(The 2008 election cycle and the 2008 LPUS Convention has generated a great deal of interest and requests for information about Barry Hess’ plans to seek the nomination of the Libertarian Party for President of the United States and Ernest Hancock’s plans for seeking the chairmanship of the Libertarian Party of the United States.

Barry and Ernest will be attending the 2008 LPUS convention and will offer themselves as fearless representatives of libertarianism. Until that time they will focus their attentions here in Arizona advocating for freedom and allow their focused efforts in Arizona to be the example of what can be expected of them.

The best measure of future performance is past performance,… how’s the LPUS been doing BTW?)

 

 

Barry Hess:
Ernest and I don’t agree on everything, but we do agree on our political objectives… and on the fundamental principles at the heart of Libertarian philosophy.  The heart and soul of Libertarianism is forwarding the cause of individual freedom and of respect for individual property rights.  

That’s just it; we both understand that fundamental principles cannot be changed without changing the objective.  There are no “new” fundamentals, they’re all old.  You have to be at least a little skeptical when someone says they manufacture antiques.

“The winds of political change are upon us so, we too, must change”, we are told by those seeking to ‘moderate’ our principles.  There’s not much to argue when it comes to the notion that the political world is in a major flux.  If present day government could be summed up into one word, it would have to be ‘dis-trust’.

Isn’t this what we’ve been patiently waiting ‘here’ for?  Why would we want “to be like them” (the Republican/Democrats) when they are so rightfully reviled?

I would guess that most all the folks reading this know that political popularity is a predictable cycle.  And from all I’ve seen, America is on the brink of having come full circle—back to a republican form of government (as opposed to “Democracy” which was denounced as “the most vile and vulgar form of governance” by America’s founders), respect for and adherence to its constitutional charter and, all to protect the inherent unalienable rights of the individuals lucky enough to find themselves here within our territorial boundaries.  

Why do I think we are on the brink of returning at long last, to our nation’s Libertarian roots?  Because, as was recently made public, over one-half of America either works for, or receives a significant amount, if not all, of their business or income from the government—directly or indirectly.  Don’cha see?  Historically speaking, all 92 serious attempts to sustain social communism have utterly collapsed under the crushing weight of endless bureaucracy.  

When half the population is called upon to support the other half—it doesn’t last very long before the supporters either refuse to further participate or decide they can come out further ahead by being a dependent.  That’s when our window of opportunity opens wide.    

All we have to do is stand firm on our principles and the market will come back to us.  If we should attempt to catch the butterfly of political popularity by ‘reforming’ or ‘modernizing’ our well-vetted positions on issues, we become a moving target for political popularity and our chances of catching the butterfly sink nearly to nil.  But if we stand firm, the People will have every reason to have confidence in our (Libertarian) politicians and most importantly—they’ll know where to finds us, in exactly the same place as we started.  That’s why our Libertarian candidates will find success in their campaigns in the very near future.  Certainly the same cannot be said of the Republican/Democrat party, after all, the ‘Republicans’ were the ones ‘dedicated’ to preserving a Constitutionally guaranteed ‘republic(an)’ form of government.  Don’t we have a ‘Republican’ president who espouses the “export” of our ‘Democracy’?  I’d be curious to know where he thinks he’s going to get it.

I will continue to assert that “a little less theft is not okay”, and “theft is still theft—even by government”, because I know that philosophical principles don’t change—only the intentions and objectives of individuals do.

What do you think, Ernie?

Ernest Hancock:
I think sharing our perspective this early on will save us a lot of time over the next 15 months playing internal politics inside the LPUS. Time better used focusing on the freeing of minds.

Just this morning I received an invitation to read another article about the newest plan to “Herd Cats”.

 ‘We can get elected to public office if we (fill in the blank)’. Seeking freedom, and getting elected to an office of a doomed government have little to do with each other. I know many have another opinion.

I take Freedom Fighting very seriously and am effective in attaining the goals I set for myself here in Arizona and inspire activity elsewhere. But where the LPUS has worked on building a stronger collective we work to inspire and educate individuals. Enough time has passed and evidence produced to make it clear which method is the most effective,… and fun. And I see a much stronger and growing LPUS as the result of leadership unafraid of no-compromise engagement of government abuse of individual rights.

The irrelevancy of the Libertarian Party of the United States does not go unnoticed by the thousands of individuals spending many millions of dollars and an unknown amount of time and effort supporting libertarian efforts across the globe. The libertarian movement is very much alive. And liberty supporters are witnessing the LP get smaller and smaller in their rearview mirror, as they continue on their journey in support of more freedom.

The desire and ability to use the criticisms of libertarianism to educate America is alien to ‘the reformers’. While ‘the purists’ relish the opportunity to demonstrate to any audience the flawed thinking of the media and their puppet masters, the reformers are shamed and fearful to the point of begging for acceptance from those whose opinion is valueless. Barry and I both see things very differently than most past and current LNC members. A very good example would be our reaction to Ron Paul’s few minutes with Bill Maher http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJzfS8ZhRSg.  This one Ron Paul interview demonstrates how much the libertarian movement has moved outside of the LPUS,… and has been given no reason to ever come back.

An hour before this HBO segment was recorded/broadcast, Ron Paul made it clear at a Paradise Valley fundraiser in Arizona that he was running as a libertarian http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=016822.

The most informative aspect of this election cycle is how little the opinion of the LNC and the LPUS matters. Comments by the LP, either in support or opposition of Ron Paul’s efforts, have little influence on the decisions of individuals interested in the 2008 Presidential race.

I’ll be running for National Chair again and I doubt I’ll have to change a single word of anything I wrote for the last effort www.ernesthancock.org. The only difference is an additional 2 years of overwhelming evidence that support ‘purist’ positions,… including my opinion about the planned efforts to further strip the LPUS of any remaining value at the next convention.

From my perspective, the end result of the 2008 LPUS Convention will have no effect on the libertarian movement, but the LPUS will have one of the few remaining opportunities to realign itself with the movement to the benefit of all interested.

7 years ago Barry and I were of different minds but over the years our families have become very good friends. I recognized the desire and skill that Barry has to turn an audience to his side, and Barry recognized the power and usefulness of a no-compromise principled philosophy to maintain credibility as he continued to expand his sphere of influence in Arizona politics. From the outside it often appears that we are working as a team. But it is much more accurate to describe our efforts as being parallel. Neither one of our individual efforts is dependant on the other but we willingly augment each other often. And this is the basis for success in Arizona with dozens of other activists that operate the same way.

 

My article of June 23rd 2006 just before the Oregon National Convention http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/hancock/hancock1.html provides an insight into what I saw coming (how'd I do?)

Libertarianism is benefiting less and less from the collective known as the Libertarian Party of the United States of America and the argument that this collective is becoming a detriment to the movement is building momentum for many reasons. Barry and I offer a very clear change in direction. Either individually or together the result will be the same. The LPUS membership will have made a choice to use our most powerful weapons against tyranny,… libertarian principles.

We’ll be at the 2008 National Libertarian Party Convention. Until then,… we’re busy being libertarians.

Ernest

Barry Hess
Candidate for Libertarian Party nomination for
President of the United States of America 2008
&
Ernest Hancock
Candidate for Chairman of the Libertarian Party 2008