Last month, the Libertarian Party’s executive director (Wes Benedict) sent me a tone-deaf, form email. I posted Libertarianism is Enough: Goodbye to the LP in reply, in which I argued that the Libertarian Party was an unworthy vessel for a liberty-oriented politics:
Imagine, then, after an election in which the LP did poorly, and in which libertarians now face a long struggle against radical populist advocates of state power, the surprise in reading an invitation from Wes Benedict, executive director of the national LP, that
It is time to party…
You are invited to an end of the year
CELEBRATION!
2016 has been a record-breaking year for the Libertarian Party!
Wes Benedict may go to hell, and celebrate there in the outer darkness for so long as he wishes.
Wes wrote again recently, and how touching it is to see that he’s concerned for me:
I see that your Libertarian Party membership has expired.
Any chance you could renew today?
You can renew your membership by clicking here
Or go to LP.org/membership
I hope all is well!
Thanks,
Wes Benedict
P.S. If you want a copy of my book Introduction to the Libertarian Party for renewing, you can renew at the link below for $27.53 or more.
A Trump Administration awaits, and Benedict writes “hope all is well.” One would think Benedict had been living in a cave these last eighteen months.
Funnier still is Benedict’s offer (for a price) of his book – an introduction to a party of which his recipient had already been a member for many years.
I’m from a movement family (those who have been liberty-oriented long before there was a party, and even before the term libertarian was coined), and from that vantage Benedict’s emails are instructive but have no emotional impact. If anything, they seem silly, almost absurd.
For one who recently joined, however, and let his or her membership momentarily lapse, Benedict’s message might seem different, as an insult to someone who sought meaning through party membership.
Odd that he’s too clueless to see how silly his message seems to some, and how insulting it may be to others.
Benedict’s book? No, the enduring works of the last three thousand years are the ones we’ve need of reading and reading again.
Benedict’s party? We need more than a single, small party now.
Libertarianism has a long road ahead, and those devoted to it have much work ahead, in a grand coalition with those of different but friendly ideologies, to preserve free institutions in this country.
That may be the task of our time, and membership in the LP contributes nothing to it.