Sunday, May 12, 2019

Speaking for NOTA

Sometimes it's not easy speaking up for NOTA at a Libertarian meeting.

Personally, I like injecting a bit of humor into a meeting, because the theatrics caucus that tries to make everyone angry and hurls insults and invective at undeserving other activists can make those meetings into a decidedly inhospitable place.

At this year's LP of Colorado state convention, I felt somewhat uninspired to speak for NOTA as I traditionally do.

At the same event in 2018, one participant made it a point to mumble under his breath at me that it was a waste of everyone's time for anyone to speak for NOTA.

Added to that taunt, there was a lot of low-IQ nastiness that had been the rule for several weeks prior to this event.  It was really so disheartening to see Libertarians chiding their own so viciously.  The convention this year was a bitter disappointment for many reasons, and the hostility in the air was palpable.

Several members did ask me to speak for NOTA -- which helped me break out of my funk.  So, once we finally got to our elections, I started writing a few NOTA points for each race.

Here they are:

Chair

- Nobody will invoke the purity test.
- We don't need no stinkin' meetings to run anyway.

Vice Chair

- Nobody will bother running meetings in the Chair's absence.
- Nobody is the only real Libertarian.
- Nobody will be there to vote.

Treasurer

- Nobody will cook our books so we don't get thrown in jail.
- Nobody will be able to tell us how much money we have for our projects.


Secretary

- Who needs notes, anyway?
- Why do we need to have records of things that happened last week?

Communications

- Nobody will speak to the press -- and we don't want them to know what we're up to, anyway.

Membership

- We don't need no stinkin' members anyway.
- NOTA takes exception to the previous accusation about nobody, because until now NOTA has taken any position at all.

Outreach

- We want to keep Libertarianism to ourselves.
- Nobody will grow the LP.
- Nobody will bother outgoing Outreach Director Kevin Gulbranson in response to his offer to coach or mentor the new Director.

Affiliate Development Director

- Nobody will visit local affiliates.

Campaigns Director

- We don't need any candidates.  We're just a debating society.
- Nobody will run for office.
- NOTA will leave politics to those other guys who want to run your life.  And isn't that what we all really want?

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Anyway, feel free to use them at your own state convention or other meetings.

If nothing else, providing a few moments' humorous diversion about voting for None of the Above at least reminds Libertarians that they can vote against all candidates in any internal Party election, if they don't like any of the candidates.

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Vote Libertarian * 800-ELECT-US * http://www.LP.org
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Written by Marc Montoni <AMCAmbassador@gmail.com>, May, 2019.  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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For more information about the Radical Caucus, see www.LPRadicalCaucus.org or see the Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2497146127/  .
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