FINDING CANDIDATES FOR LIBERTY
WINNING WITHOUT COMPROMISE by AARON BITERMAN
One of the most frustrating experiences in electoral politics is getting behind a losing candidate. Having been involved in the liberty movement for over a decade, I fully understand that hurtful, losing experience. I have both recruited and supported losing candidates.
But I have learned my lesson and decided it is time for all of us to stop supporting just any liberty candidate and start focusing on winning liberty candidates.
To put it bluntly, losing candidates waste time, energy, and resources.
Losing candidates may educate voters in a particular district, but collective memory is short, and the information you provide will soon be forgotten. If your ambition is to educate, then don't waste your time running for office. There are more cost effective and productive means of changing hearts and minds.
Running a race to educate voters, while certainly a novel idea, does not change public policy nor does it stop the impending Leviathan of statism growing in the United States.
The goal of any campaign is to win. If this is not your candidate's goal from day one, then run away fast.
LOOK BEYOND THE CHOIR
Libertarians are often criticized for only speaking to the choir. They debate amongst themselves and let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Unfortunately, libertarians do not make up a majority of the electorate.
So, you must look past your small circle of liberty friends and find candidates that present our message with a mainstream appeal.
Who does your conservative grandmother support? How about your independent neighbor? Does your candidate attract the average American?
Chances are there are many candidates out there who share your same commitment to limited government and personal liberty. They may not have campaigned for Ron Paul in 2008, but their voting record would be respectable if elected.
Sometimes the best candidate may not be running for the highest office either. It may be a young recruit running for city council with greater aspirations for the future.
In fact, there are many elected, local officials already at this point. They are only waiting for you to encourage them to seek higher office. Always be on the lookout for prospects!
In the end though, only you can determine if this future politician will hold to principle. Will they sellout? Or can you surround them with true-believers and keep them honest?
PARTY AFFILIATION
Sometimes there is a tendency to support third party candidates amongst the liberty movement. This sentiment is understandable but, unfortunately, third parties have no reliable history of success.
There are significant hurdles for third party candidates to consider: ballot access, name recognition, fundraising, no base of support, etc. Unfortunately, these political realities are unlikely to change in the near future.
For better or worse, we live in a two party system.
The Republicans and the Democrats have an entrenched base that is not going away no matter how unpopular the Parties are at a given time. Even if your name is Osama Bin Laden, you will likely get more votes running for one of the two major parties simply because you have a "R" or "D" in front of your name.
For me, I look for principled Republicans utilizing the Party as a political vehicle to achieve my philosophical ends.
I do not waste my time, money, or energy on third party candidates. If my goal is to win, why would I want to make it any more difficult?
But let me be clear, there is an important distinction between spending my time, money, and energy on third party candidates and casting my vote for them. Many people vote for third party candidates in protest of the Republican or Democratic nominee. That vote is surely not a wasted vote. In the general election, sending a message to one of the major Parties is sometimes my only option.
FINDING A DISTRICT
What does the district look like?
This is one of the most important questions you can ask.
You may have the perfect candidate, but the district they are running in may not fit their message. A southern Baptist preacher is not going to win in Massachusetts, and a constitutional Republican is not going to win in the inner city.
Do your research. Examine the demographics and recent election results to figure out if the district is even winnable. All of this data can be found online.
Has the Democrat won by 60% or more for the past 10 years? If so, a Republican has a very steep hill to climb.
Unfortunately, there are several examples of quality candidates currently running in districts where they simply cannot win. I will not name names here, but rather I challenge you to do the research and make your own determination as to who these candidates are.
That said, like all things in politics, there are exceptions to the rules, but in general common sense does prevail.
WINNING ON PRINCIPLE
In order to win on principle, you must find the right candidates, in the right Party, and in the right districts.
This is the very first step towards planning a successful campaign, but it is very often overlooked.
In our democratic system, the winners determine the size and scope of our government. The Constitution is no more than a piece of paper when we elect politicians that care less about upholding their oath.
This is why I am ready to win.
It is organizations like Young Americans for Liberty that train our activists with these valuable lessons and give them the tools to mobilize. I hope you join me and continue to support YAL's mission of "winning on principle".
Now, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.
MARKETING OUR WINNING MESSAGE
PREACHING THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERTY by CHRISTOPHER DOSS
In a world of "compassionate conservatism" and "hope and change," can individual liberty and free-market economics actually be saved? Can the sophisticated philosophy of Locke and Jefferson actually be marketed and communicated to an easily distracted youth?
If so, we have to be more than libertarian intellectuals. We have to be great communicators and marketers. In the next issue of YAL's Winning on Principle Newsletter, Christopher Doss shows us how to "preach" the philosophy of liberty to sell people on the message we know to be true.
  
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Every time the LP tried to select a candidate they thought would have a better shot of 'winning' the cadidate did a poor job of articulating the message and compromised and way too many positions. What good is that? You BELIEVE in voting? You BELIEVE in democracy? You BELIEVE in politicians? Thats what got us in this mess.
Time to rise above and really work toward liberty, each of us, every day in our own lives. Confront the system wiht its failures, point out the horrors of government to your friends family and neighbors. Tell the politicians to shove it! Liberty minded or otherwise unless they are suceeding at opening minds. Forget rallies and sign waives and pettitions and protests. WASTE OF FRIGGIN TIME. SPREAD THE MESSAGE!!! Ignore the political process. The political elites are very good at that game and will isolate your candidate in office even if he or she does win. Free a mind with the message of liberty and you've made a personal and permanent change in some ones life.
Screw Politics!
...saying, "screw politics" assumes that they won't come after you just because you're eschewing the political process and undermining the system one person at a time.
They won't. There's nowhere to run and nowhere to hide unless you're heading to the jungles of New Guinea, and even there, it's just a matter of time.
Getting involved in electoral politics is more than just "something to try." It's a matter of self-defense. And the fact of the matter is, it wasn't until Ron Paul's presidential campaign 2 years ago that the liberty message began to spread beyond the Remnant, where it had languished in obscurity for 30 years.
It's easy to yell "screw politics" and obstinately refuse to help. The rest of us would rather do more than fall on our an-cap swords just to make a point.
Amen to that! (the June 16th post)