Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Using the opportunities available to us

The failures of the Left have provided multiple opportunities for creating working coalitions inside already existing community groups. Social predators of all kinds along with bureaucrats and special interest groups use the state to ensure their behavior will continue to pay off.

When the functions of government are demonstrated to be better accomplished in the hands of private individuals we will have won. We will have disassembled the State from the inside out. To do so we must create community based institutions to answer both their present needs and to better serve the community in such areas of concern as social justice. We don’t actually have to invent very much. America is filled with institutions marginalized by the intrusion of government into the community. It is filled with people who want to make things better.

San Diego has provided models for action in litigation. San Diego taxpayers are billions of dollars richer because of law suits filed and won by activists who are libertarians. Litigating for liberty is a fertile avenue, as we know from some of the work done by the Institute for Justice. Other possibilities also exist. Kingswood near Houston used freedom rhetoric and reality to fight annexation by the encroaching city.

So, how does this relate to the need for growing local activism?

To demonstrate that we do not need government we need to enable local Libertarians to work from within their communities. We need to find examples where Libertarians have been successful and help other individuals and groups get started on their own.

This is a different model for activism. It is flatter. Instead of a hierarchy it is a networking point, providing information and enabling people to connect. It trains, constantly adding more information and ideas and making them available. It provides little else, encouraging individuals and groups to do their own fundraising from within their own communities.

Teaching them to fish builds immediately and directly towards a future of local governance. Local groups need to look to their communities for support.

We are not without resources. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and San Diego, among others, have provided us with the examples and organizational technologies we need to get started.

Taking it on the road and offering training to Libertarians is a beginning. We also need a web site and articles about successful efforts. CATO, Reason, Heartland, and other sources are ready and available.

Then we need to put serious thought into the form we will adopt for the Patty at a National level. We need to call a constitutional convention.

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