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Author: Brett Bittner

How Committed Are You?

How Committed Are You?

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. Unless you live under a rock, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Rachel Dolezal, the former President of the Spokane, Washington NAACP. Regardless of one’s thoughts about her allegedly fabricated backstory, her accomplishments for the African-American community, the legal dispute with her family, and her questionable racial background, you have to admit that her commitment to a cause and the efforts she’s made are admirable. As someone who’s worked with libertarian activists and volunteers for years, I wish I had come across JUST ONE that was half as committed to the libertarian movement as Ms. Dolezal is to the black community in Spokane. That brings me to my original question. commitmentHow committed are you to the libertarian movement? Are you writing a letter to the editor every week about a libertarian position on an issue? Are you utilizing social media to to advance the libertarian cause? Are you reaching out to the people in your community with tools like anOperation Politically Homeless booth? Now is the time for libertarians to seize the opportunities afforded us by so many finally seeing the problems with Big Government and its exponential growth. The government we see today has grown far beyond anything envisioned by Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Paine. What are you going to do to stop that growth and help reverse course? No one’s asking you to be as committed as Ms. Dolezal, but can you make a positive impact for your community in the same way she has hers?

This Date In History

This Date In History

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. Well, not THIS date in history. Something we’ve added to the Liberator Online to help inspire libertarian activists is a list of important historical dates in the week ahead. These include holidays, significant laws enacted, and birthdays of historical figures with a major impact on the libertarian community. This calendar is by no means a finished product, but we have the beginning of what we think will be a terrific tool for libertarians. I would be remiss if I did not thank the Chairman of the Board for The Advocates for Self-Government, Dr. James Lark III, who compiled this information for our use. His efforts brought us our first iteration, and we welcome your additions. How great would it be for each of us to utilize (and amend) this calendar to help guide our libertarian outreach? For some of the events listed or holidays observed, a simple post to Facebook could suffice. It may remind or inspire a fellow libertarian activist about that great idea they have to point out the birthday of an influential figure for libertarians, like Adam Smith’s, whose birthday is just 4 days from today. For more significant historical events, like the signing of the Magna Carta 800 years ago, you may be moved, as our friend and President of the Foundation for Economic Education Lawrence Reed was, to share a terrific lesson about the history, motivations, and effects of such a ground-breaking document. There may even be an opportunity to promote and host an event locally to draw attention to something that holds significance to libertarians for the public at large, like Constitution Day in September. In addition to pointing to the upcoming week’s events, we prepared a full listing on our website for your use. There, you’ll also find a .pdf for your reference and future planning, an option I hope you’ll take advantage of to have a more successful (and less rushed) outreach activity. Will you commit to one activity each week? Even something as small as noting these events on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or your favorite other social media outlet will have an impact to grow the libertarian movement. If you do, please share it with us to feature in an upcoming issue, by e-mailing me directly with a photo, link, or description of what you did.

Use the Ruler as a Ruler

Use the Ruler as a Ruler

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here.

I talk with a LOT of people, libertarians and non-libertarians alike. If you are not doing the same, you are really missing out on finding new friends and learning about others and their lives.

Often, my job as Executive Director of the Advocates comes up in conversation. With the vast popularity of World’s Smallest Political Quiz, it’s often a connection I make with my new conversation partner. rulerAfter all, it’s been taken over 22 million times online, as well as millions more at festivals, rallies, and campuses throughout the country. As happens with everyone with a connection to something as popular as the Quiz, people often have suggestions about how to improve it. They mean well, but I don’t know that that fully realize how much work goes into making this terrific outreach tool as effective as it is.

In a conversation this week with someone familiar with the Quiz, it was suggested that we replace this question with another and to remove one question in particular. “It’ll make it easier for you to persuade people to be more libertarian,” they said. “If you just don’t talk about that, you will get more people to identify as libertarian.”

A highlight of my day is to discover a new libertarian, so I’m certainly interested in what is effective. In this instance, it seems my friend didn’t quite gather what the purpose of the Quiz is. Thinking on it further after our conversation, I realized that he didn’t see that, like a ruler, the Quiz is a tool to measure political tendency. We use it to objectively measure a very subjective topic, political philosophy. The Quiz itself holds no preference, as it is a ruler by which we can measure a pretty accurate picture of one’s political philosophy. By seeing where someone falls on the Diamond Chart, we know where to start the journey of persuasion. We carefully crafted the statements to identify the tendencies of each Quiz taker on a diverse set of issues, centered on issues of freedom. The beauty of the Quiz is that liberals find themselves in the “Liberal” area, conservatives end up in the “Conservative” area, and libertarians fall in the “Libertarian” area. Do you use the Quiz as a ruler? By knowing someone’s political tendencies, you know where to begin what I like to call “The Freedom Conversation.” You wouldn’t try to persuade a conservative on economic freedom issues where we agree, would you? Likewise, you wouldn’t try to convince a liberal to adopt a belief that they already hold on personal freedom issues, would you? Where do you start “The Freedom Conversation”? After giving the Quiz over 3000 times in person (and 1 “in panda”), that conversation starts with the measurements that the ruler indicates. Are you ready to use that ruler like a ruler?

Are You Using Facebook to Advocate for Liberty?

Are You Using Facebook to Advocate for Liberty?

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. This week, a friend of mine blocked and unfriended someone they’ve known for years after years of arguing over issues that do not directly affect either of them, but get them fired up. I understand wanting to rid one’s self of negativity and people who drive that stress level up, UP, UP!, but what is accomplished by walling yourself off from someone with whom you disagree? FacebookWhen you post political, economic, and social commentary on Facebook, you invite your “circle,” and possibly strangers (if your posts are public), to comment, debate, and engage in that topic. For me, this is an OPPORTUNITY to share libertarian ideas and possibly persuade others to join us in the libertarian movement. Have you ever changed your mind about an issue or stance you hold after a major Facebook argument that ends a friendship, even one solely on a social network? Me neither. My views have only been changed when presented with newly-available information or by better understanding a principle that I had not previously. None of those would be possible if we shut the door on someone who holds a different opinion. As an administrator of Facebook pages in addition to a personal profile, I have had the opportunity to share content and engage with millions of people. In just the last seven days, our Facebook page reached 1.1 million users. Would that be possible if we walled ourselves off from those who disagree on some tenets of libertarian philosophy? We continue to grow and reach more people with the seeds of Liberty we plant with each post, comment, and share. We also provide fellow libertarians with quality content to share with their networks to begin conversations about libertarian philosophy. Will you do the same? Happy Facebooking for Liberty!

Memorial Day Isn’t Just for Cookouts

Memorial Day Isn’t Just for Cookouts

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here.

For many, Monday is the last of a three-day holiday weekend. A mark of the beginning of summer, this weekend is likely to be filled with activities, cookouts, and even special retail sales.

Here in Indianapolis, this weekend is home to one of the biggest events in motorsports, the Indianapolis 500. But the day off of work, the beginning of summer, the parades, and the hot dogs and hamburgers are not what Monday is about. Memorial DayMemorial Day began three years after the Civil War as “Decoration Day” by a Union veterans organization, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), who wanted to adorn the graves of those killed in the war with flowers. They chose the date of May 30th, a day believed to allow every area of the country to have flowers in bloom.

The first large observance of Decoration Day occurred in 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from the nation’s capitol.

The most important takeaway is that Memorial Day is a time to remember the soldiers killed in action. As libertarians, we see that moving away from Washington’s interventionist foreign policy will result in fewer fallen soldiers needing to be memorialized. This holiday weekend, let’s focus on remembering those who paid the ultimate price in the name of our country, while also focusing on the peace and non-interventionism that will reduce the number of our fellow Americans that expire as a result of war. Let’s focus on peace!

Paradise, AKA Las Vegas

Paradise, AKA Las Vegas

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here.

This month, I will be visiting Las Vegas, one of my favorite cities in this country, again.

I cannot count how many times I’ve traveled there, both for business and for vacation. To me, there is something very libertarian about that town and about the state of Nevada. Perhaps it’s the availability to do nearly anything at any hour of the day or night.

There is also the awesome history about Paradise, an unincorporated area of Clark County, that is home to most of the famous Las Vegas Strip. It also happens to be, as this video notes, a “city-sized tax dodge,” specifically fighting annexation by the city of Las Vegas to prevent an increase in their tax liability in the 1950s, while remaining the main attraction in the Nevada desert.

How cool is that?

Paradise

As if I need an excuse to go to Vegas…

Earlier this year, I accepted an invitation to speak at LPEX, the Libertarian Political Expo, a major non-partisan conference created to connect people, organizations, technology and ideas, providing vital leadership training in the form of workshops, panelists and speakers. In other words, this event is an ideal place to find The Advocates for Self-Government.

This is the first year of what promises to be an exciting annual event, and they chose to kick things off with quite an offering of training by some of the most respected organizations in the country. The Leadership Institute and American Majority offer some of the best activism training in the political world, and they tailored their training presentations for the hundreds of libertarians expected to attend.

I invite you to join me at the end of this month in Paradise, as we identify and equip the newest leaders in the libertarian movement.

Most Effective Outreach? Lead By Example

Most Effective Outreach? Lead By Example

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. I’m often asked what I find to be the most effective ways to share libertarian ideas. My answer? Lead by example. Don’t worry about word choice, which book to recommend, or how you will answer a tough question. Start by being a shining example of what a libertarian is. lead by exampleWhen you live your life in a way that exemplifies your beliefs, your actions display to others what you believe. This means getting involved in your community, volunteering for charity activities, and networking. What does it say to you when someone constantly talks about gardening should be, but you never see their tomatoes or roses? Is your mind questioning those supposed skills? The same goes for libertarian ideas. If you talk ALL DAY LONG about the wonders of free markets, voluntary cooperation, and how private charity outperforms government welfare programs in every way, but if no one sees you “gardening,” how much weight do your words carry? Finding activities like maintaining a notoriously littered part of your community, starting a neighborhood tool library, or keeping the lawn trimmed of an infirm, elderly neighbor, are ways to show how individuals can make a difference in the community. As you perform these tasks, you inspire others to join you or to also do something that will also benefit those around you without looking to the government to pay someone to pick up litter or to send scary notices to your neighbor when their grass exceeds the mandated height for the city or county. Additionally, you will become known for your efforts to improve the quality of life in your community, which opens the door for others to seek you out. Now that your neighbors seek you out, you have an amazing opportunity. You will get to hear about their concerns and the issues that are important to them. The key to this activity is NOT to talk, but to LISTEN. The most important to be done is to hear what they have to say, letting them lead the conversation. This will help you to build rapport by finding common ground with which you begin to converse. Because libertarianism is such a broad philosophy, you will likely find that you have similar concerns and desire the same outcomes, but the person to whom you are speaking may not be considering how libertarian principles and ideals could solve a problem. THIS is your opportunity to speak. You listened, identified a problem, heard their desired outcome. Now, you can effectively offer a libertarian solution. Whether it is helping the homeless via shelters, soup kitchens, and health and employment services in the community or offering answers to the area’s poor education results by NOT relying on a government “solution,” you have credibility because you took it upon yourself to address a tangible issue that others noticed. As you converse about the issue you both identified as an issue in need of a solution, keep the conversation in a friendly tone, using everyday language. The use of unnecessarily scholarly verbiage or political jargon and buzzwords may turn off your new friend. This is just a conversation between two people about everyday issues, not a debate. As tempting as it is, there is no “win” in making him or her feel like your intellectual inferior. We libertarians are a diverse lot, and not everyone can bring new people around to the ideas and principles of libertarian philosophy, and that is OK. By being a great example of libertarianism, you can be active and bring more people into the movement, but if you are uncomfortable with the whole “walk the walk” concept, please find another way you can help the libertarian movement. There are candidates, campaigns, and organizations who need your assistance in other ways. It may be that your lifestyle allows you to finance activities, your skills can bring a professional website to them, or your “best fit” is to be someone who can distribute hundreds of flyers that affect an electoral outcome. The key is to find and do what you do well.

Which Libertarian Are You?

Which Libertarian Are You?

This article was featured in our weekly newsletter, the Liberator Online. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. As libertarian philosophy gains popularity in response to the repeated failures of government, we need to define which type of libertarians we want to be. Our numbers are growing, and as we reach critical mass, we need to start to specialize our activities. In my mind, there are three kinds of libertarians: the candidates, the leadership, and the activists. division of laborLibertarians will likely recognize this specialization as division of labor. Previously, libertarians had to “wear many hats,” because of how few our numbers were. Today, that is not the case. Have you ever waved signs at a rally or a busy intersection for your favorite candidate or issue? Have you ever made statements to the press, defining an organization’s position on an issue? Have you ever run for office? Chances are, most libertarians can answer “yes” to the first two questions, with a smaller number answering affirmatively about the third one.

Activists

Our hard-working activists are recruiting new libertarians through their efforts “on the ground,” working outreach booths, attending rallies, going door to door, passing out literature, and writing op-eds and letters to the editor about libertarian issues. These are often thankless jobs that happen in extreme weather, on nights and weekends, and bring attention to our philosophy at the actual grassroots level. Many who “get off the couch” and get involved in politics for the first time start here, but it is not just for beginners. There is an art (and a LOT of effort) to a successful event or outreach activity, and there are some who find their niche here.

Leadership

Real leaders are the fewest in number in our movement, because they really need to be able to manage a lot of “chiefs” and far fewer “braves.” They need a thick skin and the ability to build bridges in an environment wrought with the wreckage from many burned ones. Their focus is to grow the cause, party, or organization they represent, while serving the needs of those already on board. The effective ones have a vision for the organization, a plan for achieving it, and the skills to sell that to existing and prospective members. These are not easy tasks, but a real leader will excel here.

Candidates/Elected Officials

If there is one area that I wish saw more development in the libertarian movement, it is this one. Standard bearers on the ballot might have the most difficult job among the three I outline here. Candidates represent the platform and beliefs of their party, while trying to communicate a message that attracts those not necessarily supportive of those beliefs. They are also meeting thousands of people, raising money to fund their campaign efforts, and trying to stay “on message.” In the age of YouTube, smartphones with amazing features, and “gotcha” journalism, they also need to watch everything they say and do, no matter who is around. All the while, they need to be real and genuine in every interaction. It really IS a tough job. So, are you an activist, a leader, or a candidate (and for Liberty’s sake, an elected official)? Which one best fits your skill set and aspirations? Focus your efforts on being just one, and be a great one of those.