Chair's Corner

By Bob Sullentrup

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Impact

"Pick out somebody and hit him" are the immortal words of Coach Wachter, my high school football coach. He told his defensive unit to do exactly that should one of our Bulldogs intercept a pass.

Interceptions cause chaos on the gridiron. Coach Wachter advocated adding to the chaos it by knocking somebody down. Didn't matter who, really, just knock anybody down and make it that much harder to tackle the ball carrier.

Now that the MoLP is moving into a new year, an election year, the goal for the Party remains similar to what it was years ago for the Bulldogs. We want to sack politicians and bureaucrats and all of their useless rules and regulations, their wasteful, failing programs and their exorbitant taxation. We want to put them on their overbearing butts and restore a full, robust measure of Liberty to Americans. We deserve no less.

But how do we go about that? While we have the best playbook, the other team has more players and better uniforms.

The Executive Committee will begin this month trying to figure out what it is that the MoLP is not doing now, that it could be doing, and that if it did would have the greatest impact on our success. In other words, where's the low-hanging fruit?

Maybe what we should be doing is carefully preparing a dog-and-pony explaining to the public affairs departments of large corporations why donating $10k to the Libertarian Party is in their best long-term interest.

Maybe what we should be doing is looking inward, organizing a telemarketing campaign to contact every Libertarian in the state and encouraging them to donate their time, energy, and talents in promoting the party through planned activities.

Maybe what we should be doing is using our time preparing distribution lists of prospective supporters, waiting in the grass for a Perot-style political asteroid to hit so that when it comes, we can emerge and launch a see-I-told-you-so attack. Social Security comes to mind, that train wreck waiting to derail.

Maybe what we should be doing is retrenching, thinking through a new branding for the Libertarian Party. Many Americans in this era of terrorism simply want to feel safe, and politicians have federalized airport baggage checkers. That does about as much for actual security as Bill Clinton did for personal integrity. If more Americans realized that while guns are disallowed in cockpits, hijacked aircraft would be shot down, they should become fearful, and turn to the Party that can bring real safety.

But my suspicion is somebody in Missouri has a much better idea than any of these. Either your district's Executive Committee representatives or I would love to hear your ideas. I can be reached at rwsully@charter.net. Let's snatch that pass and knock em down.