Sat 21 Jan 2006
I understand why the people who wanted to raise the Libertarian Party’s membership dues to $50 wanted to do it. They were trying to address a problem. It is a problem that I also want addressed, but I want the problem addressed directly, I do not want to attempt to address it indirectly and hope it will go away.
The problem is frequently described as having too many “povertarians” in the party. Of course, by “povertarian” they don’t really mean poor people. The misnomer has resulted in the problem being ignored. To illustrate my point, I would like to relate two actual incidents from my experience. The first is about a povertarian the second is about an ignortarian.
The Povertarian
A few years ago my county Libertarian Party sent out a fundraising letter to its members. Mixed in with the returns was a letter from a particular member. I recognized the name because he always sent a few dollars – cash (always less than $10), wrapped in a black sheet of paper. This time he sent a letter explaining that he couldn’t afford to send money to everybody who asked and still afford his gardening supplies.
I sent him a letter back. I thanked him for contacting us and told him that he shouldn’t feel obligated to donate. I explained that we send those letters out for two reasons. The first is obviously to raise money, but the second, and equally important reason, is to keep him informed about what we are doing. I told him that as long as he knew what we were doing he could share that information with his family, friends, and neighbors, and maybe they would take an interest in the LP. I assured him that we had plenty of members who had the financial means to make contributions and told him that it was important to us that he take care of himself first. A short time later he sent us a contribution – cash wrapped in a black sheet of paper.
The Ignortarian
A few years ago we were running a candidate for a non-partisan city council seat. It was his reelection campaign. Early in the campaign the candidate was attacked by his opponent for being a Libertarian and the theory was presented that electing this Eagle Scout who didn’t even drink alcohol, would encourage drug use among the city’s youth.
My county LP (at my urging) chose to sue the attacker for defamation. The attacker had clearly misrepresented our position for personal gain and adversely affected our future prospects on the issue. This was our opportunity to discuss and raise awareness on a Libertarian issue and garner some publicity for the LP. The action worked. We were the banner headline in the local paper (in a city of 83,000 people).
At the same time, Michigan’s most famous Ignortarian launched into a tirade. Among his specific remarks were:
The way I see it, the judge who will see this suit will drop it like a hot potato because it is clearly frivolous. The county party should not be involved in this entire controversy, as Martin and his campaign staff should be handling it. This is a big mistake for the party.
This matter needs to be handled delicately as much as possible. Otherwise, it’s going to blow up in the party’s face.
Before the lawsuit was filed, the campaign was consulted to see if they would have any objections. Three lawyers in the party were consulted to see if they felt that we had solid grounds for a suit. After consultation, we felt that there was a possibility that we would win, but the greater benefits would come from the publicity.
The ignortarian is too stupid to understand strategy. The ignortarian made an assumption that no preliminary work had been done on the issue – he would have to be truly ignorant to think that the county committee of 7 people (who could have been held personally liable) jumped into a lawsuit without a great deal of thought and consultation.
The ignortarian never bothered to contact the parties involved and ask for details – he just launched into his own attacks in multiple public forums.
Even if the ignortarian had contacted the parties involved, we couldn’t tell him anything because he would be broadcasting strategic details in any public forum that would listen to him. Last I heard, the ignortarian works at a gas station mini-mart.
This was not an isolated incident. In every high-profile activity we ever engaged in, this ignortarian did something to undermine the success.
Summary
There are poor people in the party, but being poor does not make them a liability. There are a significant number of ignorant people in the party who are constantly undermining the efforts of hardworking volunteers. These people are the problem and that is the problem that needs to be addressed.
January 22nd, 2006 at 12:59 am
I think every state LP (in fact, every organization) has the same sort of incompetent counterculture.
Often, these folks portray themselves as the “conscience of the LP”, or as “reformers”, who of course have a monopoly on great ideas for building the LP — yet they themselves have damn little to show as far as accomplishment…. Other than sitting at their computer, writing hours of insulting and manipulative screeds every day, monopolizing the LP.org blog and other mailing lists, getting fat, and the like.
I’m not really sure there is a way to address it. Nice people are generally unwilling to raise the kind of stink that’s necessary to rid the ranks of nasty people.
And nasty people, even though they are useless when it comes to moving the organization forward, usually are good in one area: how to be nasty and get away with it.
Other than having a Party Dictator who can remove a member at will, I’m not sure what can be done to protect the LP from your typical “Ignortarian”.
The best defense in politics is probably as simple as having the best offense. Keep doing whatever you’re doing and ignore the chimpanzees prattling in your wake.