Dear Libertarian Party,
Your national convention will begin in two weeks. I am one of a number of voices which may come your way to ask you to delay nominating a presidential ticket until after the Republican convention.
I can imagine this would be difficult logistically and tactically. Getting the convention together for a second time is costly and you, no doubt, want your candidates out the door, on the campaign trail getting name recognition and convincing voters to move them up in the polls so they can get into the debates.
While there are real risks in doing this, if you wait until after the GOP convention, Ron Paul may be willing to accept your nomination, provided you choose to do so. I know candidates like Gary Johnson have been working faithfully to obtain the Libertarian nomination. It is understandable why you would want to reward those who sojourn with you in the wilderness.
However, it might be advantageous in moving into the promised land of party electability if you do endorse former candidate Ron Paul. Pulling in at least 17% nationally would help the LP get on the ballot in all states and boost other LP candidacies down ticket running in local, state and national elections.
I am also almost certain that Paul supporters would increase financial contributions to the LP and happily agree to Gary Johnson as Paul's running mate. His name on the ticket would probably get a Paul/Johnson ticket close to 25% of the national vote. If you nominate in May, it is likely that the LP will poll less than 5%. A Paul endorsement, made more likely if you hold the nomination until September, might get you above 20%.
I imagine that the LP is leaning toward nominating Johnson and leaving the VP slot open. Johnson has already said he wants Paul as his VP and this may be a more acceptable tactic. Ron Paul agreeing to be Johnson's VP is not a certainty. He has a great number of supporters who are cultishly determined to write him in even if he does not run in the general election. Granted, allowing Johnson to delay picking his VP vastly increases the LP's electablity; however, a Paul/Johnson ticket is probably going to fare better than a Johnson/Paul ticket.
I, of course, would like to persuade you toward a more radical course. Delay the convention and invite the Green Party to join you in a trans-partisan convention to nominate a coalition ticket. I have been encouraging a Paul/Kucinich or a Paul/Sanders ticket. At such a convention you might choose one of my suggestions, or if they are not available or you so desire, a Johnson/Stein ticket.
A coalition ticket may not be appealing to the pure at heart, but there are ways to form a binding trans-partisan platform that, while not ideal, can simultaneously advance both libertarian and green agendas without violating anybody's conscience.
I am not sure how a Johnson/Stein ticket would do, certainly better than either separate partisan tickets, but it is almost certain that a Paul/Kucinch or Sanders ticket will garner over 30% of the vote after they mop the floor in the debates.
America is weary of unaffordable, unending wars and the stale, vacillating rhetoric of shallow bipartisanship and tribal partisanship. We are in a mood for real, creative and deep trans-partisanship to vanquish the empire building and maintenance of the military industrial catastrophe and their corporate cousins in the complex of prisons, insurance, pharmaceutics, energy and communications.
We need a team of progressives and libertarians to deeply diminish federal debt and counter-productive government intrusions We need leaders from outside of the prefabricated duopoly to free up funds from wasteful sink holes and use it to pay down debt and empower the American people to build a peaceful, prosperous and green economy.
You are meeting in Las Vegas. There are a lot more risky ventures that will get you a lot less than the long desired and much deserved recognition and respect of the American people. Here's hoping your wager is a big winner.
Your national convention will begin in two weeks. I am one of a number of voices which may come your way to ask you to delay nominating a presidential ticket until after the Republican convention.
I can imagine this would be difficult logistically and tactically. Getting the convention together for a second time is costly and you, no doubt, want your candidates out the door, on the campaign trail getting name recognition and convincing voters to move them up in the polls so they can get into the debates.
While there are real risks in doing this, if you wait until after the GOP convention, Ron Paul may be willing to accept your nomination, provided you choose to do so. I know candidates like Gary Johnson have been working faithfully to obtain the Libertarian nomination. It is understandable why you would want to reward those who sojourn with you in the wilderness.
However, it might be advantageous in moving into the promised land of party electability if you do endorse former candidate Ron Paul. Pulling in at least 17% nationally would help the LP get on the ballot in all states and boost other LP candidacies down ticket running in local, state and national elections.
I am also almost certain that Paul supporters would increase financial contributions to the LP and happily agree to Gary Johnson as Paul's running mate. His name on the ticket would probably get a Paul/Johnson ticket close to 25% of the national vote. If you nominate in May, it is likely that the LP will poll less than 5%. A Paul endorsement, made more likely if you hold the nomination until September, might get you above 20%.
I imagine that the LP is leaning toward nominating Johnson and leaving the VP slot open. Johnson has already said he wants Paul as his VP and this may be a more acceptable tactic. Ron Paul agreeing to be Johnson's VP is not a certainty. He has a great number of supporters who are cultishly determined to write him in even if he does not run in the general election. Granted, allowing Johnson to delay picking his VP vastly increases the LP's electablity; however, a Paul/Johnson ticket is probably going to fare better than a Johnson/Paul ticket.
I, of course, would like to persuade you toward a more radical course. Delay the convention and invite the Green Party to join you in a trans-partisan convention to nominate a coalition ticket. I have been encouraging a Paul/Kucinich or a Paul/Sanders ticket. At such a convention you might choose one of my suggestions, or if they are not available or you so desire, a Johnson/Stein ticket.
A coalition ticket may not be appealing to the pure at heart, but there are ways to form a binding trans-partisan platform that, while not ideal, can simultaneously advance both libertarian and green agendas without violating anybody's conscience.
I am not sure how a Johnson/Stein ticket would do, certainly better than either separate partisan tickets, but it is almost certain that a Paul/Kucinch or Sanders ticket will garner over 30% of the vote after they mop the floor in the debates.
America is weary of unaffordable, unending wars and the stale, vacillating rhetoric of shallow bipartisanship and tribal partisanship. We are in a mood for real, creative and deep trans-partisanship to vanquish the empire building and maintenance of the military industrial catastrophe and their corporate cousins in the complex of prisons, insurance, pharmaceutics, energy and communications.
We need a team of progressives and libertarians to deeply diminish federal debt and counter-productive government intrusions We need leaders from outside of the prefabricated duopoly to free up funds from wasteful sink holes and use it to pay down debt and empower the American people to build a peaceful, prosperous and green economy.
You are meeting in Las Vegas. There are a lot more risky ventures that will get you a lot less than the long desired and much deserved recognition and respect of the American people. Here's hoping your wager is a big winner.
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