Jim Burns: ‘Political Tsunami: the Next Step?’

Email from James Libertarian Burns:

Political reporters and pundits claim that there was a political
Tsunami in the last election for members of the House of
Representatives. There was, indeed, a record turnover. Yet,
the substitution of power only amounted to about 15%:
That is, approximately 85% of incumbents were reelected.
It remains to be seen if this change over will make a difference
for liberty, but I believe that the defeat of incumbents is in itself
almost always a good thing.

We are faced with the argument that to vote for libertarians is a
wasted vote. As Mr. Stephen Cox of LIBERTY said, “When you
refuse to support the lesser of two evils, you support the greater
of the two evils.”

What if it were possible to cause the victory of the lesser evil and
support liberty at the same time? Would such a method be of value
even if it could be successfully used only under certain conditions?
Would such an activity be worthy even if expense and effort were
required and there was the possibility of failure from time to time?
What if this tactic could also be used to cause term limits for many
incumbents under the correct conditions with increasing probability
of success?

Remember, many elections are decided by a few percentage points
or even a few votes.

I believe that a major reason that Libertarian candidates receive so few
votes is that we ask so few people to vote for us. I believe that if
Libertarian Party candidates actually sent postcards to voters asking
voters to vote for us, we would get more votes. The question is not
how many votes: The answer is more votes.

Suppose that the most evil candidate is the Democrat. What if
postcards were sent only to the registered democrat voters asking
them to vote for the Libertarian candidate using liberal/libertarian
issue(s)? Few votes would be needed and the votes received by the

Libertarian candidate from these mailings would be from people who
were more likely to vote for the Democrat. Therefore, the most evil
candidate would receive fewer votes and if the election is close, the
few vote received by our candidate would increase the chances of the
lesser evil candidate winning.

This method can be use against the greater evil Republican by mailing
to Republican voters using conservative/libertarian issue(s). We can
promote liberty and the Libertarian Party and increases the odds that
the lesser evil will win. This tactic will not work unless postcards are
actually sent to voters and that cost money. We can bemoan the fact
that the greater evil too often wins, or we can put our money and effort
toward a tactic that may change the outcome. Vote for evil and you
will get evil, but support liberty with your vote and ask others to do
the same with this method, and we will get the lesser evil and promote
the cause of liberty in the short and long run.

One reason that the Libertarian Party is not taken seriously is that we
do not deliberately affect the outcome of elections; this tactic could
be our next step in our efforts to establish liberty. It pains me to
report that we will not win unless we change our behavior. A place
to start is to have the ability to determine who wins. Let us make a
new start and improve the human condition along the way.

Best Wishes,

Jim Burns

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PO Box 1139
Beatty, NV 89003
541-261-4163
702-722-9494