What’s Next for the Missouri Libertarian Party?

By Clint Lacy

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Many Missouri Libertarians are wondering what they should do now that the election has passed and all did not go as planned. I personally thought that Arnold Trembley would have an excellent chance to be state auditor and that Jeff Foli had a real shot also as a representative. So what happened?

First of all Tamara Millay only achieved 1% of Missouri’s votes cast for U.S. senate. While Foli and Trembley each did well but not well enough. Foli achieved 14% while Trembley achieved 2%. So one good aspect of all this is the fact that Missouri Libertarians will not have to re-petition to get back on the ballot, (unlike the Green Party). I still say Millay’s protest and subsequent arrest did not help her campaign. But the main culprits that worked against all of our candidates were straight ticket voters.

I believe that people on the right and the left passionately felt that the stakes were so high for their cause that they didn’t even look at individual candidates or their causes. So what can Libertarians do now? My answer is plenty. Some are calling for Libertarian candidates to next time run as Democrats or Republicans to advance the cause. I say fine. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson are both Libertarians that ran as Republicans that are doing a fine job to advance the cause of Liberty in our country. If that is the way that Libertarians feel that they can best reduce the growth of big taxes and big government in our country, then I back it. The important thing is the end result of it all.

For those who wish to “stick it out” in the Libertarian Party I offer these suggestions. We don’t have the money or the fund raising capabilities as the two major parties. So how do we offset their advantage? I say we take important Libertarian issues to the public. One way I suggest is that we all start writing “letters to the editor” on these issues. We come from all over the state so if we all do our part we can cover the whole state. If you do this, pick a topic, research the topic and write to the editor about the topic. If you are a Libertarian be proud of the fact. After signing your name say that you are a Libertarian.

As I have said before, the more our liberties our restricted and the more people grow sick of the amount of taxes we pay, the more people will listen to us. We can back important issues; one I have suggested is the “Fair Tax Act”. Many oppose this act because it is not a total abolishing of taxes, but it is a definite improvement and a step in the right direction. If we were to pressure Bond and Talent to back this and it passed, people would see the extra money it brought them on their paychecks and remember that we backed this. I just listed this as an example. There are many more we can write about. One I plan on writing about is toll roads for Missouri. It would prevent a tax increase and privatize part of our highway system. It has worked wonders in Oklahoma and I plan on digging up my facts and writing all of Missouri’s major papers about this.

These are just ideas, but there are so many issues out there that are important to people we can write about as Libertarians. If we do this people will eventually realize that we are actually defending their freedom and liberties. We can not only convey to the public a positive image for our party, we can convey to the public that we are actually the party with solutions to these problems.

- Clint E. Lacy

Editors Note:

Would just like to add that we lead by example. My friend James Nall taught me about Libertarianism. People at work ragged me ( and him) a lot about it. Well to my astonishment, 3 of those people that ridiculed us came to us Nov. 6th and let us know they voted Libertarian the day before.  It just goes to show you, Libertarianism is spread at the grass root level, which is something the two major parties can not buy. We may not have one any elections, but we made 3 new people understand what it is all about, and  that gives me great satisfaction.

- Clint