When I retire from the Army in about 4 years, it is my desire to run for local office, get my feet wet, and see if I can make some sort of a difference.

My questions for fellow Libertarians are:

What level of office is feasible for a newbie, yet still be worthwhile to further the party?

What are some techniques/talking points that have not been tried yet?

How can I get elected to an office without selling my soul to anybody? (Ganted Liberatrians, I think are less likely to do this than Dem' or Repub's)

Of course I'd work with the local party, but I'm interested in viewpoints from Liberatrains on the board, cuz we're so dang smart

I'm not even sure where you'd start...I thought about the same myself before I realized how much I hate college!

With the whole "selling your soul" business, I really don't think you'll need to do that considering what we stand for. Think about it, Dems compromise with more economic freedom to please the Reps, and the Reps compromise with more personal liberties to please the Dems...

If I knew one politician who actually spoke and acted how they should, according to their party, even 75% of the time, he/she would have my support all the way. Besides, a majority of Libertarians are sick and tired of Reps and Dems bending over backwards to please each other--we get the same crap no matter who is in office.

So stay true to your beliefs and you'll go a long way! And very best of luck to you, let us know if you truly pursue this.

I think if Libertarians hope to gain control of major offices we need to have someone who is not too extreme, people won't elect a traditional far right Libertarian.

CP

At this point the Libertarian Party needs to concentrate on getting 5% of the vote in the next Presidential election. We need to force the political center toward less government. The Socialist Party in the US never came close to winning a national election, by 1980 most of their party platform of 1928 had been enacted.

Far right? Libertarians are far left on half of our issues...

Right on economy and defense, left on personal liberties.

Besides, we're anything but extreme! We're about freedom 100%, and the word "extreme" more pertains to government control, in my opinion, which we wouldn't stand for anyways.

It's all logic. Maybe that's the idea you should run with Don't, LOGIC!

Right, libertarians don't really fit the traditional left/right spectrum.

But it's still a good point that voters in general want a moderate candidate, whatever their positions. They want somebody warm and fuzzy and non-threatening. We have to move a little bit in that direction to win more support. I'm not saying be a sell-out like the major parties, but we have to be reasonable, not utopian, and we have to present our ideas in a way that at least doesn't sound radical, even if it really is.

The Advocates for Self-Government is a libertarian organization that's done some great work on how to present ourselves better, one that I highly recommend, both to novice and veteran libertarians.

(I'm more in the veteran category, having campaigned for John Hospers and Tonie Nathan in 1972.)