertarian Party of Florida with very few exceptions doesn’t do anything unless forced to. From inside the EC Greg Lennon is trying to make the LPF a professional political party; from outside the EC Alex Snitker and his campaign is trying to make the LPF a professional political party. Some members of the EC are good people trying to do the best they can, but they are not leaders, and are ineffective. The distinct lack of professional fund raising, the distinct unwillingness to take any actions, the political back stabbing in the EC against anybody who does try to do anything or who tries to make change, and the general elitist attitude expressed by “old guard” LPF leaders who don’t want to be held accountable, are all signs that EC has failed the LPF.
I was at last night’s “victory” party for Alex Snitker. Alex Snitker proudly, loudly, and assuredly proclaimed that he is and will remain a Libertarian. No attacks on anybody, no name calling, just a clear vision for Liberty and Freedom that the LPF leadership lacks. He also announced that he will be going after Bill Nelson’s U.S. Senate seat in 2012. Alex is a leader. The LPF needs leaders, not administrators. I’m sure he won’t take the job as LPF Chair because it would make running for office impossible, but we need Alex or somebody like him heading the LPF. There are people who hold titles at the top of the LPF, many of them may be capable administrators, who do the minutia of administering the party, but there is no leader, no visionary, no person to proudly and loudly proclaim what the Libertarian Party of Florida is and where it is going, and leads to that goal.
If the Libertarian Party of Florida is to be successful at the April 2011 state convention we must end the insanity. We must elect leaders with vision and drive, who will unite and energize the party. We must change the image of the LP in the eyes of the public. We must end the reign of the wicked and lazy Executive Council that has made the LPF appear to the public to be nothing more than an insignificant little debate club for crackpots and not a serious political party. If we the members and county affiliates of the Libertarian Party in Florida keep doing what we’ve always done and elect the same people we have for years, then we can expect the same results. We will continue to lose at the polls.
Tom Rhodes
Vice Chair Libertarian Party of Citrus County
11/3/2010
The Libertarian Party of Florida is run by the Executive Committee (EC). This consists of the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, directors at large, and area representatives. The LPF cannot fill all the area representative positions, because that position requires a large expenditure of personal time and money. The State party doesn’t even cover the mileage area representatives put on their cars doing party business. As I’ve said before the LPF and EC acts more like a social debate club than the third largest party in the Great State of Florida. The EC meets regularly but if you are a mere LPF member or even an officer in a county affiliate you would never know. Since the beginning of 2009, as an officer of the Libertarian Party of Citrus County, I can attest that our local affiliate received exactly ZERO communications from the EC.
After the election of Obama, it became obvious that change was necessary because both the major parties were leading us down the road to socialism. So I like a lot of people decided to do something. The TEA party hadn’t started, I’d been a registered Libertarian for decades, so I decided to go to an LP meeting and get involved. I left that meeting as the affiliate treasurer and committed to creating a webpage/blog for the county affiliate. Now the Citrus County Libertarian Party, is very small, Citrus County has only about 150 registered libertarians, and fewer than ½ a dozen want to be active. I’m now the Vice Chair, and the Chair is Greg Lennon. Once our affiliate became real, both Greg and I started hitting the LPF for help, we were totally new to politics, and were hoping for some help. There wasn’t any help from the state. The state wanted our help, but offered nothing. Greg kept driving and driving the LPF to become more professional, asking hard questions and offering solutions, and put in countless hours to gather information. I don’t know all the ins and outs but before you know it, Greg was secretary of the LPF. His hard driving has forced some changes. In January 2010, at his request I researched and presented a plan to help the county affiliates look more professional, it was a small gesture to supply professional looking 10X10 canopies from EZ-Up so that the affiliates would present an uniform image of the LPF, look professional at political rallies, and so that the LPF would demonstrate some support for the affiliates. Because it was not free the EC shot it down completely. For an example of how do-nothing the LPF is, try to find a single expenditure for a table, booth, or participation in any rally, gun show, state fair, or convention of any sort in the state of Florida. Zero - Zip - Nada participation. When former the Region 2 Director asked why, the answer from the current LPF Chair Vicki Kirkland was “Because the LPF is too cheap.” At least it was an honest answer.
At the 2010 state convention the treasures report for the 2009 fiscal year indicated that the LPF spent a whopping $2400 in 2009. The State of Florida has the third largest number of registered Libertarians in the nation, and the party did all its business, support, advertising, and everything else spending less than $2500 all year, and still had about the same $50,000 in the bank it had at the end of 2008; clearly the party did not waste funds. So when the opportunity from the floor of the State Convention to comment came, I openly accused the EC of fiscal malfeasance. Not for miss use of LPF funds but for failure to use the funds entrusted to grow, promote, and further the LPF. Jesus told a parable about that, Mathew 25:14-30, Christ calld the man who did nothing with the gold he was entrusted, a “You wicked, lazy servant!” In no way could the third largest political party in the State of Florida be considered a serious political party and spend a less than $2500 in a year. Zero dollars were spent supporting candidates. Zero dollars were spent fund raising. The only money spent was to cover minimal administration costs. This includes all money the state party spent on the annual state convention. The leaders of the LPF have shown themselves to be wicked, lazy servants to the members of the Libertarian Party of Florida.
At the end of the summer I saw a new picture on the LPF web page for our chair person but it still had JJ’s name. Because Greg was secretary, and I’m fairly active, I know a couple of members of the EC. I called and found out that the EC forced the resignation of former Chair JJ McCurry. I asked a couple EC members why there was no news of this to the county affiliates and why the web page had a new picture for the chairperson with the old name. Within a day or two there was a brief welcome letter from the new chair and the web page was fixed, I called the Chairs of all the major metro area county affiliates, and of a few minor county affiliates, to find out if any of them had heard that our Chairperson had resigned (or if they knew he had been forced to resign)? None knew, in fact none had ever received any communications from the EC for years until this year when our secretary send out administrative requests for county affiliation. I was told by virtually all the active Libertarian Party county affiliates that they simply ignore the state, as it never does anything (see LPF financial reports for verification). Since we have gotten a new party chair, there have been a handful of emails from the Chair to the entire LPF email list. No details of EC meetings, or what the EC is doing but it is an improvement. The EC still totally ignores its county affiliates, and if not for the works of some new blood in the party would still do totally nothing. That might be unfair, the EC meets a lot, and probably does stuff, but it is not visible to the public, the libertarian party membership, or the leaders of Libertarian County Affiliates. So whatever it is that the EC does do is totally invisible.
Over the past two years the shinning achievement of the EC, and LPF leadership was to recruit Alex Snitker to be a Libertarian. Alex Snitker this year’s LP Candidate for U.S. Senate, has done more for the LP and motivated more LP members to be active, than the LPF leadership has done in several decades. At this year’s state convention, the members and representatives from the local counties, and Snitker had to shame the EC into doing anything to help local chapters, they committed to purchasing the canopies that they had earlier turned down, and getting T-Shirts to help with fund raising. The EC did let loose of $9,999 to help Alex Snitker pay the state fee and get on the Florida Ballot. The EC did not appear happy that the membership was forcing them to do something that they had previously decided they didn’t want to do.
So when I accused the EC of fiscal malfeasance, I was told that 2009 was not an election year, and we’d see the action and activity in 2010. Well it’s the day after the election and the LPF has around $35K in the bank. It looks like other than the $10K to Alex Snitker to get on the ballot, the money for rally canopies and some T-Shirts that the affiliates forced the EC to spend, and the usual minimal administration expenses; all financial indicators show that the LPF has again done nothing. This year we have all seen the people of the nation and State of Florida horribly upset at both the GOP and Democrats, the opportunity to expose the LPF to the citizens of Florida and have the message of Liberty heard has never been better. The current leadership of the LPF failed to act. Since they have shown that they can run the state party on a mere $2500 a year, what excuse do they have not to have spent every penny in the treasury to do everything they could to show Florida that the LPF is a serious party, with serious ideas, and a serious mission to protect the Liberty for every Florida citizen. The only visible activity of the EC has been lots of changes in EC membership, so it appears that the only visible actions of the Executive Council members have been political fighting amongst themselves.
Like I said at the start it’s the day after the election, the Libertarian Party, and the LPF specifically performed as expected. We lost. The LPF keeps doing the same thing (nothing) and getting the same results. Why? I believe it is because the LPF has poor leadership, and the majority of the EC just want a social debate club not a serious political party. The EC has done nothing to expose the members of the Libertarian party to the libertarian message much less the citizens of Florida. The EC has no vision: If the EC does have a vision it clearly hasn’t articulated it, and isn’t ineffective at reaching whatever that vision might be. The Executive Committee of the Libertarian Party of Florida with very few exceptions doesn’t do anything unless forced to. From inside the EC Greg Lennon is trying to make the LPF a professional political party; from outside the EC Alex Snitker and his campaign is trying to make the LPF a professional political party. Some members of the EC are good people trying to do the best they can, but they are not leaders, and are ineffective. The distinct lack of professional fund raising, the distinct unwillingness to take any actions, the political back stabbing in the EC against anybody who does try to do anything or who tries to make change, and the general elitist attitude expressed by “old guard” LPF leaders who don’t want to be held accountable, are all signs that EC has failed the LPF.
I was at last night’s “victory” party for Alex Snitker. Alex Snitker proudly, loudly, and assuredly proclaimed that he is and will remain a Libertarian. No attacks on anybody, no name calling, just a clear vision for Liberty and Freedom that the LPF leadership lacks. He also announced that he will be going after Bill Nelson’s U.S. Senate seat in 2012. Alex is a leader. The LPF needs leaders, not administrators. I’m sure he won’t take the job as LPF Chair because it would make running for office impossible, but we need Alex or somebody like him heading the LPF. There are people who hold titles at the top of the LPF, many of them may be capable administrators, who do the minutia of administering the party, but there is no leader, no visionary, no person to proudly and loudly proclaim what the Libertarian Party of Florida is and where it is going, and leads to that goal.
If the Libertarian Party of Florida is to be successful at the April 2011 state convention we must end the insanity. We must elect leaders with vision and drive, who will unite and energize the party. We must change the image of the LP in the eyes of the public. We must end the reign of the wicked and lazy Executive Council that has made the LPF appear to the public to be nothing more than an insignificant little debate club for crackpots and not a serious political party. If we the members and county affiliates of the Libertarian Party in Florida keep doing what we’ve always done and elect the same people we have for years, then we can expect the same results. We will continue to lose at the polls.
Tom Rhodes
Vice Chair Libertarian Party of Citrus County
11/3/2010
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