New at Reason

Brian Doherty | November 6, 2006

Brian Doherty peers into the Libertarian Party's election playbook and finds fresh and familiar faces fighting losing some big battles... but winning some smaller ones.

Comments

|11.6.06 @ 2:40PM|#

Hey, what about Loretta Nall??

|11.6.06 @ 2:58PM|#

This is why election time is so depressing for me every year. Sort of like the first Christmas after all your friends and family just died in fiery plane crash.

Brian Doherty|11.6.06 @ 3:00PM|#

Jim--As unlikely as success for any LP candidate is, success for WRITE-IN LP candidates such as Nall is so unlikely it barely seemed worth writing about....

ChrisO|11.6.06 @ 3:23PM|#

I think the retail politics issue is the key. Most people who run in local LP races are average workin' stiffs who can't practically spend weeks knocking on doors, and might not be the sort of political creature who wants to do that.

Problem is, until Libertarians start winning locally, they haven't a hope of winning any higher offices or becoming a real force in American politics.

|11.6.06 @ 3:56PM|#

Well, coming from a county in Washington that has all mail in ballots, I proudly voted for Guthrie. I listened to the debate on radio and found myself agreeing with the man. He also had more integrity than the Democrat and Republican put together. Before the debate I was thinking of holding my nose and voting for Cantwell (whom I'm not fond of, but she was the lesser of two stinking heaps of evil). Guthrie won my vote, however, and I'm happy to provide it.

John M. Joy|11.6.06 @ 4:29PM|#

Even when he appeared in a debate with his opponents, he tells me, a long TV report on the debate managed to never mention him, even though he was visibly standing there.

And this isn't surprising.

A wise man once explained the phenomenon to me: the news media are in business to make money, which they do via ad revenue, which, in turn, derives from eyeballs (or ears, in the case of radio).

Therefore, two things are of paramount importance to them: making sure they actually have news to report, and reporting on it in a manner reasonably consistent with the viewing/listening audience's preconceived notions. (No, they are not there to be "objective," "fair," "honest," "truthful," ..., no matter how much they may claim they are.)

The former point is the reason why "minor party" candidates (and this means any candidate not likely to win - witness the coverage for the campaign of the hapless Alan Schlesinger) get no play in the press: since they're unlikely to win, they're not worth providing the free air and inches. They must always keep on the good side of the "power players" lest they be denied coveted "access." Neither Schlesinger nor Maymin are power players; ergo... (The fact that Al is a major party kid shunned and abandoned by his own "family" is newsy in its own right, and the only reason he's received any coverage, at all.)

The same holds for the latter point, as well. They won't cover "fresh faces" or "new ideas" since they perceive this isn't what the public wants. By and large, they're right, unfortunately. And if they provide it to any substantial degree, the viewing public might just turn the channel. (The same psychology holds true for us, too: how many of us read non-libertarian leaning publications regularly?)

We need to face it: the game is rigged, the wagons circled, etc. "The system" cannot be fixed from within the system.

JMJ

Robert|11.6.06 @ 4:37PM|#

Of the various ways tested over the years to achieve (or resist) change, forming and operating one's own political party scores very poorly. Every bit of time & money spent on it could be better spent on methods that have a much better chance of success. Operating in someone else's political party, for instance, gives you a lot more leverage.

John M. Joy|11.6.06 @ 4:55PM|#

Operating in someone else's political party, for instance, gives you a lot more leverage.

Except that (as the folk Downeast would say) you can't get there from here.

Years back, when I was running on the LP ticket from local office, I had the occasion to have a candid conversation with the town chair of one of the major parties (who happened to be a friend of mine). He said to me, "I've gotta tell you, I'm jealous." Huh? I'm in a party of (at the time) four, and you're the chair of a party representing about a third of registered voters in town, and you're jealous?

"Yes," he replied, "because you get to say exactly what you think. I can't."

Essentially, it's like this: while it's true you can join a major party, to rise in the party, you have to walk, talk, and act like one of them. If you don't "play ball" you can expect to be kicked off the team, or at least benched. (Once again, witness Alan Schlesinger, who refused to take a dive, and got to watch as his party threw its tacit endorsement to Lieberman.)

JMJ

|11.6.06 @ 5:18PM|#

We need to face it: the game is rigged, the wagons circled, etc. "The system" cannot be fixed from within the system.

I always joke with my father about running for alderman just so I could be a negator in the meetings. We were driving past a group of people waving campaign signs when it hit me that it could never work.

I realized that in order to get elected, you need to have a flock of people out campaigning for you. These people expect to receive your patronage once you get elected. They need the corruption of the system for jobs, or protectionist, or contracts or whatever. This will never mesh with the libertarian idea of reducing the influence of government in our lives.

John M. Joy|11.6.06 @ 5:35PM|#

I realized that in order to get elected, you need to have a flock of people out campaigning for you. These people expect to receive your patronage once you get elected. They need the corruption of the system for jobs, or protectionist, or contracts or whatever.

Yep. And you're seeing this even at the local alderman level. Project this to state and federal offices, where the really BIG goodies - jobs (= money), contracts (= money), appointments (= power and money), and, of course, the big regulatory stick to be wielded against business/religious competitors (= power and money, for the preacherman, anyway, in the latter case) - await being handed out.

JMJ

|11.6.06 @ 7:43PM|#

Any third-party candidate will have trouble making headway as long as the MSM media, especially TV anchors, report that "both candidates" are campaigning.

|11.6.06 @ 9:18PM|#

sigh.

once every 45 years or so, something happens in wyoming that makes national political news.

and what do we get for it? we get called "wisconsin".

-cab (physically in nh, but still with a few drops of cowboy blood)

Robert|11.7.06 @ 6:10PM|#

"while it's true you can join a major party, to rise in the party, you have to walk, talk, and act like one of them."

Oh yeah? How did they get to be "them"? You saying that political parties are set in motion by their founders, and never change? Hah! Obviously individuals earn, and exert, influence that changes things.

"I realized that in order to get elected, you need to have a flock of people out campaigning for you. These people expect to receive your patronage once you get elected. They need the corruption of the system for jobs, or protectionist, or contracts or whatever. This will never mesh with the libertarian idea of reducing the influence of government in our lives."

Pshaw. You vastly overestimate the price of patronage. You can pay off every single campaign worker for a tiny sliver of the amount of money that gov't jurisdiction spends. Gov't could be reduced 99% while every single leader is paid off in full with much less than the 1% that remains.

|11.7.06 @ 6:13PM|#

thank you brian.

|11.10.06 @ 12:43PM|#

Brian wrote:

Jim--As unlikely as success for any LP candidate is, success for WRITE-IN LP candidates such as Nall is so unlikely it barely seemed worth writing about....

Yeah, but it seemed to me she got more national publicity than all the other LP candidates actually on the ballot put together.
I guess we won't find out how she actually did for some time, if ever....
http://nallforgovernor.blogspot.com/