From the Montgomery Advertiser:

The new head of the Libertarian Party of Alabama knows he has a tough job ahead — leading a party where members are so individualistic it can be hard to organize.

“The analogy of herding cats is frequently used,” said Stephen Gordon, who became state party chairman earlier this month. “But I’ve learned that cats can be herded. As an example, if you open up a can of cat food and walk around your house with it, all the cats are going to follow you around. That’s what we have to do effectively. We have to find some mechanism to make that happen.”

That mechanism is rebranding Libertarians as members of a party that truly believes in small government, he said. It will pull the party together behind a common message that he believes will attract voters.

Good luck to him.  I adhere to libertarian ideals, but have never been eager to call myself a Libertarian.  As a party they focus far too much on legalizing drugs instead of the big picture.  Their opponents easily leverage the pro-drugs sentiment associated with Libertarians against them by playing to the conditioned belief among most in this country that drugs are bad AND should be kept away from individuals through force.

If the party ever wants to move beyond the fringe they are going to have to adopt the message that Gordon is preaching.  They will have to proclaim themselves as THE small government party.  The modern Democrats have never been accused of being in favor of limited government.  And despite their incessant claims, modern Republicans have not proven that they are really desirous of small government.  I believe that there is an undercurrent of demand in this country for a party that truly believes that individuals should be as free as possible from the intrusions of government.  Can the Libertarian Party start to make progress and win converts from the two major parties?  I would love to see that, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 8:46 pm and is filed under Alabama, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.