End The Purity Tests

I will admit I was happy when Justin Amash declared himself a candidate for the presidency. It was nice to have a national candidate with something approaching broad name recognition. I knew he had as much chance of winning as I have of being elected homecoming queen, but I thought we might finally have a candidate who was bright, articulate, and clean. (Where have I heard that before?) I also thought we had a candidate who could be taken seriously.


Instead, he decided to drop out because there is “no clear path to victory.” I call BS. There is absolutely nothing Amash knows now that he didn’t know when he declared his candidacy. The only logical conclusion is that he didn’t want to run. He was either trying to make a go at setting up a Bernie Sanders style money grab, or he was trying to feed his ego. There was never a path to victory. There is no path to victory for a third-party candidate. There never will be until we start to take the process and the proven methods of winning elections more seriously.


Why are the two legacy parties so dominant? Simple, they have armies. Libertarians have glorified debate societies. How do they do it? Why can’t we? Here’s why:


  • The legacy parties have open doors. If someone shows up at a local Democrat or Republican party office wanting to volunteer, they are given a job to do. Libertarians are more interested in purity tests and trying to out-libertairan one another. We will never grow the party with this strange ideological eugenics we are practicing.* 

  • The legacy parties care what people think. They have a message. They have a dress code. They don’t have an idiot running around with a boot on his head. No fat guys in thongs. They take themselves seriously. Libertarians allow themselves to be viewed as a joke and whether we like it or not, people will typically not vote for what they see as a joke.

  • The legacy parties understand that there is a lot more to American politics than the presidency. I’m more afraid of what city hall can do to me than what the White House can do to me.

  • The legacy parties are more interested in winning elections, than in winning arguments against members of their own parties.

  • The legacy parties solicit and accept donations and put the money to use. They also use the talents and skills of their members to further their cause.


As long as our main goal is to maintain our purity, as long as we act as if we are better than the legacy parties while they kick our ass all over the place, we will never win. We will never be more than the pointless, winless echo chamber we are today.


I am calling on the libertarian party to open its doors to the world. We are once again squandering a golden opportunity to grow our party. Rather than look down our noses at those who ask questions, we should take the opportunity to listen to them, and to answer without judgement. We know we have the right message, now let’s get out of our own way and deliver this message. Let’s be the big tent party the duopoly pretends to be. We are the party of universal appeal. We cannot claim to be the party of individual liberty and then proceed to destroy those with whom we disagree. It’s been my experience that if two people agree about every single thing, then at least one of them is lying at least half the time.


The libertarian party needs to stop looking for a messiah and start building leaders. This is the only way we will find relevance in the world.





* I speak from experience. Last year, I was appointed to a position on board of the Libertarian Party of Florida. Rather than being welcomed as a person who could help, I was interrogated by members of the board, hit with GOTCHA questions and generally treated like a spy. I quit immediately. In my prior experience with various republican organizations, I was welcomed to the party and treated with respect and given responsibilities. My abilities were put to use and I was a small part of the organization that managed to get an empty suit elected to the presidency twice. The GOP also had majorities in both houses of congress and to this day, has control of my home state of Florida. I am not taking credit for these victories, I am crediting the policy of welcoming volunteers rather than treating them like enemy combatant POWs.




Written by Adolfo Jimenez. The views expressed in the preceding do not necessarily reflect the views of the Libertarian Party of Broward County. That's kind of the point, isn't it?




Adolfo Jimenez is an author, poet, and blogger. He lives in Hollywood, Florida. He has published eight books, which you can find here.







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