What should a truly Libertarian government look like?

Let’s see if I can gather my thoughts and try and be a little more intelligent about topic I was trying to discuss in yesterday’s entry. This is something that I think that all Libertarians need to think about and discuss, so even if you’re not an Oregonian, please feel free to add to this discussion. It’s my hope that this topic is an ongoing discussion for all.

It started from the question, “If we as Libertarians believe the first tenant of liberty is the right of the individual to have free expression how can we as a party impose a system of governance with rules that would attempt to force how the body would express that message?”

A good example came when we were discussing how we get the word about our ideas out to the people. Mark put it this way (I’m paraphrasing here), “Let’s say that I think that best way to spread our message is to have a parade of elephants. You may think that a website is the way to go. Jeff may think that a parade is fine, but that it should be a parade of dogs. Who is to say any of us is wrong? If I know a guy that has a business that runs a circus of midgets riding elephants, and you have the skills to setup a webpage and Jeff can organize his dog walking group who is the party to say that we all can’t contribute in each fashion? What would need to work out would be to make sure that if Jeff and I both want to have our parades on the same day; we need to make sure we don’t use the same streets.”

His point was basically punctuated by Wes mentioning that every time he comes in contact with other Libertarians, he constantly get told “You should do THIS.” In regards on how the party should express their message. To which he replies, “You know, you’re right. How are you going to make that happen?”

This evolved into, what I think, was the point of the discussion, and I think the deeper question that I titled this post with, that I don’t think we fully answered in the discussion. Wes expanded his point by pointing out that when the Libertarian Party was founded in 1971 it was essentially structured just like other political parties using the same form of government everyone is used to. However, how can we continue to espouse a form of government that is based on personal liberty using a structure that restricts the same? If we do this and manage to put ourselves in a position of greater power don’t we then make ourselves hypocrites? Would it not be better to form a system of self governance, and if it fails, well so be it, it means we were wrong. However, if using a self form of governance ourselves then working our way into government positions of power do we not lead the way and make it easier for others to follow? I’m quite sure I’m mangling that message a little; hopefully Wes will explain what he said better.

A lot of what was said made a lot of sense to me. The current system, as it stands is that a very few individuals set the policies and tenants of our Party and take it upon themselves to express the beliefs of all the Libertarians in the party. Wes is working on ways to make it easier for all Oregon Libertarians to voice their opinion to the state group. I think the system as it stands does need to be changed, and I’d like to invite everyone to continue this discussion here.

Meanwhile, right now, I need to get back to work. A 15 minute break has turned into a full hour and a half, but that’s my problem, not yours.

Quick thoughts after Volunteer night

So I went to my first Libertarian Party of Oregon meeting tonight. It was the regular volunteer night for the party. I figure if I’m going to start talking the talk, I’d better start walking the walk. Besides, considering some of the things the Party as gone through since I officially joined the National Party last December (the reasons why I joined in the first place) , if I want my voice heard, I’d better start involving myself.

I met a number of the party officers, as well as a couple of the other regulars, although not much work was done because they ran out of toner in the copier so the plan to stuff thousands of envelopes kind of fell through. There was, however, pizza.

The night was not a total loss though. Wes Wagner, the state chair started a discussion about what the state committee should look like. It was a very good discussion that started with the question of “What should the state party look like?” letting the members brainstorm their way to the true question, which boiled down to: “How can an organization that espouses personal liberty force its members to do things?”

Maybe not that question exactly, but the gist of the discussion was that if we want a government that is based on Libertarian values how can we govern ourselves using the same systems in place of other political parties and our current government system.

It’s an interesting idea, and I think it requires more in depth discussion, because right at this moment I’m having a very hard time putting to words ideas that were very clear to me just 4 hours ago. This is what I get when I wait until just before bed before trying to post anything.

I plan to spend more time posting here, and I’m promising myself to at least do more on this tomorrow.