Lately I received a renewal letter from the Libertarian Party (don't ask why I joined last year).  I have to admit: it's a good one.  It contains the stories of several people who had their property unjustly seized under the government's asset forfeiture laws.  After these sad stories are told and I am at the peak of commiserating with victims of the State, asking what it is I could possibly do to stop such criminal acts, I am asked to renew my LP membership.  "It's only $25 to renew.  Isn't that a small price to pay to help America live up to its ideals of liberty?"

Most good sales letters follow a similar structure.  They describe the features of the product being sold, followed by the benefits the customer would receive from buying it.  Open up and read your junk mail (even if it is from the LP or Cato Institute) and you will probably recognize this general layout.  A postscript seals the deal, reminding the reader that if they act now there is no risk, or reinforcing the largest benefit the product delivers. 

In the case of the LP renewal letter, the sales letter could not adhere to a standard template for introducing a product, since it is only mailed to people who have bought the product in the past.  Instead of telling me that with my membership I will receive LP News, a pocket-sized U.S. Constitution, or simply membership in an organization of "like-minded" folk, they had to up the ante.  This time, the Libertarian Party is selling liberty itself.  For just $25, I can help stop asset forfeitures in the future. The postscript to the renewal letter ends with, "Something has to be done.  Please, take the first step.  Renew your Libertarian Party membership today."  Even after reading the sad stories earlier in the letter, I had to laugh at this.  It made me picture the next LP television ad: Steve Dasbach whining to the camera that thousands of children have their savings accounts raided every day by the BATF.  For just 35 cents a day, you can save one child from a federal agent.  Won't you help?

Of course, the idea that giving money to the Libertarian Party will increase my (or anyone else's) freedom is not unique to renewal letters.  It is part of just about any sales letter coming from the LP and from every LP political candidate (with a few exceptions).  This philosophy is unfortunately shared by many in the general freedom movement, that we must "market liberty."  Libertarians know that liberty is the best thing happening.  We just need to communicate better with the masses.  Instead of lecturing at people, we need to sell them liberty. 

The problem is that liberty is not something that Michael Cloud keeps in his basement.  There is no "Freedom Store," with Libertarians behind the counter dishing out a little gun rights here and some tax cuts there.  When LP candidates write direct mail sales letters for their "high-profile" campaigns, they are only serving to do two things.  One, part money from gullible libertarians who think that anyone who calls himself a Libertarian can be trusted without question, and two, anger people who believed the sales pitch.

There is nothing wrong with trying to persuade people that liberty is a good thing.  However, if one's goal is to promote actual liberty, one is not going to do it by hard-selling the LP or the benefits that will arrive when one is elected to office as the first Libertarian (Senator, Governor, Dog Catcher, whatever).  No one's liberty is advanced when people are tricked with Persuasion Power points or ten-question political quizzes into thinking that they are actually libertarians. 

The only people who benefit from "selling liberty" are the salesmen themselves.  No one can sell liberty, because liberty is no more than the range of actions that one may ethically perform.  Liberty is the same concept as rights, of which everyone enjoys equally.  No one can take or give away rights; they can only infringe upon or respect them.  So beware anyone who claims that with just a little bit of your money he will give you more rights.

If those who equate their organization with liberty itself and sell it as such really want to help people gain more freedom from government, I have a suggestion.  Stop backing strategies that consist of convincing everyone else to do what you think is right, and find ways to do what you want now.  Find and share a new way to work without paying taxes, for example.  Research countries where one can place one's wealth with minimum risk of the government seizing it.  Use and spread alternative, market-based currencies.  After all, isn't that a small price to pay to help support liberty?             

January 21, 2003