December 2009 LSM

Libertarian Strategy Monthly

Herding Cats Since May 2009

Volume 1 | Issue 8 Tuesday, December 1, 2009In This Issue:

Pages 2-3

Opinion

A Sense Of VictoryPages 4-5

Opinion

Local OrganizationThe NationalCommittee’s RolePages 5-7

Opinion

Libertarian OutreachFood and Beverage FestivalsPage 7

Breaking News

Taiber Wins In IowaPages 7-10

News

Election ResultsPages 10-11

News

Featured CampaignsPages 11-12

News

LNC Race UpdatesPages 13-14

News

LNC Meeting AgendaPages 14-15

Other

Little Red Henn

Issue Brief:

Excerpted From AConcord CoalitionPress Release

As the battle rages on overthe fiscal impact of healthcare reform, lawmakers arefacing tough choices thatwill affect our nation’sbalance sheet for years tocome. Now there’s anopportunity for voters totake on the budget deficitthemselves. Nonprofit,nonpartisan organizationsThe Concord Coalition andNext 10 today announcedthe launch of the “FederalBudget Challenge,” anonline simulation that letsusers make policydecisions and try to reducethe federal deficit. TheFederal Budget Challengefollows Next 10’ssuccessful “CaliforniaBudget Challenge,” anonline tool used by morethan 120,000 engagedCalifornians. Concord alsoreleased updated versionsof their other educationtools including “Principlesand Priorities,” “DebtBusters,” and “The PennyGame.”

Privacy Alert:

Excerpted From AnACLU Blog Posting

Howard Thompson, Jr.,incarcerated at the NewJersey State Prison (NJSP)since 1986, had preached atweekly worship servicesand taught bible studyclasses for more than adecade when, in 2007,without warning or justification, NJSP officialsbanned prisoners frompreaching, even when doneunder the supervision of prison staff. The bandeprived Thompson'sfellow prisoners of hisreligious instruction, whichchaplain staff hadpreviously encouraged andbelieved had a positiveinfluence.In response to the ban, theACLU and ACLU of NewJersey filed a lawsuit onThompson's behalf lastNovember, asserting thatNJSP officials hadunconstitutionallyinfringed upon Thompson'sright to freely practice hisreligion. Today'ssettlement will allowThompson to resumepreaching at Christianworship services andteaching bible studyclasses.

“If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasingwomen and drinking, you would have no government.” Barry Goldwater

Libertarian Strategy Monthly

www.jakeporter.orgOpinions of our guests do notnecessarily reflect the opinions of Jake Porter, J.D. Porter Consulting,or Libertarian Strategy Monthly.

Conversing With Jake

Strategy and Opinion

A Sense of Victory

By Jake Porter

O

ne of myfavorite writersis JohnMaxwell. Eachmonth, I readJohn’s column“MaximumLeadership” in“Success”magazine.John’s December article “Be aDealer in Hope” really struck a chordwith me and my feelings regardingthe Libertarian Party. In the article,there is a list containing the reactionsof people who sense victory andpeople who sense defeat.

When PeopleSense VictoryWhen PeopleSense Defeat

They sacrifice tosucceedThey give us aslittle as possibleThey look for waysto winThey look forexcusesThey becomeenergizedThey become tiredThey follow thegame planThey forsake thegame planThey help otherteam membersThey hurt othersUnfortunately, the more I thought aboutit and reflected upon the list, the more Istarted to visually see the sense of defeatlibertarians have in their hearts. Beloware just a few examples:

Money:

Why is the Libertarian Partyhaving difficulty raising money whencandidates such as Peter Schiff and RandPaul are raising millions of dollars? Theanswer is that those individuals donatingto Rand Paul have a sense of victory.For the Libertarian Party, victory doesnot necessarily need to be winning aU.S. Senate race. I remember whenMichael Badnarik ran for President in2004. He raised almost as much moneyas former Congressman Bob Barr did inhis 2008 Presidential campaign.Michael was able to raise that muchmoney by doing productive things suchas producing and actually runningnationwide television advertisements.Libertarians donated money becausethey could see that their money wasgoing to something productive otherthan keeping the lights on at Badnarik campaign headquarters. In 2008,libertarians didn’t see productive work being done and withheld contributions tothe Barr campaign. In 2004, there wassense of victory even though no personin their right mind thought that Michaelwould win the election.

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Gold America Group

Discuss Ways To Build The Libertarian Party

www.goldamericagroup.com

Excuses:

If only the Libertarian Partywould (insert excuse here) we would winelections. We cannot win because ballotaccess. We cannot win because thesystem is rigged against us…………When we have a sense of victory theexcuses will stop.

Hurt Others: “

Now, you listen here youstatist, communist, NAZI sympathizerwho wants to………………………………….” Youhave probably all heard this type of hyperbole attacking fellow libertariansfor holding views that differ fromanother libertarian. When people sensedefeat they often start blaming their ownfriends for the failure.Fortunately, there is a solution. Wemust start to excite our fellowlibertarians. We do this by:

Setting Goals:

What are the goals of the LibertarianParty? What are our objectives? If ourgoal is to win elections perhaps weshould start by getting our membersappointed to city boards and elected tocity government across the nation. Forexample, a goal could be to increase thenumber of Libertarian party memberselected to public office by 10% in acertain election year. Ballot access in all50 states and D.C. in a Presidentialelection would also be good.

Planning

How are we going to reach our goal? If our goal was to increase the number of Libertarian party members elected topublic office we could assist the stateorganizations with candidaterecruitment. You cannot meet your goalif you don’t have anyone running.

Achieving Our Goals

When we do reach our goal we shouldpublicize that we have won a smallvictory. This gives Libertarians hope.

Doing Productive Things

People are most likely to donate theirprecious money and time to things thatthey find productive. If we let peopleknow that we are doing productivethings such as advertising people will bemore inclined to support us and work toward accomplishing our goals.J.D. (Jake) Porter, a 2008 BusinessAdministration graduate, previouslyserved as Iowa Coordinator for the 2008Bob Barr Presidential campaign, andworked as Business Manager for theSaint Joseph Telegraph. Today, he is theowner of J.D. Porter Consulting, and isthe Alternate to Region 6 of theLibertarian National Committee.