On the LP Reform Movement

I often get discouraged about the state we're in.
Virtually every news story points to more government expansion and control, more weathering away of the vision that was the Founder's America. Public discourse has shifted to a position where the discussion assumes that government can solve any problem at hand; we debate how the government should solve the problem rather than the extent to which government should be involved and how the problem began in the first place. We debate trivial facts rather than ideals and principles. My generation totally suxors (how else to describe the youth's patent inability to think? -s), for a variety of reasons, and the entrenched academia is aligned staunchly against us. What's more, the opposition force we make up is desperately undersupplied and unorganized. The National Libertarian Party, which should be a shining beacon for the hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised, both Republicans and Democrats, during this dismal period of American history, is increasingly on the fringe. The National Headquarters' inability or refusal to foster an online community and an organized activist network is leading us on the path to extinction. I believe the majority of Americans already agree with us, fundamentally. They only need to be presented our ideas in a rational, moderate, common-sense manner. Frankly, the National LP leadership is making this difficult to do.

Thankfully, the hard work of Stephen VanDyke and Stephen Gordon will pay off soon. They'll soon go live with their "libertarian supersite," a network and central hub for blogs, political campaigns, activist efforts, and fundraising. An excerpt from Stephen VanDyke's post:

Anyone will be able to sign up and start their own journal, or integrate an existing blog into the site via RSS or permanent migration and redirection (I will eventually be migrating Hammer of Truth into the new site permanently). While there will of course be issues that we still have not tackled, we hope to create a central meeting place for libertarians in order to harness the numbers we do have and grow the potential numbers at our horizon.

This will begin the jumping point for the masses of libertarianism to grow as a political voice, regardless of whether our own stuffy relic of a political party wants to let control be wrenched from its hands or not. Sadly, there is one thing they should have realized: they never had a choice.

I am genuinely excited to be a part of this. That is why this project is so great, why it will succeed. Everyone will contribute, regardless of how modest or insignificant their independent role in the blogosphere. This project will result in something far greater than the sum of its parts.

This is a big deal.

Props: The New Libertarian, Hammer of Truth, Flash of Freedom