From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Mon Apr 17 2000 - 16:49:54 MDT
>
> True, though one thing that Libertarians do all too often is run for Federal
> offices without having candidates for local offices. A lot of people I talk
> to vote not so much for who they want, but for who they think can win and is
> closer to their views. (I.e., they already narrow it down to two choices.)
That's another thing I and the LP have to fight--the irrational, stupid,
counterproductive, and dangerous idea that there is some value in voting
for someone with a chance of winning. You'd think people would understand
the difference between a vote and a bet: you don't lose your bet or
anything else when your voted choice doesn't win the office. You only
lose when your preference is not expressed--and there's no better way to
utterly fail to express a preference than to vote for a front-runner you
don't like and have your vote lost in the landlslide.
> One can complain, but it just shows that the current system is not stupid or
> dead. It has to be outwitted -- not just bemoaned -- if you wish to win.
> Adrian Tymes in another post makes some good points on this.
If you think it's that easy, do it. Nice of you to just cast aside an
organization with thousands of members and 20 years experience. The party
is not the incompetent little startup it was 20 years ago; it is now an
experienced, capable, political machine fighting an uphill battle.
> Building up relationships with journalists is important too. A lot of
> Libertarians just expect to get covered, but it takes a lot more than that
> and an LP candidate is always going to start with this handicap. One can
> complain and continue to lose or do something about it.
Now you're just talking out of your ass--you have no idea of the amount
of work we've been doing. Harry and the rest of us have worked long and
hard, and spent lots of money, building relationships with journalists and
spoon-feeding and supporting the press in every way imaginable. When we
are not covered, it's because the press is deliberately choosing not to
cover us, not because they don't know or haven't been coddled like the
spoiled brats they are.
And we're the only party that explicitly does NOT "expect" to be covered,
because we believe in the free press even when they let us down. We did
not join in Nader's lawsuit to demand debate inclusion, because we believe
that we should earn our way in, and we've done everything that can be
done with the resources we have to make that happen.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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