Libertarian Party Social Media Update

Via https://www.facebook.com/libertarians:

In the coming weeks, you’ll be seeing some important changes in our social media outreach. The strategy and volunteer opportunities are discussed below.

Libertarianism is becoming popular, which means it’s even more likely to be misused by politicians. You can expect them to talk about being fiscally conservative and socially liberal…and then following it up by increasing government spending, stealing, and meddling. They may even call themselves Libertarians…and then increase government spending, stealing, and meddling. For that matter, they may call themselves anarcho capitalists or voluntaryists…and then increase government spending, stealing, and meddling.

For example, in 2008, Obama talked openly and frankly about his own history with marijuana. This won him the support of many independents and even libertarians, who assumed that Obama’s personal history implied that he would work to end marijuana prohibition. Obviously, he did just the opposite, choosing instead to increase raids on state licensed dispensaries.

To block that, the Liberty movement must work to promote, publicize, and advocate specific powerful cuts to government. After all, you can call yourself socially liberal and fiscally conservative and then advocate an increase in military spending, if you are clever with words. But if the whole liberty movement demands that the government cut military spending by 60% or more and shuts down 70% of its military bases, then politicians cannot as easily pander to lovers of liberty while increasing military spending. And the more we popularize specific cuts and explain their benefits to a broad audience, the more likely they are to happen.

If you’d like to volunteer to help make this happen:

Content schedulers (the people who post images and write the associated comments): https://www.facebook.com/groups/432761566812646/?fref=ts

Graphic Designers:
Social Media Marketing Team, where copywriters and designers collaborate to come up with image ideas: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LPSocialMedia/?fref=ts

Design for Liberty (NEW), where experienced designers work on specific campaigns: https://www.facebook.com/groups/550044811707457/?fref=ts

And

Social Media Volunteers Needed!

As we continue to expand our social media efforts, we need 6-8 more people on our core content scheduling team. Responsibilities include:

1. Using the facebook scheduler, schedule image posts from our graphic design team. If you don’t already know how to do this, don’t worry – instructions are provided.

2. After learning about our current strategy and teams, help provide suggested content and relevant info to the design team.

If you are interested, go here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/432761566812646/?fref=ts

And:

New Challenge: 5 Benefits of Ending/Eliminating/Repealing the ________

When advertising a product, at some point you should let your audience know the benefits of your product. Just talking about the problems in the competing product is not enough; after all, proving that Pepsi is bad doesn’t prove that Coke is good.

So we are having a new challenge called “5 Benefits of Ending/Eliminating/Repealing the ________.” Basically, just list 5 benefits of repealing any law, ending any federal agency, or legalizing something (competing currencies, drugs, private lotteries). The total word count should be around 250 words or less.

We’ll share the best ones on the official Libertarian Party facebook page, and some may be posted at lp.org.

Entries should be submitted to the Cuts and Benefits team here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CutsandBenefits/?ref=ts&fref=ts

Things to Do:

1. Use major cuts. Ending the Drug War, Eliminating the Department of Homeland Security, Repealing all obscenity laws, ending medicaid, ending medicare, cutting defense spending by 60% or more, are good topics. Here is a full list: http://www.lp.org/sample-libertarian-solutions

2. Write simply and clearly. This is for outreach, not for a PhD thesis. Make your writing so clear that even a first grader can understand it (a regular first grader, not Bobby Fischer).

3. Include financial benefits. EVERY law costs money to enforce. Include the cost savings of repealing the law or eliminating the government agency.

4. Remember that benefits don’t have to be financial. Ending obscenity laws, repealing the Patriot Act, getting the government out of marriage all have significant financial benefits. But they also have major non-financial benefits. Discuss both.

Things to Avoid:

1. Don’t choose a topic for Libertarians debate about. This is for outreach, not libertarian debates. Ending the Drug War, Eliminating the Department of Education, Ending Truancy Laws, Ending “Legal Tender” Laws, cutting defense spending, eliminating the DHS and the TSA, repealing obscenity laws – all those are good. Subtle debates about intellectual property, while interesting, are not good for outreach.

2. Don’t be disingenuous. Everyone on earth knows that “legalizing medical marijuana” is the first step legalizing all marijuana and ending the costly and wasteful Drug War. No one likes liars. Be honest. If you want to end the drug war, write the 5 benefits of Ending the Drug War, NOT the 5 benefits of legalizing medical marijuana.

3. Don’t be a wuss. Statists and crony “capitalists” managed to pass the highly unpopular trillion dollar Wall Street bailout passed. If statists and cronyists can pass that, we should push for trillion dollar spending cuts.

Similarly, the Department of Homeland Security was created and staffed in a few weeks. That means we should push to eliminate it in a few days.

4. Don’t push for MORE government! Don’t push for new laws or new agencies. Instead, push to repeal existing laws and existing agencies.

5. Don’t even bring up future increases. Just push for cuts to existing agencies.
If you are at a car dealer, and he says, “This car is $30,000”, would you say, “Well, I won’t go a penny over $50,000!”? Obviously not. Similarly, don’t debate future increases. Push for major, immediate cuts.

6. This is for outreach. Write simply and clearly. If a second grader cannot easily understand it, it’s too complicated. Do not hide behind complex grammar, incomprehensible numbers, and overblown vocabulary. Say what you mean as directly, honestly, and clearly as you can.