[Lnc-business] I am Ashamed

[Joshua Katz]

I have been listening to the news lately, particularly POTUS on
satellite radio.  This is something to be ashamed of, to be sure, but
is not what I am writing about today.

No, I am writing about what I've heard.  Before the election, John
McCain (!) commented that the American people disliked two things -
Democrats, and Republicans.  On Election Day, the Republicans swept
the election - while receiving entirely unfavorable poll results.
Polls showed that a majority do not believe that the Republicans have
solutions to our problems.  It seems to me that the election was a
repudiation, not of Obama, but of the two old parties.

Yet, the media still makes statements about "people being angry at
both parties."  My objection is not to anger, but to 'both.'  We have
been at this for far too many decades to have had this little
impactdon' on national dialogue.

We have a situation where two parties that control the nation are
failing - yet the people simply swing between them like a pendulum,
not considering other alternatives.

It's easy to cast blame, or even to give good arguments like rational
ignorance.  There is a meme circulating with the text "Americans say
they need a third party.  Why you not vote for the third parties you
have?"

Instead of insinuating that voters are stupid not to vote for us,
maybe we should consider the inverse question - why are we not getting
votes?  In a period of unprecedented anger at corporations, at big
government, at war, at the Fed, at the GOP and the Democrats - we have
less than 200 elected officials.

The question must be turned inwards - what are we doing wrong when we
have a population that either has so disconnected that they no longer
vote (in many cases, no longer register) - people who don't worry
about 'wasted votes' - or vote for candidates they dislike, yet we do
not profit?  Please don't bother telling me we're doing great because
candidates gathered 1% in some races, carried a county in a statewide
race, "spoiled" Republicans or Democrats...we are doing great when we
move policy in a libertarian direction by electing Libertarians to
office.  We are not doing so.  This is our shame.  We are not
inspiring them to action.  We are not making ourselves credible enough
as an alternative to invoke action from the vast majority who are
tired of the options they think they are limited to.

We need to present ourselves credibly.  We need to demonstrate our
ability to govern.  We need to elect candidates to offices they
actually can win - local offices.  We need to allocate resources to
candidates who can win, not to symbolism, not to getting the old
parties to move to us - they won't - not to demonstrating in our
meetings how pure we are.  This is our moment, and we need to seize
it.  We should be winning elections.

I am ashamed to be in the leadership of a party that has the answers
the public is longing for, groping towards in their anger and
disappointment - and yet which is not winning offices.


Joshua A. Katz

Region 8 (Region of Badassdom) Alternate
Libertarian National Committee

Chair, Libertarian Party of Connecticut