Liberty Jihad Part Two

Headlines and stories across the spectrum keep pointing up the premise of my previous post on this subject. We are in the midst of an anti-Liberty Jihad and it is accelerating on a daily basis, especially while the Congress is in session doing their best to drive us further into the arms of the Socialist State. Today we have the further growth of the federal state where the horrendous Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act is concerned. The politicians are going to amend it to make it more intrusive and expand federal power at the expense of the sovereignty of the States. Things are going poorly in Afghanistan and Iraq is pretty much in a state of civil war, despite what Mr. Bush says, so we can expect more of our boys and girls in uniform to suffer for the “Long War”. The USA PATRIOT Act is advancing in the Senate, despite lukewarm opposition from the Left faction of the BOYN’ers. Oh, did I mention that the wiretapping is probably a whole lot wider than the Attorney General said it was when he testified before the Congress?

This is what we are faced with in the course of a single day where the Anti-Liberty Jihad is concerned. How can we not feel some sense of depression and despair when this is what we face? What can any of us do when presented with opposition such as this?. Many of us can, and will go to the voting booths this November and voice our displeasure but, the simple fact is that we do not have the “hearts and minds” of the “faithful” followers and are unlikely to garner their support in sufficient numbers to affect any kind of change. That’s just a cold, hard fact of life, folks. In 35 years we have failed to win the hearts and minds of the voters in this country. They do not care, they’d rather vote for their faction of the Party than vote for freedom, because they buy into the promises and bribes that the Jihadist’s offer them and we don’t offer bribes and steal money to finance them. We do the exact opposite and they dislike that for some bizarre reason.

So, what are we to do? How do we win the battle for “hearts and minds”? While I do not think there’s a magic bullet answer, I do think there are some new directions to go in. One of my “heroes” is a man named Guy Kawasaki. Way back in the day Guy took a totally thankless job at Apple Computer, (his second there) at a time when the company was headed in the wrong direction. Guy’s job as an Apple Fellow was to Evangelize the Apple Computer. Now, as someone who was selling computers at that time, and specializing in Macs, it was not a pretty time to be a Mac Evangelista. But, with the help of Guy, his philosophies of evangelism, marketing and branding, those of us who sold Macs managed to keep the product in the public eye until they could change direction and become what they today, (they have a higher market value than Dell) . Guy has written a number of books that Liberty Evangelista could use to great effect when promoting our “product”, everything he writes about business success can be applied to the political arm of the Libertarian Movement.

We already have a large number of Liberty Evangelista out there in the blogosphere and the number is growing, albeit slowly. Perhaps we will hit critical mass before it is too late and the Jihad consumes us, as it threatens to every day. Selling is tough and selling a way of life, a philosophy and politics is even harder than selling an insanely great computer. The task is daunting, as we have seen after 35 years of attempting to sell the political side with only small successes. We've obviously got a good product, since so many people have been attempting to attach their name to it. And the Anti-Liberty Jihadist pundits so often misuse our brand and label their "anointed ones" as Libertarians that it's becoming difficult for some people to even define the word, (fortunately James Leroy Wilson isn't one of those folks). So why don't we have more success? Perhaps we need more "salespeople" and fewer politicians. More marketers and fewer historians, economists and lawyers. A good salesperson can sell anything to anybody. When that salesperson is an Evangelista to boot....it can be awesome thing indeed. It's time to quit promoting and start selling Liberty.

People will buy almost anything, but the most difficult thing to get them to buy is the thing they really need. Good salespeople can do that. Motivated and enthusiastic salespeople can make greater strides than anyone simply promoting a product. It's long past time that the Libertarian Political Wing started enthusiastically selling themselves and the politics of Liberty. The LP almost took steps to do this a few years ago but, typically, imploded when it came time to actually do it. It's time to shift gears.

So, is there another way, other than sales and "product evangelism"? Perhaps something a bit more “out there”? There may well be…I have been entertaining an idea that has occurred to me and a few others, as well. A different form of evangelism...sort of.

I think I’ll save that for the finale, though.

Liberty Jihad 1
Liberty Jihad 3


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