An Open Letter the LP

July 18, 2020

Last night, during the July Executive Committee meeting, I lost my temper. Twice. I’m not writing this letter to try to justify my behavior. I’m old enough to know better. I should not have yelled. I should not have cursed. I should not have left the meeting. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

I want to apologize for losing my temper. 

There, now that that’s out of the way, I want to address the issues that set me off.

But first, a little history...

I became involved in national and local politics seventeen years ago. I volunteered for the Bush campaign. I worked for local republican campaigns. I worked for several republican organizations. I learned a lot during those years. I learned that my beliefs are not in line with he republican philosophy, particularly with how it is now interpreted. I also learned how an effective political organization is run.

I witnessed this operational efficiency, par excellence, at the county level, and at the city level. I also saw it as the state, county, and city organizations got together to create the army of volunteers that got W not only elected, but re-elected. I was a foot soldier in the elections of 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008. I lost interest in being a republican when John McCain was the best answer they had to Barack Obama. Four years later, the selection of Mitt Romney confirmed that I was right to leave what was no longer the conservative party I grew up with. Republicans now are essentially pro-life democrats, drunk on debt and way too casual about the Bill of Rights. No thanks.

I joined the Libertarian Party of Broward County and found an organization rising from the ashes. There was turmoil but there was a small core of leaders who were working hard to build something. A few years later, they have accomplished great things. I am proud to have been a witness to the rebirth. It is worth noting, however, that there were many within the organization who were more concerned with their status and the gathering of influence, than with making the organization work. Palace intrigue is great in movies, but it sucks in the real world. If you care about the goals of the organization, put your personal agenda aside. If you can’t control your ambition, find somewhere else to stick it. Contact me for suggestions.

We are now living in the exact world that all libertarians should fear. An invisible threat has been weaponized by the government. Businesses are being forced to shut down. Citizens are being harassed for not wearing masks. Contact tracing and red flag laws are popping up. Rioting in the streets threatening private property. Police brutality and ineffectiveness. The national debt has reached a level no human mind can comprehend. We have two candidates for president who are both mentally unstable and accused of sexual assault. We have a third candidate, our candidate, who is a decent, respectable human being. She may not win the election, but Jo Jorgensen’s candidacy can do more to advance the cause of libertarianism than every other libertarian candidate before her combined. If we seize this opportunity.

But we’re too busy having debates about what a libertarian is. We’re too busy making memes and posting on facebook to pick up a phone and call a voter. We’re too busy picking apart Jo’s philosophy and looking for her weak spots to knock on someone’s door and brag about her strengths. We’re okay with losing, as long as we get the last word and our self-righteousness remains intact. 

The only people I’ve ever met in my life who are okay with losing, are losers. I ain’t one of them!

So while the republocrats continue to convince the voters that this is the most important election of their lifetimes (too important to risk your vote on a third party) we argue about Robert’s Rules and agenda items and minimal operating expenses. We weaponize parliamentary law. We do committee work during the executive meeting because it gives us a chance to attack one another. Never mind whose time you’re wasting. By all means, you have the floor.

Libertarians are not a political party; we are a debate society. Love them or hate them, the republocrats are men and women of action. They don’t hold people to impossible standards of purity. They have not institutionalized mistrust. They don’t care about winning debates against each other, they care about winning elections. They focus on beating their opponent. We focus on beating ourselves. No wonder neither of them focuses on us.

In my three years of involvement with the LP, what I have noticed is that we are like a dysfunctional family in a bad comedy. We act like the last generation of a once great American clan that would like to attain its former glory, but wants to make sure that no one else gets the credit for it. If we just learned to focus on what matters, which is winning elections, we could absolutely win, but as long as we publicly ridicule one another, as long as we are more interested in titles than in the duties and the work attached to those titles, we will always be the snotty little kid everyone ignores. Count me out.

A colleague and I decided to appoint ourselves the co-chairs of the Broward County campaign for Jorgensen/Cohen 2020. Why did we do this? Because after weeks of waiting, the state still hasn’t gotten back to us. Neither has the national campaign, at least, not in any meaningful way. I volunteered on behalf of the entire Broward County organization within days of Jo’s website being set up. I got an email telling me things I can do on my own. It wasn’t even elections 101, it was worthless. There has been no follow up.

Rather than letting our volunteers die of boredom, we held our first phone bank last week and reached hundreds of voters. Many had never heard of Jo Jorgensen. I wonder if any of the purists in the party have picked up a phone and called a potential voter. I wonder if they were too busy debating? I guess the real libertarians are the ones who don’t do the real work.

I got an email from the State LP’s elections “guru.” He asked a couple of questions about a potential candidate we had fielded. Nothing came of it. He texted me a few days later asking if it was a good time to chat. I told him it was and to call at his convenience. That was six weeks ago. I moved on and got things done. Had I waited for the rusted wheels of bureaucracy to turn, I would not have made those calls. I would not be speaking to potential candidates. The Broward organization would not be growing, and I would have become that which I despise.

So, while I feel bad about losing my temper, and while I should not have left the meeting, I value my time. I work hard and I work long. I have a family, including a daughter who is leaving for college in a couple of weeks. It is not a good use of my time to debate and try to prove myself to people who do less than I do. I live in the world of action. Debates are for candidates. And if the biggest contribution you can make to an organization is to point out flaws in others, or waste everyone’s time with insignificant minutiae, you’re not only not helping the organization, you’re hurting it. Shame on you.

So… Can we please get some work done?

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

The views of the author are his own.

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