I know a lot of libertarians used to be Republicans but many of us used to vote mainly AGAINST Republicans because of their desire for moral control of us. To say they even could try to woo us is to say they ever had anything we wanted. They haven't even been fiscally responsible in my lifetime.

I believe the LP could go a long way in wooing young people that want freedom from moral oppression. Young people think about government censorship almost as much as money and we can win any arguments on both topics. Colleges and even high schools are full of people that will be voting in the next election without being too predisposed to Reps AND Dems. They want the changes that we want: Less taxes, more freedom.

To specifically answer your question, the ad campaign many of us have suggested and are willing to contribute to, needs to make libertarians and everyone else aware that we are serious. AND, get the liberty caucuses in the Republican and Democratic parties to join us to start the Liberty Revolution now! The media would be all over that.

As Nick mentioned we need an advertising campaign.

Maybe I should expand on my comment above. We do need an advertising program. In a couple of states where we are working to obtain ballot access it might be wise to buy billboards letting people know that their choices are limited by silly laws. We can be sarcastic without being rude. It might also pay to advertise in specialty magazine on issues we have not thought of. For example advertise in AARP pointing out that in most cities local codes prevent competion in transportation services and that hurts the elderly. Or advertise in some of the women's magazines in support of the efforts of midwives.

We need to look at the whole spectrum of advertising. We might be able to afford only late night commercial time on some off the wall station, but that type of advertising has made a difference to some companies and organizations.

Thank you for the interest.

M.H.W.,

I always liked the idea of buying billboards near Ford, or GM plants with pictures of a Mr. Watanabe, from Japan and Mr. Schmitt from Germany of them with the two of them raising a beer "to toast the American worker who is willingly taxed to defend our countries while we compete with you".

Being a college student, my main focus has been to grow libertarianism here at Towson University. Having an active Libertarian Party on every college campus would be great.

I've also found Facebook to be very useful. What I love most about Facebook is that it lists "libertarian" as one of the options for political ideology. This exposes thousands of people to the term, letting them know that there's another option beside "liberal" and "conservative."

Question: Did the party change its official colour to gold? Is that what the title of this blog-post is referencing? Because last I checked, our official colour was blue.

Yours,

Alex Peak
At-Large Representative, Libertarian Party of Baltimore, 2006-Present
President, College Libertarians of Towson, 2004-2006
Membership Chair, College Libertarians of Towson, 2006-Present

Alex,

A couple of friends of mine have a table set up on the Towson campus this next week getting signatures to get the LP on the ballot in Maryland.

I think they may be in front of the student union.

If anyone from your group has time to help them out it would be cool, or maybe send your friends their way.

Another possibility is that you may want to set up and OPH/outreach booth next to them and send people back and forth.

Scott Kjar and I tried this approach at some Alabama colleges back in 2000 with some success.

On another point:

"Question: Did the party change its official colour to gold? Is that what the title of this blog-post is referencing? Because last I checked, our official colour was blue."

Dunno if we have an "official" color (?) but blue is widely associated with the Donkey Show Party, so if we do or were to have won, it would probably be a poor choice (along with Red and Green, also already claimed by rival gangs).

-paul

*so if we do or were to have one

I like the idea of making our official color yellow or gold - many of the libertarian-leaning parties of Europe use these colors.

Had another comment that got filtered. Not sure why.

Paulie's correct, we don't have an official color. The past color scheme was dominated by a burnt orange color. With the new logo, we change the colors to blue and gold.

Alex & Paulie: I'm on Facebook too and my account
is at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=511958732 if you're interested.
Mat & Shane: Yellow happens to be my favorite color.
Michael: That'll get supporters in the auto industry. Show them what's really going on.

I prefer gold as our symbolic color. It is the color of real money. The kind that is created the old fashioned way by individuals and not printed fake believe by the Federal Reserve. Purple might be a good complimentary color to gold as it symblizes the royalty of individuals. With freedom every person can be a king or queen.

Since green (Statue of Liberty) was already taken gold is the next best thing.

What can the Libertarian Party to get the word out that we are the only natural home for libertarians?

quit attacking and driving away anyone who does not buy into the entire anarcho mindset. Use this:

ib·er·tar·i·an audio (lbr-târ-n) KEY

NOUN:

1. One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state.
2. One who believes in free will.

and junk the non force "principle". there are hundreds of times the number of people that can accept the former as the latter. The latter MUST always be based on a foundation of no government.

It is absurd on it's face to expect voters to vote to reject the entire concept of what and why they are voting in the first place.

I think Blue and Gold are excellent and fitting colors for the Libertarian Party.

Blue is the color of Liberty, I needn't say more on that.

Gold is the color of, well, GOLD. Gold represents the Libertarians commitment to a commodity money system with no government interference and also is a good reference to Libertarians commitment to the free market. Let's stick with Blue and Gold.

Timothy West:

I, myself, am a hardliner, but not an anarchist. I am an Austrian economist, and while I follow the economic views of Murray Rothbard, I diverge from him, so far as to promote ultra-minimalist government rather than anarchy.

I have never attacked moderates and pragmatists and in fact welcome them. I would actually have accepted the removal of the non initiation of force pledge. The castration of the platform, however, I do not accept and will fight to restore the platform to its pre-2006 form. I know that if we do not stand resolute, the party will gravite to the point of a wishy-washy, do nothing, offend no one party. I think the old phrase went like this, "You got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything."

it was not the reformers who 'killed' the platform. We had only 11 to 12% of the delegates. We could not kill anything by ourselves. There was a broad consensus that the old platform just plain sucked and was the product of years of crap being added onto it convention after convention.

I think you will be changing your mind before 08.

How about a return to the original 1972 platform or something very similar. It was not overly broad and yet it covered the heart of the Libertarian program.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showplatforms.php?platindex=L1972

That is a link to the 1972 platform.

I think it is important to clearly state that the "non force principle" mentioned above is actually the non-initiation of force -- i.e., non-AGGRESSION -- priciple. Libertarians who subscribe to this idea are neither pacifists nor even wimps. A vigorous defense and even retaliation are admitted by this principle. What's wrong with saying, "we won't start the fight, but we'll certainly finish it?"

Also, my vote is another for Gold.

I agree with James. We should be the party of non-initiation of force because to do otherwise would be to impose our will on others.

The party should have a simple straight forward platform that advocates free market economics, personal responsibility, and taxation only to pay for the protection of our rights, not the infringement of them. You could add "adherance to the Constitution." Everything else is up to a particular candidate.

Suppose any one of us were elected. We might agree with 90% of the platform but disagreeing with the other 10% wouldn't necessarily make us bad elected officials. We'd be better than the ones we have now.

RE: colour

I had heard from someone who had been formerly associated with the Libertarian Party of Maryland that the Libertarian Party had adopted as its official colour a specific shade of blue. He did not know what specific shade.

Subsequent searches online told me that yellow had been a colour associated with classical liberalism, and some associated this colour with the LP. (It also comprises half of the anarcho-capitalist flag.)

Last year, I had the opportunity to speak to then-chairman Michael Dixon. I asked him if he knew about the LP's official colour. He confirmed for me that it was a specific shade of blue, but said he did not know off hand what specific HEX code one could use to see this shade. He told me I could email the LP and find out.

After this, I emailed info@lp.org and was informed by the staff that although blue was the official colour of the LP, there was no specific shade of blue.

I have long held that yellow would be the most appropriate colour, as it not only isn't yet taken, not only does it represent classical liberalism, but it also hints toward gold, which is one of the most common hard-moneys (sp?).

I object to purple, since royalism has connections to feudalism, monarchy, tyranny, concepts such as the "divine right" of kings, etc. Basically everything from which the age of enlightenment was breaking away.

RE: non-aggression axiom

I disagree with Mr. West regarding the non-aggression axiom. It does not necessitate that one support anarchism, and I believe it does a disservice to the party to say it does. I also do not wish to see the non-aggression pledge requirement removed.

RE: platform

I created a Facebook group for Libertarians upset at what has happened to our platform. The group's description reads:

"We liked the platform the way it was.

"We don't think changing the platform will help us win elections.

"We don't think the platform was a detriment to our winning elections, despite that supposedly being the reason 80% of it was deleted.

"We feel the party can run both pragmatic and idealistic candidates, but that the platform should be detailed and intelligent as it was in 2004.

"Not all Republican candidates agree with the [entire] Republican platform. Not all Democratic candidates agree with the [entire] Democratic platform. And we understand and accept that not all Libertarian candidates will agree with the [entire] Libertarian platform. But this is no excuse for slashing the platform.

"We share Rockwell's concern that this change will cause problems for the Libertarian Party (source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/lp-turkish-delight.html ), but we remain optomistic that the Party of Principle is not dead.

"We agree with Stanhope that it will be hard to effectively accomplish winning elections without at the same time using the Libertarian Party as a vehicle to educate the American people about libertarian principles, goals, and solutions
(source: http://hammeroftruth.com/2006/08/04/your-qs-doug-stanhopes-answers/ )."

http://towson.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2208111479

I should add that I'm not an anarchist. I'm indeed radical, but I remain a minarchist. But I'm a minarchist who wants to have an intelligent, detailed platform.

Facebook group for the LP:

http://towson.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204805796

RE: ballot-access at Towson University

It would have been nice if whomever is doing ballot access at Towson University had contacted the College Libertarians of Towson. We have an OPH map, stickers, and plenty of quizzes. But if I don't know what day this is happening, I can't really plan anything. To make matters worse, finals begin on Tuesday, and last until Monday. Then school's out for Winter Break (except for those students who, like me, are paying extra to attend the minimester).

I know we're behind here in Maryland with ballot access, so I'd love to help if I had more info.

Yours,

Alex Peak
At-Large Representative, Libertarian Party of Baltimore, 2006-Present
President, College Libertarians of Towson, 2004-2006
Membership Chair, College Libertarians of Towson, 2006-Present

"One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state. - One who believes in free will." is just another way of saying "one who opposes the initiation of force." Freedom is the absence of the initiation of force.

http://mail.libertarian-party-nm.org/pipermail/lpnm-forum_libertarian-party-nm.org/2006q4/000639.html

That doesn't make me an anarchist - I can envision a government that doesn't initate force.

And "gold" works for me.

As an ultra-minimalist, I recognize that the "no initiation of force" pledge can only be compatible with an anarchist viewpoint. If there is to be a government, even an ultra-minimalist one, then there must be taxes to fund it. That is an initiation of force.

You cannot support the pledge and support government in any way. If you support the pledge, then by definition you are an anarchist. If you support any form of government, then by definition you support at least minimal initiations of force by that government to collect taxes. You cannot have it both ways. Either you are an anarchist or a minimalist. They are mutually exclusive positions. My view is drop the pledge, but bring back the platform. The L.P. is clearly not an anarchist party and retaining an anarchist pledge is simply not helpful.

And I still stick with Blue and Gold.

Alex, there'll be a table in front of the student union every day through at least thursday and possibly friday.

I don't think my buddy checked his email. I sent him your contact info. If you walk by the union you'll see them, let me know if you don't.

Taxes alone are not an initiation of force if you are willing to pay them for certain services like the police force, military, public roads, etc. An initiation of force would be imprisoning you if you refused to pay. I would not be in favor of the latter but then you should not benefit from those minimal services that are designed to protect rights, rather than infringe upon them.

We need to look at what our ultimate goal is here: getting elected to office in order to reduce the scope of government at all levels. The current major parties of note achieve this by gerrymandering the districts and raising wedge issues to drive their voters to the polls in the greatest numbers possible. While we cannot do the former, we can certainly do the latter. Why was the issue of the Kelo decision not raised louder in the recent election cycle by LP candidates? Why do we not bring up Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) along with other third parties to show that we can work together with others. We need to not only respond to issues raised by other candidates with the best answer, we need to pose questions that will lead whomever wins the race toward our point of view.

The next 17 months should not be a time of rest before we campaign for 6 months leading to the election. The Republicrats are already mobilizing for 2008, and our party needs to start doing the same thing as well. If we have people who are thinking about running for president in 2008, they should start fundraising as soon as possible in order to allow us to produce the ads we need at the right time without massive fundraising pleas in October 2008. If everyone in the LP would set aside $20/month (the website claims we have 200,000 registered voters) to donate to the next presidential candidate, we would have a warchest of $9.6 million for tv and radio ad buys in large markets as well as the funds to hire professional fundraisers who could bring in even more money.

Also, we need to pick a single logo, symbol, etc. and stick with it. In order to build continuity in the minds of people, we can't keep changing our colors, symbols, slogans just because we haven't done it in a while. I would suggest that since the majority of people seem to like the Gold, we go with that as our color of choice and use it evenly across the board.

Great ideas there MJohn. Do we have any candidates yet?

I'd like to see the internet flooded with homemade videos using creative ways of promoting Freedom and the LP. How about a contest?

Videos of Dr. Ron Paul's speeches need to be reposted abundantly.

(for local LPs) I know that most GOP voters in the Houston area wish they were voting for Dr. Ron Paul. I'd like to see a webpage for every Congressional district critiquing the daily activities of the representatives, including senators using Constitutional arguements to expose abuse of power. Occasional ads in local newspapers saying, "check to see how your congressman is doing."

Gold is good idea, but there is a real engineering constraint: We would like a color that works on computers, because a few of our members use them and 98% of college students use myspace or facebook. RGB as seen on television really does not produce an authentic gold appearance that reproduces between displays nicely. The orange on my web site http://www.phillies2008.com is an approach on one side; the sunflower gold seen on one TV network is an approach on the other.

From the standpoint "stands out on a television map when we start carrying places" 'sunflower' works pretty well.

For examples of the videos proposed by wmarriot, see http://phillies2008.com/tv_ads