The real message


Forget the candidates, find something that makes people question government
In the wake of the comment about Ron Paul a couple of days ago, I went looking around the internet to see how well he is playing. He's doing better than I thought he would be, but I don't think he will win.

First the man is a libertarian running as a Republican. There is probably something there about the ends justifying the means, but that alone makes me question his intellectual honesty and his willingness to compromise. I will give him credit for one thing, he is more honest than Michael Badnarik, but he is not the candidate that the country needs.

At it's heart, the libertarian message is a rational one based on self-interest. It doesn't have the emotional appeal of a Mommy-state or the fear of a Daddy-state. Classic liberals don't want a powerful state at all, they just want to be left alone.

Compare that with either government threatening force to quell dissent or throw goodies around to buy off votes, and there just isn't enough oomph to sell the message. Maybe if there were a charismatic candidate like Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton* to sell it. But that is a big part of the problem because most charismatic candidates would reject the libertarian message.

If libertarians want to convince people, we have to find a passionate appeal that doesn't rely on the cult of personality. We need to find ways to show the facts that will push people's hot buttons.

What about a television commercial that just has a camera trucking past the three dozen or so feet that it would take to hold the Federal tax code and all associated forms?

Or something that points out that even with a tax refund, the government is making interest on taxes withheld from paychecks?

Or maybe a day-in-the-life, with a constant stream of officialdom passing judgement on every single action from the time that the alarm goes off to the sex at night?

These are the things that would resonate.

* I may not like Bill Clinton or agree with any of his politics, I may think he is a crook made good in the best Kingfish tradition, but I can't argue that he wasn't charismatic and telegenic.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sun - June 17, 2007 at 11:14 PM  Tag


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