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Coming Home

Back in February, I wrote about how I was still on the fence about finding my political home (Time To Come Home. But where is home?), torn between the Libertarian party I’ve been part of since 2001, and the Republican Party with I’ve only become involved in within the past year.

Well folks, after almost a year of deep consideration, I’ve decided that I will not be renewing my membership in the Libertarian Party next April when my years dues are up. A lot of factors went into this decision, but here are my main points.

• In the GOP, rising to power means you will realistically be able to accomplish something. For example, your influence on candidates, the people at large and policy is greater. Basically, saying you’re a “higher up” in the GOP gives you a lot more cloud, within the party and outside, than being a higher ranked person in a third party.
• The people you meet will be able to do a lot more for you as far as people to volunteer, make phone calls and raise money. Even as a Ron Paul republican, I’ve met a lot of people who have been more than willing to help as long as we can do each other right, even if they were McCain, Guliani, or Bush supporters.
• The elections can actually focus on trying to WIN the seat you’re running for. The biggest problems within the LP was that every year we struggle to raise money just to try to make seemingly simple things like ballot access a reality. As a GOP candidate, you have everything in place and you can focus your time and resources on winning your race.
• Less explanation with the general public. If you say “I’m a Libertarian” you first have to explain what that is and deal with all their questions before you can even begin to talk about yourself and what you believe. Now, I can just say “Libertarian Republican”, “Ron Paul Republican”, “Republican, more more liberal on social issues”, or “Republican who joined the party now because I like it, but because I want to change it and make it better”.
• Better Networking. It’s no secret that the LP, the Constitution Party, The Green Party, etc. inherit a fair amount of crazies and wackjobs who were rejected by the major parties. The people in the GOP, while I don’t agree with them politically 100% of the time, are already opening up to me and providing me with more opportunities and people than I could have imagined.Not to mention the Campaign for Liberty people who have been awesome.
• You get people who actually know how to run campaigns involved. Within the LP, it’s hard to find a long time LP member who has experience actually winning elections. It’s good having people on your side who actually know what it takes to win things. Basically, I’m sick of donating to campaigns to watch the money being spent on stupid things that make me facepalm like you wouldn’t believe.
• The LP is constantly badgering me for money and whatnot. The GOP, not so much. That’s nice.

Instead of paying my $35 / year to stay with the LP, I will instead be using that money towards Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, where I’ve already signed up as a precinct leader. Which has already been a greater social networking and online resource than the LP has been. Not to mention all the educational stuff that comes with it. The people I’ve met through the Ron Paul campaign and now the Campaign for Liberty have been what the LP has needed for so long, but to realistically win elections and change the way things are done, we’re going to have to be republicans to make it happen.

So we all joined up as precinct delegates. We are coming to the meetings and conventions. We’re known and (more or less) liked (well, at least tolerated, if cautiously at times) by much of the old crowd who is excited to see new energetic people in the party (although there are some who have been less enthusiastic. BTW did I mention that I am not supporting Saul Anuzis for RNC chairman? Maybe I’ll do a blog post on that sometime soon as well for my upcoming Michigan GOP statewide election endorsements as well).

On a side note, I have also joined the Objectivist Party, newly formed in 2008 by Dr. Thomas Stevens. Just because it will be nice to help grow a party up from the ground up and this is truely a group that really, really represents my views as a person at the core, which I can even say the LP does not do, since it is geared towards America and the Constitution, Objectivism is a way of life and a Philisophy for anywhere. While it advocates free market capitalism to the point of making Adam Smith blush, it is most importantly about doing best for the self: that if everyone looked out for ourselves everyone would be taken care of. Its a message that I personally take to heart and the more I think about it the more I realize that Objectivism really has shaped the person that I am today. And while i’m no Howard Roark myself, it doesn’t mean that I can’t aspire to be.

This is not to mention the involvement I’ve had with the John Birch Society. While I don’t feel their stances on religion as much as I do the pro freedom and constitutional message, they’ve all been great people and I’m very glad I decided to join up with these folks. As a matter of fact the regional recruiter Tom Rice whom I met a few months back called me up last week just to touch base and wish me a Merry Christmas. Another person who’se aquaintence I have been glad to make this past year.

So this is where I’ve nested. Officially in the GOP, the Campaign for Liberty  and the JBS with a place in the Objectivist Party as well. I’ve already begun making headway. I’m attending conventions and social functions meeting some great people. I was also recently elected the Treasurer of the Macomb County Young Republicans, appointed an ambassador in the Campaign for Liberty, and am working hard with people on all sides of the isle. I’m loving it.

And while I will still be supporting LP candidates in races in the future, I will continue to do what I’ve always done: vote for who I feel is best equipped for the job and who I feel best represents the direction the country needs to go in. Regardless of party.

Considering it all started off with me being able to campaign for Ron Paul last January, looking back it’s hard to believe that breaking my knee cap turned out to be so beneficial in the long run.

….although I stil have a hard time swallowing the fact that I’m a Republican Party member, but i’m getting used to the idea.

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MLK and the GOP

There’s always a few odd signs every election year. But this one takes the cake, I don’t even know what to say about it. Just…here. Click for ultra high res full size.

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Time to Come Home. But where is home?

I received a letter from the Libertarian Party last week that’s been at the forefront of my mind since I got it. During the first parts of the Paul campaign, people were talking about how they had joined the Republican Party so they could possibly serve as delegates or something of the like. While others, such as myself, believe(d) that the infiltration of the party would be too difficult and that we need to stick to the LP platform in order to get things done.

But lately, I’ve been on the fence about it.

The letter from the LP talked about how people had joined the GOP for voting purposes and other things, but now it’s time to come back home to the LP. The points being that the GOP is not going to give us the time of day and that we are stronger as a political party force as Libertarians. Which was always my philisophy to begin with. They made the point about how we would have never become a country had we tried to infiltrate the British instead of going against them. They’re saying that we all did what we had to do, but it’s time to come home.

I hate the 2 party system, but there’s a strong argument on the other side too. Despite being ignored by the media, Ron Paul would have never gotten the movement together that he did if he was still on the LP ticket. While infiltrating the republican party would be hard to get anything done, doing it as a Libertarian is nearly impossible. We are working to change that, but at the same time, it is very very hard. I also think this is much different than the idea of infiltrating the Brits. For one, we weren’t allowed to. We didn’t have representatives in their government and were pretty much at their mercy. Where as the GOP can be changed if we get enough people behind our ideals. Even in the past 30 years the GOP has gone through many changes as far as what the party represents and who is to lead it.

So the question that crosses my mind: Do I stay the course with the LP and continue to build on that. Or do I decide it’s best to support constitutional and liberty minded republicans instead? There are people like Jim Forsythe and a couple dozen others around the country that plan on running as “Ron Paul Republicans”. Where in lies our greatest chance for change? For restoring liberty and constitutional freedoms? I don’t know yet. I’m still thinking.

But I can’t belive I’m considering joining the Republican Party to do this. Ugh. Talk about something I never thought I would do.

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Entering the Arena

Well with all my time off I figured I might as well do something productive with my time. So I’ve decided to get more actively involved in the Ron Paul presidential campaign. So this Sunday I’m volunteering at Gibraltar Trade Center for the gun and knife show, the Macomb County meetup group is getting a table and needs people to staff it. So I’ll be doing that for a few hours.

There’s also something substantially more interesting around the corner for me. Operation Live Free or Die is paying for a bunch of people to come out to New Hampshire for the primaries to get the word out and do some grassroots campaigning in the final push. So I threw my hat into the ring and will be riding out there with 3 other local supporters on Jan 1st. They’ll be reimbursing the drivers for transportation and will be taking care of lodging (however that’s supposed to work I’m not quite sure yet. I guess this will be explained tomorrow)

In addition to all the campaign stuff there will be parties as well as the Liberty Forum and lots of other fun stuff. And hell, I need to get away for a while after being cooped in my house since earlier this month. So I can’t rightly pass up a free few days away as well as a chance to help spread liberty. Don’t know how much I’ll be able to blog while i’m there but I’ll definitely be twittering all of the happenings from out east. I haven’t been anywhere outside of Michigan aside from Ohio and Windsor since before 9/11. It’s time to go see the world while I can.