DRRRRRTY SOUTH LIBAHTARIAN REPRUHZENT!

I'm sure there are plenty of "cool" ways to express libertarian ideas in a song or rap. I'm all for it!

It would be really, really cool if you would remove all the 2006 candidates from the Candidate Tracker, leaving only the 2007 and 2008 candidates such as T. Lee Horne and Arin Sime. The time to get started supporting the 2007/2008 candidates is right now.

I was just thinking, part of any libertarian campaign or advertising could mention "a new attitude" or "bringing a new attitude to Washington" for national posts or to whatever locale one is running for state and local posts. Americans will more likely embrace an attitudinal shift than a "radical change."

I love the rap ad and it definitely focused on changing attitudes toward government and trying something new by voting for a Libertarian. Excellent.

I don't mean to imply that big changes are needed because, as well know, they are but people fear change if they think their own little world will be disrupted. That's why the Republicans and Democrats have been so successful at destroying our freedoms and stealing our money. They do it slowly over time(or in the middle of the night when no one is looking). We can advocate notification to the public of plans ahead of time and as they occur so everyone will know where we stand and that we will hold ourselves as well as our opponents accountable for their words and actions.

That should have read "I don't mean to imply that big changes AREN'T needed because, as we all know, they ARE."

Seems to me that a great time to get out the Libertarian message will be soon, as those who reluctantly voted for Democrats realize they are not going to be any better off. Maybe right after they all jointly announce that our troops are not coming home from Iraq, after all. To me, that would be the perfect moment.

From Wikipedia entry "Liberty Rocks," circa 2050:

Proving that they definitely were not about politics as usual, the 36-year old Libertarian Party turned the 2008 election season on end with an audacious move. Instead of a national convention that year, the Libertarian Party staged "Liberty Rocks 2008" -- now widely regarded by pop-culture historians as the music festival of the century, defining its generation as the original Woodstock Festival had done in the 1969. Famous and not-so-famous musical acts took the stage, by turns, playing liberty-themed tunes. Between the acts, Libertarian candidates and other speakers appealed to the audience's sense of liberty. As a result, the crowd of over 200,000 bonded into the nucleus of a powerful political force that helped seat five Libertarian congressmen and two Senators that year, and ultimately led to the election of the first Libertarian President in 2028, whose campaign borrowed the catch-phrase of Liberty Rocks attendees: "Were you there?"

Excellent! It is nice to see a progressive approach to promoting a Libertarian candidate and the libertarian philosophy. I hope our other candidates will explore alternative/progressive outreach activities.

Catchy, a good beat, you can dance to it! I'll give it a ninety-nine!

Just wanted to let everyone know that according to the artist, Lil' Nuke, there will be at least one additional song and maybe more.

The second song has already been written and is in production. I am told it is very good and is performed in a different style of music.

And if any state needs a Libertarian governor, its Louisiana. They have some of the harshest insurance laws and litigious environment in the country causing companies to avoid offering services in that state because it is so prohibitive to sound business practices.

James - great future Wikipedia idea. Maybe the Onion would be interested in an "Onion of the Future" edition about the world saving Libertarian Party.

Wow, everything looks great. I've never seen a Libertarian campaign with such broad support from minorities. I liked the rapping as well.

Mr. Lee Horne is on my top three list of Libertarian Party candidates to contribute to next year. He is out early and often campaigning and he deserves our support. There are not as many elections in 2007 and that will enable us to focus our resources. Mr. Horne's success can bring us a higher level of media coverage and public acceptance.

Another great way to get out the Libertarian message, at no cost I might add, is to post on blogs.

From time to time, I post on a blog at www.politics1.com. Politics1 posts a few news stories each day along with a blog thread for each story. There is also an open thread, which is open to anything and everything.

According to Politics1 traffic statistics, the site receives 13.5 million hits , nearly 1 million page views, and nearly a half million unique user sessions per month. So you're posting your message to a sizeable audience.

The site editor is a liberal, which is obvious in his editorializing. But the blogs are open to all political views. What is obvious from reading the blog posts is that many conservatives aren't satisfied with the Republicans and many liberals aren't satisfied with the Democrats. So this isn't a bad time to make a Libertarian pitch. The Green Party and the Constitution Party are already making their pitch on these blogs. Why let them have the third party spotlight alone?

Check out the site. I think you'll enjoy it.

Re: what Nick just said - I think '07 and '08 LP candidates should post blog ads fairly often on that politics1.com site.

That's a great video, I like the creativity very much. I can't say that anyone has written a song for my campaign yet, but we have made a simple little photo montage that's up on YouTube. Since a poster was nice enough to mention my campaign, I'll take the opportunity to link to my YouTube photo montage as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MArAnLHMg2s

This is great!!! I am emailing this to all of my friends in LA.

This is so not a good idea. We need to come across as a serious party, not a bunch of gangsters. Rap has a terrible connection with violence and poverty with a healthy helping of sex and drug use (not that either of those are a bad thing), but its not exactly a great way to motivate adults (which still make up the vast majority of voters) to come out and vote for us. Most senior citizens (who vote in massive numbers, thanks to organizations like AARP that do a very good job of mobilizing these voters to do what is needed to keep the Social Security scam alive at every election) consider rap music to be noise and they are instantly turned off by it and will ignore anything connected to it.

What I like about the campaigns of both T. Lee Horne and Arin Sime is that they are both out early and often meeting people. They also obviously appreciate and and are able to motivate volunteer support. I like the rap video for Horne by Lil Nuke more after I played it a second time a day later. It doesn't give me a feeling of violence or poverty. Rather it projects peace, love, freedom and responsibility to me. This is a big country and we can use many different music genres to reach out to people.

The message is out and almost everyone understands that the world is changing fast at an unprecedented rate. New problems are arising and old ones can no longer be ignored. Many people have zero confidence in the GOP and Dems to meet these new challenges. The Libertarian Party must stress in 07 and 08 that it is "The party of the 21st Century." I think that message will resonate with people. The party must figure out a way to communicate that message in a way that people will understand and more importantly to voters who don't even know what a Libertarian is. They must do this before elitists like Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, John Sweeney and Trent Lott dismantle our prized economic system.

Also, I think Liberatarians should remember Monhandis Gandhi's words as the party carries on in 07 and 08 when confronted by Dems and the GOP:
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you. And then you win."

It is unlikely we would be able to gain many elderly votes. They tend to vote the way they have for decades and are reluctant to change their ways, even if we plan to support Social Security for their generation because they have paid into it all their lives.

Not to say that is always the case but more often than not it will be. Reaching out to young people is our best chance at changing our world for the better. Young people are open to new ideas and will be voters for decades to come. If we tell young people about our ideas and plans for changing our government they will spread the word through their social network and the internet.

This rap ad is not expressing any violence, sexism, or drugs. It i simply a productive use of free expression. What's wrong with that?

But Nick, they don't get out and vote. And I don't mean elderly voters as in retirement age, this stuff offends even middle aged people. Its not their music, they don't understand it and they don't want anything to do with it and they will distance themselves from anyone who supports it. And while this piece doesn't preach any violence, drug use or sexism, most rap music does and thats what voters will think of (even if they don't admit it) when they hear this, we really should avoid bringing such unflattering images to the minds of voters when they think about us. There is a reason why the other parties aren't doing this.

Yeah, but Keith, the Libertarians are a third party, hardly a factor during the elections. It has been this way for over three decades. In order to get out of the third party doldrums we need to constantly think out of the box and try new things.
And another thing, the elderly and certain other people do not listen to rap. That ad specifically targets young blacks.

We need to be starting NOW on 2008.

I would suggest aggressive candidate recruitment and fundraising for the following 2008 Senate races:

Alaska (Open, Stevens retiring)
Colorado (Open, Allard retiring)
Minnesota (Coleman, highly vulnerable)
New Mexico (Open, Domenici retiring)
Virginia (Open, Warner retiring)

These are going to be aggressive, hard fought races, with a likely Democrat advantage in all of them. They are all going to be high profile and would give the Libertarian candidates good exposure. Of course, we should be putting feelers in the other sixteen contests that promise to be competive, ignoring for now the approxiametly twelve races likely to be uncompetitive.

My early feeling is that 2008 promises to be another Republican slaughter on the scale of 2006. However, because of the much larger number of Republican seats in this cycle, the net swing to Democrats could possibly hit +10, giving them more than the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture. Libertarian candidicies will probably aid this occurence, just as they have this election cycle.

Let's start raising/saving money NOW for a few good candidates in '08.

Jake Porter has started the ball rolling for a Libertarian PAC. Needed ASAP is expertise - a bookeeper/CPA, folks with PAC experience, folks with fundraising experience. Help.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freedompac/

Three Great Criminals of the 20th Century

Their names are so repulsive, we have come to know them by their initials only: FDR, JFK and LBJ. They will go down with Hitler, Stalin and Castro as the greatest criminals of their time. Their movement to make this country's people dependent on the government--ie, more socialist--reverberates even today. The corrupt two-party system is beholden to Socialist Security, Medicare and Medicaid, AFDC and a host of other government handouts, not to mention pork-barrell "earmarks". I hold FDR as a greater crook than Hitler: As Hitler stole 6 million physical lives; FDR stole human souls--some 500 million since 1932 and counting. People now work their entire lives only to be subjugated to the goverment when they are no longer able to work. People can now have children even though they can't pay for them because they know the government will. LBJ was basically the mouthpiece for the dead-as-a-doornail, disgusting JFK; he embraced most of JFK's corrupt policies because the political tide would have been against him if he didn't. Thanks to LBJ for substandard medical care granted through the Medicare and Medicaid Acts of 1965.

These three destroyed this great country. The only recourse is to make their crimes public and burn their bones, much as the Brits did with Oliver Cromwell. Let's set this country on the right course: No more government handouts. Back to the government of the Founding Fathers, ie, less government. Personal responsibility for one's life. Period. But you know what? It will never happen. Our people are spoiled and want their grandchildren to pay the price for their willing participation in this now-socialist state.

Karl Marx stated in his Communist Manifesto: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. I can't think of a more fitting motto for today's American government.

One of the Founding Fathers said we needed a revolution every now and then to set things on the right course. We were due for one 50 years ago.

Where's Hammer of Truth and Liberty Mix, you know the blog with an LP member on staff that received donations of over $10,000 to support it; then a week after stating Liberty Mix was ready to go (5 months late as it was), it disappears for 10 days and counting?

Art, by that logic we should blame every politician for allowing the disastrous economic climate to continue for so long. No argument here. And we can blame the people for voting for all of the politicians who allowed it to continue. Again, no argument. In that regard, you could say almost every voting American for the last 50 years is to blame. The only way to right our wrongs is through education of the public that our economic system of entitlement creates more problems than it solves.

People like security, but they need to be told prosperity abounds if we eliminate the oppressive taxation and regulation that suspends growth and wealth.

Calling their former heroes villains will only turn them against us before we get to argue our point. And most people aren't going to equate the taking of physical lives with the taking of economic souls.

There is a lot of great libertarian-themed rap and rock out there. For instance, the Beatnuts, and Funkdoobiest are two excellent rap groups that regularly represent capitalism, property rights, and equality under the law for political minorities. The Punk rock group FEAR is another group that is hardcore pro-American and pro capitalist. Such a shame that saboteurs of the punk movement like Jello Biafra now mix the poison of socialism and state-worship into the individualist punk-rock attitude. Jello has even infected the once strong pro-gun industrial group Ministry with insipid notions that "Democrats" are different from "Republicans". Note how much weaker and less original their music has become since his libertine influence became noticeable in their music. (i.e. The track from the LARD album "Pure Chewing Satisfaction" that ridicules gun owners.)

(The quotation marks around the two major parties are there to indicate that the "Democrats" do not stand for democratic elections, and the "Republicans" do not stand for a constitutional republic.)

I agree with Nick that we will gain few elderly votes and that we must concentrate upon the young.
While it is true that the young don't vote in large numbers I believe some of that is due to the candidates they have to choose from. As a person who just turned 30, I know that was the problem for me at many elections.
Because of some of our positions, a majority of certain generations will never join us.
The WWII "Greatest generation" loves FDR and any mention of removing his "New Deal" (or as my father calls it the "Screw Deal") programs will drive them away. They are also even more prejudiced than the general population about our stance on Drug Prohibition (that's what all those damned long-hairs want!). The '60's generation (or at least the vocal minority of it) is in love with socialism (even though they don't call it that).
Many of our issues are tailored to young voters. Social security is one of them.
Any young person I talked to over the last six years knows SS is bankrupt and our generation is going to get the screw end of the pyramid scheme. Give W credit for trying (barely) to do something new on SS. However even with his party in control of both houses he couldn't even get a fair hearing.
We should point this out to those who are going to pay into the system without receiving benefits.
Another issue specifically tailored to young people is our position on Drug Prohibition. While most Americans are propably in favor of Marijuana Legalisation, hardly any are for the legalisation of any other drug.
Young people are at the age where they are directly affected by DP. It is the black market prices that eats up a lot of their disposable income. They are also the ones who see from their own experiences that some people can handle drugs and a "respectable life" while others can't and that you shouldn't group those that can with those that can't.
There are scores of issues where we are the party that addresses concerns of younger voters that neither party even takes the time to justify their (wrong) positions. We should use these to get a hold of voters while they are young.