Posts for LP National
The Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania will host a presidential debate at their convention on March 7 [2020] in Philadelphia. New York will not have a state convention or presidential debate, so we urge everyone to attend the debate in Philadelphia if you want to meet the candidates. It costs $20 to watch the debate. You can purchase tickets and find more information on the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania’s website.
originally distributed by the Libertarian Party on 02/24/2020
For those who refuse to buckle to the boot of Big Government, there is only one party for them now. We must be on the ballot to give the independent thinkers a place for their voice to be heard.
The Libertarian nominee has to be on the ballot.
We need you, champions of liberty, and we need you right now. The sooner that we can accomplish ballot access in Maryland, the sooner we can do the same thing in other states where our access is still in limbo. It is clearer than it has ever been before that both the Republicans and the Democrats are fleeing from rationality and are embracing blind party loyalty. For those who refuse to buckle to the boot of Big Government, there is only one party for them now. We must be on the ballot to give the independent thinkers a place for their voice to be heard. Please make that possible by supporting the ballot access fund and fighting with us.
by Michael Arcati, Jan 29, 2020
originally posted on the Forest Hills Times
Do you ever wonder why, in a country of 300 million people, only two parties rule Washington, D.C.? Well, at least there are two parties at the federal level.
In a state of 20 million people and a city as diverse as New York, there is only one party that rules. The Democrats control the governorship, both houses of the legislature, and the Court of Appeals (the highest court in NY).
In New York City, the Democrats control the mayor’s office, City Council, and the courts. Out of 51 council members, only three are Republicans.
While the Democrats love to vilify President Donald Trump, they are secretly thankful for his success. President Trump has silenced all the moderate Republicans in New York, as they are embarrassed to be associated with him.
Anyone that seeks office in New York City as a Republican will be immediately written off as a loss. Now that the Republicans are no longer a threat to the Democrats in the foreseeable
future, they have made moves to solidify their absolute control.
Enterprising candidates that seek to differentiate themselves from the Republicans and Democrats have rallied to other parties, such as the Libertarian Party, Green Party, and Working Families Party.
However, the Democrats do not want any spoilers to challenge them. On January 1, 2020, a new law went into effect that made it even harder for third parties to retain ballot access.
To remain on the ballot, a third-party must draw either 2 percent or 130,000 votes in the general election for governor or president every two years. This is an increase from just 50,000 votes.
Also, to ensure third-party candidates cannot get on the ballot, the law includes increasing the requirement for petition signatures from 15,000 to 45,000. For third-party or independent candidates to receive 45,000 signatures in several months is an arduous task.
Even if an independent candidate passes this impossible feat, both Democrats and Republicans will challenge the petitions before the state Board of Elections. Do you know who appoints the members of the Board of Elections? Democrats and Republicans.
Do you know when the state legislature voted to pass this new law? Trick question: the law did not have to pass in the traditional method; it simply was approved by the nine-member Board of Elections.
Do you know who proposed the change to the law? Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the New York Democratic Party.
“We in America do not have government by the majority,” Thomas Jefferson once said. “We have government by the majority who participate.”
New York Democrats have now ensured that the only people who get to participate in state and city elections are registered Democrats. The only election of interest is the Democratic primary, which is rarely contested. An election that is not contested means the candidate is approved by the party chairman.
For Democrats reading this, you may be thinking, “yes, because we need to unite to stop Trump.” The reason we have Trump as president is the result of a system controlled by two parties. If you only give people two choices, then do not be surprised when the people end up selecting a bad option.
In any competitive system with only two parties, companies, teams, etc., then the only outcome is a zero-sum of win or lose. In a game of win or lose, then there is no room for logical arguments. All discourse turns into personal attacks and an “us vs. them” mentality.
That is the political environment we live in now. Republicans have used this winner-take-all environment to control Washington. Democrats have used this environment to control Albany and City Hall.
The new election law created and implemented by Democrats will end nascent existence of third parties for decades.
There have been multiple instances of corruption in local politics, however Trump and his tweets have grabbed the attention of voters.
The governor’s top aide, Joseph Peroco, was convicted of accepting bribes, but the governor breezed into a third term. Former Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, was found guilty of corruption in 2018, but the Democrats took the majority in both houses in the legislature.
In 2019, the New York Times ran multiple articles about the governor’s office exchanging favors for campaign donations. However, there were no formal investigations by any government institution. Absolute power breeds absolute corruption.
More choice at the ballot opens the mind to critical thinking and due diligence by the electorate. More parties elected to the legislature opens the door to more compromise based on logical reasoning.
If you are an independent voter in New York, then wake up to what is happening to democracy in your backyard. If you are a Democrat, then you objectively must know that the new election law is inherently unfair and blatant disfranchisement.
All New York voters should call their assembly members and state senators to demand that this law be repealed. Or go a step further and look at the third-party candidates and see what they offer.
Finally, donate to their campaigns in 2020, as this may be our last chance we have until the final takeover of our government by one party.
Michael Arcati is the chair for the Queens County Libertarians.
from the Libertarian Party newsletter
The Libertarian Party of the United States was founded on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs. A group of determined Liberty advocates led by David F. Nolan spent five months meeting, debating, and amending what would become the Libertarian Party’s first platform. Recognizing that the Republicans and Democrats had abandoned the original principles of Liberty the American founding fathers had set forth, this group, including John Hospers, Ed Crane, Manuel Klausner, Murray Rothbard, Roy Childs, Tonie Nathan, and Jim Dean, formed a party dedicated to the ideas of all markets being completely free.
Today we are celebrating our 48th birthday and the great gift bestowed upon us and the nation by our party founders — and we hope you will celebrate the day in Liberty.
In 2014, the Libertarian Party began working to purchase a headquarters and established the David. F Nolan Memorial Building Fund. Rent in the DC area has always been extremely high, so purchasing a building saves valuable resources and builds equity for the party’s future. As of November 2019, we have paid off over 80% of the building and 68% of the mortgage! We currently still owe approximately $160,000.
Our physical office location in Alexandria, Va., allows us to be headquartered in the center of the political world and has been a key asset in growing our influence and legitimacy in the last few years, as well as giving our team a home in which to organize. Your gift will be felt by decades of future Libertarians who will go on to grow the party and advance our principles. Ownership of a building in this ideal location will ground us in the work that we do and give a permanent home to those who cannot find a comparable vehicle for liberty with any other party in the political universe.
At the end of an already thrilling year, we have been given an opportunity that will allow our efforts and our funds to be much more focused in 2020 and the gains we will fight for and win.
We are so excited to announce that a gift has been offered to us of up to $60,000 toward the Libertarian Party’s building fund to match any of the birthday gifts you give to the building fund.
This opportunity will double any birthday gift to the Libertarian Party you make and could even allow us to pay off our mortgage in 2020!
Please consider making whatever year-end gift you can to our building fund to help us take advantage of this matching gift!
Thank you, Francisco. From a living room in Colorado to where we are today, we are so grateful for your partnership and your support. We cannot wait to kick off 2020 as our best year ever, once we end 2019 with another victory.
originally posted in the LNC site
It has been 99 years since the rights of women to political participation and representation were recognized by the passage of the 19th Amendment, and the world is a remarkably different place. There’s still a long way to go, however, to ensure that all individual rights are recognized and protected.
“When asked, many Americans will cite the freedom of speech as one of the most important natural rights that must be recognized by any country,” said Libertarian National Committee Secretary Caryn Ann Harlos. “Yet, until 100 years ago, the cornerstone of free speech — the right of political free speech — was fundamentally denied by the United States, with rare pockets of limited exceptions in several states, to one group of people based only upon the fact that they were women. This is important to remember and honor so that we do not repeat this ignorance in the areas of other fundamental rights.”
The passage of the 19th Amendment reminds us that we’re not stuck with abusive laws and policies. It’s within our power to implement real political change, rooting out every form of oppression and protecting all of your rights all of the time.
“I am a Libertarian because I believe in the fundamental inherent dignity and rights of all people — that they have the right to fully participate in all aspects of life subject only to their choice and avoidance of infringing upon the equal right of others to do the same,” Harlos said. “In the area of political speech, when that is denied, violence and oppression is inevitable. In the area of the full social and economic equality of women, this is a day to remember how far we have come and to look with optimism towards the future. Radical change is possible. It has happened before. A future free of all aggression against the rights of all people can happen. I believe it will.”
Unless you are politically feared, you will not be politically respected. Understanding this fact about politics is crucial to planning the realistic and critical goals that third parties in our democratic process need to have in order to play an impactful role in influencing and eventually shaping American Politics and national policy. While most of America is still clueless as to what Libertarians stand for, there is a common feeling of being wholly disenfranchised by the current state of American Politics.
Libertarians and the American public also share a bleak outlook of the future of the United States if the status quo remains. Another result of this disenfranchisement is that now more of the American voting public than ever before are disassociating from the two major parties and their leadership, rhetoric, and goals. Meanwhile, the party leadership, rhetoric, and goals of Republicans and Democrats continue to further mimic the interactions of rival street gangs rather than ideological political opponents. Libertarians and the American public see Washington as a broken out-of-touch corrupt cesspool that only benefits top political benefactors. In a time when congressional approval is at an all-time low and re-election rates are at an all-time high, the American people are desperate for a truly alternative political movement to instill some fear into politicians and a new perspective into DC. The sad truth is that the biased design of the major political parties’ primary systems will almost make it impossible for an innovative and appealing candidate to win the presidency in 2020. The result of this election will be a public opinion outcome similar to the one we witnessed in 2016 in which most Americans hold record-low opinions of both major party candidates. We will again be trapped with only two bad options, and this cycle of political discontent will continue until American politics spirals into full turmoil. While some might take some pleasure in seeing the demise of a damaging system, this process may involve mass suffering, along with the destruction of American fundamental liberties, civility, and peace. A result of this future would mean seeing many of our loved ones suffer horribly or even die as a result of the civil war.
Libertarians have a better answer than suffering and death: we should stop this tragedy from happening or else we fail to even live up to our fundamental principles of trying to create a fairer and more prosperous world for everybody.
Washington needs the fresh and compelling voice of a libertarian president or at least a libertarian candidate in the mainstream. Do I think the Libertarian party or any other third party has a viable chance at winning the Presidency in 2020? No, but a third party could receive enough votes to heavily influence federal policy over the next decade.
I previously stated that unless you are politically feared you will not be politically respected. This means that you must affect those in power and their ability to implement their legislative goals. If you have no power, they will not care about your ideas. If a third party could amount to a sizable and significant amount of the popular vote (between 8 and 20 percent), in order to throw the entire election, particularly in battleground states, into complete chaos, while having a sizable role in affecting the outcome of the election or how the winner is chosen, it will be a significant victory for that party and their platform, regardless of the winner.
This would show both current major parties that there is now a sizeable voting block that will no longer blindly following the Republicans and Democrats. Instead, politically speaking, it would finally and rightfully send a powerful message to the Washington establishment that if their policies of reckless spending, corruption, and government overreach keep continuing they will finally be on the path to the dustbin of history. It will force them to adopt proposals of this popular 3rd party or risk losing the electorate/future elections.
You need only look to this country’s past to see this in practice. American politics, particularly in the 20th century, is filled with examples of third parties winning a sizable amount of the popular vote, resulting in the major parties adopting many of the issues that the third party popularized. Whether it be in 1912 with the bull moose party, or particularly Ross Perot’s ‘92 Presidential campaign a significant 3rd party candidate getting a noticeable amount of the popular vote directly led to that political era’s agenda being profoundly shaped by the policies of that popular 3rd party candidate, due to both major parties being forced to reach out to those voters.
Look at how much the Green New Deal, a policy initially proposed and popularized by Jill Stein and The Green Party back in 2016, is now playing a significant role in the discussion and platform of many 2020 Democratic candidates. With an emphasis on a Green New Deal, a case can be made that the 2020 Democratic Party platform will be more influenced by Jill Stein than the previous Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
2020 is the best chance a 3rd party and the liberty movement has at making sure the values of small Constitutional government are protected. American politics in the 21st century so far has been defined by massive deficit spending, civil liberty violations, endless wars, and foreign intervention, the continuation of failed initiatives like the war on drugs, and an Orwellian surveillance state emerging; all of which have been dramatically made worse by the current Presidential administration.
It is clear that neither of the major parties is prioritizing individual freedom. A strong 2020 Libertarian candidate may be our last chance at stopping this dystopian authoritarian nightmare from coming to fruition without causing a revolution, mass chaos, and misery. Change is necessary in order to ensure the flame of liberty will continue with a strong and forceful presence to define the next decade of American Politics.