Ever since the Libertarian Party nominated anti-gun, anti-gay, anti-Wiccans-in-the-military, pro-drug-war, pro-Iraq-war, pro-USAPATRIOT act crazy person Bob Barr, I have been working like crazy for the Boston Tea Party. Our site is at www.bostontea.us if you care to have a look. We've nominated Charles Jay for president - cj08.com and Tom Knapp for vice president - myfrontporchcampaign.com. We've also nominated several other candidates, or endorsed candidates from other parties who accept our political platform calling for a smaller government at all levels and a bigger gov't at none. (Really it is only one sentence long.)
You might like to get involved. Joining is free and easy. Visit our site, look at our party's platform, and if you agree, join up. No fee, no papers to send in, no background checks by the FBI, no secrecy agreement, no muss, no fuss.
Now, I've been complaining quite a bit, lately, about corruption at the national level of the LP. Really, I've said some very mean things about them. Mind you, I have great respect for the radical minority on the Libertarian Party's national committee - Angela Keaton, R. Lee Wrights, and Mary Ruwart. But you can see from Angela's blog that she's very upset. Or you could last week. Looks like she's put up a permanent redirect to Antiwar.com which she believes in. (For those who haven't been keeping up, after Shane Cory sent out a press release in May opposing one of the candidates for the LP nomination for president, he was forced to resign. Angela asked why the party was paying Cory thousands of dollars in June, and was told by Bill Redpath that she must shut up and stop asking difficult questions, or leave the party. See Last Free Voice for details.)
Here's what I've said about the LP http://www.reasontofreedom.com/blog/jim_davidson/rotting_carcass_lp_national.html
I had been stunned by the blatant attack by Andrew Davis and Shane Cory on Dr. Mary Ruwart's character, along with their asinine call for more government spending and activity in an area where federal government involvement is not even vaguely justified nor constitutional, so I was shocked to read Rear Admiral Michael Colley's exculpatory view of Cory in another press release. http://www.lp.org/news/press-releases/executive-director-shane-cory-resi...
Briefly, I wondered who Admiral Colley was, other than a militaristic fiend who used to do battle with the communists in Rickover's nuclear navy. Perhaps he is the same sort of admiral as William Pye, who notoriously left the men on Wake Island to be killed or captured. A long pattern of abuses and usurpations certainly surrounds Colley's career on the LP's national committee.
The cool thing about the Boston Tea Party, and the Personal Choice Party, and the new Liberty Party of Massachusetts being organized by Jim Casarjian-Perry is that we don't have these weird control-freaks in our parties. People who are interested in freedom are getting things done. We are working together, and there is talk about consolidating our efforts.
How would the Boston Tea Party be any different? Well, we believe in total openness. All our deliberations are public - there are no closed door meetings. Everything is online where it can be reviewed by any member. And any member can post a poll to our national web site to reconsider any action of our national committee.
We have no money at the national level. All funds are handled at state and local levels, or by donors contacting candidates or professional petition signature gatherers (for ballot access) directly. So there is no pot of money to corrupt the national staff, of which we have none (because we cannot pay them with money we don't have).
Most important, I think, we make it easy. Nobody from the Boston Tea Party national is standing in anyone's way. We encourage members to set up their own state affiliates, to get involved with candidates they like, to run for office, to get us on the ballot. (We've filed for Colorado and should be filing for Florida in a few days.) We aren't telling anyone to sit down and shut up. We aren't trying to hide the truth from our members - and our processes make it nearly impossible to hide anything from anyone.
You don't have to leave the Libertarian Party, or any other party, to be a part of the Boston Tea Party. All you have to do is agree that the world would be a better place with less government at all levels, and more gov't at none. If you do, and you are running for office, we'd be delighted to endorse your candidacy. Send out some press releases. And stuff.
