The purpose of the Libertarian Party is to use the tools of the state against the state to spread the concepts of libertarianism, and to point out what bastards the rulers be.  What if those tools are no longer available?  What is the purpose then?

 

What if there are no debates---at least ones where we are invited?  What if there are no stories in the press?  What if there are no surveys that get published?  Peaceful communication effectively denied.

 

What if the R and the D do nothing other than fundraising events and phone solicitations?  Run commercials and mail attack ad fundraisers.  One of them will be elected after all.  And no embarrassing or troubling questions or worse answers will trouble the masses.  If both candidates are acceptable to the rulers does it matter to the rulers which one wins?
 
Every ten years every congressional and legislative race in America has no incumbents. Oh, we have incumbent politicians finishing out their term in the soon to not exist district.  But every ten years the districts get redrawn and there are no incumbents.  There may be politicians present you know are likely or even going to win.  There may be lopsided voter registrations so when the general election comes around you know who will win. 

But deep down in every cowardly piece of shit lying scumbag politician there is still the uncertainty of running in a new district that they just can't be completely certain of the outcome.  Sleepless nights.

And the media traditionally has spent this election cycle and to a lesser extent the next one in interest rather than the feigned interest of the next three subsequent elections were the outcome of almost all elections are assured before the districts are redrawn again. 

Such is the case this election.

Yet, in Arizona, for instance in my race in Congressional District 9: In a district literally with no sitting congresscritter, a small (but most wealthiest per capita) town black mayor running against the most liberal lesbian state legislator (an avowed Marxist) in Arizona [bonus media interest you would think] there has been a single debate attended by all 3 candidates, and two debates attended by only a single candidate (one in my case and the other I wasn't invited).  The one debate (held after at least half the votes have already been cast in early voting) where we were all there together was a 30 minute spot on the local public television station.  If a candidate can't do the sidestep for the seven minutes they are exposed to responding they don't deserve to be called politicians. 

In 2004, I had interviews with the local ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and independent news affiliate BELO TV news stations.  This year, only ABC and only because their parent company Scripps still demands they do so.  I guess they haven't got the memo to ignore us yet.  The NBC affiliate gave my two opponents 15 min. sessions of free advertising apiece.  The rest of the news stations don't see this as helping to justify their continued possession of a precious FCC broadcast license.  Interesting.

The fish wrap of record in the state, The Arizona Republic, doesn't bother to invite me to their interview of the candidates, nor mention me in their paper.  I am a shadow candidate despite being on the ballot along with the other two.  But more importantly they don't seem to even want to demand answers from the R and the D candidates themselves.  One would think their position on how to deal with the disastrous economy, wars and Presidents who not only disappear or order the torture of Americans with the stroke of a pen, but now murder them as well might be of more interest than education, healthcare or global warming.  But such items are apparently too mundane for print. 

There are usually numerous questionnaires and surveys sent by religious and special interest organizations for politicians to fill out and return.  Some of them even allow the thoughts of the politician to be made and post them online or publish them.  There should have been dozens...I got three.

My district is even more unusual.  There is only a two percent difference in voter registrations between the R's and the D's and the majority of registrations (over 35%) are people registered as something other then R or D.  With no strong politician the media's and social group's interest should be high.   Instead the only race with legs is Obomney 2012. 

This makes my fifth time running.  I really did not want to run this time.  Burned out.  I tried to get some young person to give it a go.  I promised I would get all the signatures for them to get on the ballot if they would promise to attend every media event, fill out every survey and do some activism to get the libertarian message out there.  None were interested.   I even assured them that in this district there would be lots of opportunity. 

 

As it turned out maybe they had better things to do than to try and recruit the last vestiges of the remnant.  If people  haven't figured it out by now it will likely take an open sky, inclement weather and an empty belly and wallet before they do.  Perhaps the youth were more tuned in to the malaise and apathy of a public with better things to do than pay attention to who rules us.  If so, good for them.  There are better things to do.

I have talked to other Libertarian candidates in the area.  They too report little interest in their campaigns. 

If things are that bad then maybe it is time to revisit my first question:  If the tools of the state are no longer available then what is the purpose of the Libertarian Party?  Perhaps to organize shooting matches?  Perhaps some unauthorized sign making.  Maybe some self sufficiency classes.  Because if the peaceful exchange of ideas at political events is now over it is time to do something else.