No preferred flavor of statism

friends2

Dear Libertarian,

Some folks have asked me why the Libertarian Party is not participating in Jill Stein’s recount efforts.

My answer is that Libertarians don’t have a preferred flavor of statism.

We know that there is no significant difference between the oppressively big government offered by the Republicans and the oppressively big government offered by the Democrats.

We don’t prefer a Democratic War on Drugs or a Republican War on Drugs. We work to end the War on Drugs.

We don’t prefer a Democratic “Patriot” Act or a Republican “Patriot” Act. We work to repeal it and protect Americans’ natural right to privacy.

We don’t prefer Democratic cronyism or Republican cronyism. We work to make government too weak to give any company special favors.

And so on.

Simply put, Jill Stein’s efforts are meant to benefit the Democratic Party. And we don’t play that kind of politics. The Libertarian Party stands for liberty, not for helping a big-government political party gain more power or attention.

That’s why the Libertarian Party chose not to participate in Jill Stein’s recount efforts.

We acknowledge the right of any person, including Jill Stein, to fight for her preferred brand of big, wasteful, meddling, intrusive government. But we will spend our time, financial resources, and expertise fighting for liberty instead.

As 2016 comes to an end, let me update you on our critical projects.

We are currently in court in Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, pursuing a fairer playing field for our future candidates.

We are also suing the Commission on Presidential Debates, towards that same goal.

We are preparing documents for a court case defending 2nd Amendment rights.

We are recruiting candidates for the many elections coming up in 2017 and 2018.

We are upgrading our IT infrastructure at Libertarian Party headquarters, to better serve our members and candidates and improve outreach to voters.

We are planning various ballot access petitioning drives to make sure that the Libertarian Party is again on ballots in all 50 states and DC in 2018, as we were in 2016.

This is the meaningful work we are doing right now, as we defend all of your freedoms, all of the time.

Happy New Year, my friends!

Nicholas Sarwark
Chair, Libertarian National Committee