"...we're making ourselves at home with the other two parties."

Speak for yourself there Andrew. I see 'em as unwanted house guests. The Kato Kaelin of politics. The annoying in-laws that broke down on the interstate near my house.

How many in the Rasmussen poll called themselves Libertarians? My guess is we didn't make the poll. But, press is press. Thanks for sending it out, Andrew. Keep it up!

It should be OBVIOUS that, SADLY, TODAY, there will be a STRONG tendency for ANY POLITICIAN/'serious' candidate from ANY 'PARTY'--THE LP INCLUDED--to be someone who is no threat to 'the exi$ting stinking order'..either because their ideas are weak/no threat or because they are so stoooooooooooopid, craven, etc. they agree with this miserable $tatus quo, etc..

Not that 'the LP' won't put up a decent candidate mind you..but as we all ought to be aware, 'the media power$ that be' will merely ignore, smear, mischaracterize, etc. any truly decent person..

..so, SADLY, for example, any 'Libertarian you hear of today being 'positively media-promoted' as having 'good ideas' etc.. will tend to be merely just another stinking Republicrat..

..a fact 'we' must deal with if 'we' are to get real..and serious..methinks it's OBVIOUS we're going to have to get out of this STINKING 'Republicrat box' somehow..

..It would seem OBVIOUS that promoting Republiclowns (self-described 'Libertarians') in monkey suits isn't the way to 'do it'.. ;o)

You missed the part that gave me a real belly laugh:

"despite the difficult political environment, people continue to be attracted to the fundamental ideals of the Republican Party."

Well yeah, that's true.... the reason your party is hemorrhaging voters is because the Republican leadership has consistently worked to defeat and marginalize those same fundamental ideals.

I swear, sometimes it seems like people in politics can't do simple arithmetic.

"One more bit from our post-election Zogby poll: We asked voters if they considered themselves 'fiscally conservative and socially liberal.' A whopping 59% said they did. When we added to the question 'also known as libertarian,' 44% still claimed that description."

Source: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18388

O/T

http://www.lp.org/media/article_499.shtml

great press release!

Thank you.

This is more of an opportunity for potential success than actual success for the LP.

But I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade.

Too bad that these new libertarians will go to their first county LP meeting, only to be bombarded with the Quiz and chastized for scoring 80/80.

Also no one will get their names or contact information and follow up with them.

Are we looking for converts or heretics?

I am wondering why there not more discussion about Ron Paul's presidential candidacy on the LP's news feed. I would think that news of the Congressmen's bid would be of specific interest to the party considering many of its political issues are extraordinarily similar to those he expresses. Does anyone have a take on why we are not talking about him more o the Party site.

Daniel, it is my understanding that because of LP bylaws the LP cannot nominate him and thus endorsing him would be an affront to actual LP candidates. It is my opinion that bylaws are stupid. The party of less laws handcuffed itself. More politics getting in the way of the end goal. I'd say we hold an emergency convention and eliminate that bylaw as "conduct detrimental to liberty" or some variation of that theme.

We should remember that what we want is liberty first and then political power somewhere down the line. It hurts us to not be able to publicly endorse the candidate most of us will probably end up voting for. I wonder what the press will say when Republican registration goes up significantly in the next couple months and Libertarian registration goes down. For Ron Paul to be nominated he must be voted for by Republicans in most state primaries. That means most of us will register as Republicans. Then immediately after those primaries we can change our registration back. That is a news story in itself and because part of it involves the GOP it might actually be noticed by the main stream media.

So, according to the Zogby poll, we lose 15% when people are asked to describe themselves as libertarian. Looks like we have an image problem. Maybe it's something the LP's PR department can address. Oh yeah, there ain't no PR department.

Well considering the circumstances I think it would certinly be reasonable to discuss the possibility of adjusting the bylaws to allow for perhaps even an open display of support to a candidate who right now polls the greatest chance of accomplishing the Libertarian agenda.

I am a Libertarian and with pride. I have identified with the party since 1989. The problems is that the Republicans and Democrats have destroyed the USA in 150 years.

Even Vermont wants to be independent of the USA with 13% of the people approving of independence from the USA.

Things have to change or there will not be a USA.

it's funny how many articles state that many americans describe themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. it sounds at first like wishful thinking on the part of libertarians, but when i talk to mnay democrats and republicans, i find that analysis to be true. of course the funny part is trying to figure out why these people remain republicans and democrats. My parents are registered republicans but can't stand a lot of what the GOP is up to, and so many democrats i know hate high taxes and the general restrictive nature of the dems. It's like libertarianism is on the tip of everyone's tongues but only a few bother to follow to the logical conclusion that the two main parties gotta go.

Alice Cooper would be a great candidate for the Libertarian Party, He has the name recognition we need. to be competitive.

This party needs to make an immediate imapct on the non-voters in this country. We need "in your face" politics. It's time to put the gloves on and stop being so nics and quiet and patient. I'm sick of this party spinning it's wheels already. Enough! We need to be more vocal, we need to get in the media on a regular basis. Libertarian groups disrupt press conference etc. etc, Libertarian hackers break into cnn website. That is stuff we need to do to get our "we want action now" message across. How many more elections must go by that we are trampled in and never make the progress we need? Come on lets get loud and a bit nasty if we have to,....no? Does anybody else feel this way? Where is the urgency? Maybe we should start "streaking" for the party, to gain attention. I know I will probably start being tracked by homeland security for my radical statements, but I think we need to take more desparate steps..

The 18% membership increase is probably the results of the LRC faction gaining access to LP National records and money.

Prior to the last LPN convention The LNC attempted to boost the falling membership numbers by setting membership dues to zero dollars per year. LP membership is for life, if you stop paying dues you are still a member but do not count for delegate allocation, cannot be elected to a LPN position, etc. Setting the dues to zero suddenly made every person who thought they had left the LP an active member.

The delegates at the LPN convention following the zero dues effort redefined an active member as one who signed the pledge and gave a minimum $25 a year contribution to LPN. This put the reactivated members back into inactive status.

Between the time of setting the dues to zero and the delegates ending it's effect the LPN office was busy with the membership list. They began spending the time and money to confirm the addresses attached to the names of the previously lapsed members. They compiled a list of approximately 98,000 names and addresses to declare active members.

The new list of active members contained roughly 85,000 people who thought they had left the LP. These were largely people who were attracted to the LP by some sound bite type message but left after finding the goals set for the LP by the controlling anarchist faction. These people are prime prospects for the LRC faction to bring back to active status and give the LRC the majority needed to take full control of the LP.

Now the LRC faction has access to both the list of lapsed members and LPN donations and dues money. Membership has increased roughly 3% per month for the first six months of 2007. These "new members" may actually be old members reactivating themselves and were drawn back in by the LRC message of changing the LP. If this is so them now about one out of five LP members is a LRC supporter.

If the LRC faction is using the lapsed members list to recruit supporters then by the next convention about 50% of the LP will be LRC faction supporters which will give them full control of the LP.

It seems we must first ‘get real,’ fellow libertarians..It seems it must be acknowledged FREQUENTLY AND LOUDLY that modern “politics”/elections are a stinking fraud..

Firstly, let’s define the term “politics.” It seems to me it can amount to no more or less than “a competition of ideas about government”..When you boil it down, “politics” amounts to CLARK’S ideas about how “the best government” ‘ought to be’/‘operate’ vs. how YOU think it should operate vs. how RUSH BLOWHARD thinks it should operate vs. how Dubya Bush, John Skerry, Osmama B, etc. 6 billion others think “the best or just or perfect etc. government” ought to be..

But although “politics” is truly merely “a COMPETITION of ideas about government” if one compares it honestly to other “competitions” a fraud is revealed that I believe even the thickest Republicrat is forced to admit:

For example, here in this country we have somewhat elaborate systems in place in order to decide “the championships” of mere sports competitions..Btw, I like sports but doesn’t it seem a little out of whack to you Republicrats when hours upon hours of live tv, radio, media reportage, etc. fluffery are devoted to decide who the ball champions are when the competitions/races for government office to decide who, in effect, has the (fraudulent) power of life and death over you or your 18 year old, etc. are given such short shrift?!?!.

Think about it! It seems to me in honest competitions the participants, players, teams, etc. go at it head-to-head in numerous hard fought contests before a champion is crowned with the cheerleaders and announcers secondary to honest game 'on the field'..

But in political ‘competitions’ we are all witness to the fraud:…phony, puny debates where the stinking Republicrat participants (My apologies to Ron Paul and maybe Gravel alone and ever amongst these Republicrat stinkers!) are told the phony, puny, etc. questions they will be asked beforehand..

In FACT, in political competitions it isn’t so much the ACTUAL PARTICIPANTS who go head to head in honest debate..it’s the stinking Republicrat surrogates:..the announcers, the “color men”…”the cheerleaders” if you will..

And so it is revealed…the competition of ideas about government aka “politics” is OBVIOUSLY a stinking fraud..the question is why so many Republicrat munchkins (and apparently some LP munchkins too!) continue to support, in any way, this abominable fraud?..AND WHY DOESN’T ANYONE EVER CLEARLY ACKNOWLEDGE THIS STINKING RUSE?? IT SEEMS THIS IS THE BEST AND ONLY PLACE TO START!!

This does not help the LP because most people never heard of you.Here in NJ the 10 LP candadates will receive their one-half of one percent of the vote.After 30 years there are no LP members in congress nor in any state houses.The LP cries about all the reasons it cannot win. The main reason is because few people care about the LP. Jim Duane

Clark, I'll agree the system is fraudulent, but my feeling is the majority of Americans don't want to know about how or why something is corrupt. They'll tell you they know it is, but they don't think any other way will be less corrupt. So, they don't care about changing it. The 33% of Americans that are Republicans and 36% of Americans that are Democrats are happy with a system that allows them to alternate contorl and complain about the other team when they don't have it. It's acceptable to them. The other 31% of Americans tha are neither are usually resigned to the fact that they'll pay their taxes on April 15th and don't want to think about it the other 364 days of the year. For everyone above, Clark and Sullivan and Neil and everyone else that suggested any kind of education to the general public I wholeheartedly agree. It seems to me, if LP leadership doesn't get on the ball with an "Educate America" push soon they won't hold their positions much longer. They have done a poor job of LEADING! They ask our opinions, write articles, send out press releases the press doesn't care about, etc. What good has it done? Radio ads are cheap, internet ads are relatively cheap, blogging is free, how about a huge rally in a major US city? An one eighth page ad in the back of the Economist isn't going to cut it. We need a broad campaign and they need to organize it and collect money based on the notion it will go specifically for that purpose. Now is the time, since some people have actually been jumping on the Ron Paul bandwagon and the term libertarian has been published somewhere this year.

The staff at LP headquarters should spend every waking hour on publicity because without it, we'll be the party that elects only local water board candidates. Yay.

But I will say it should be civil, educational, and about the issues. No attack ads. That is why that 31% of America is sick of politics as usual.