ORLANDO, Fla. — When most political parties get together for a national convention, they nominate a candidate for president. The Libertarian Party isn’t most political parties.
Disappointed that the Libertarian Party has failed to run an actual libertarian for the presidency in the past two election cycles, Knapp plans to field a “None of the Above” alternative in 2016
First, it has its national convention every two years rather than every four (the party’s 2014 mid-term convention, held in Columbus, Ohio, just wrapped up).
Secondly, “None Of The Above” is always on the ballot for both internal offices and the party’s presidential nomination.
A new “open source campaign,” launching two years ahead of the party’s presidential nominating convention, says “NOTA” is its candidate of choice.
“NOTA inherently enjoys broad support among Libertarians,” says Thomas L. Knapp, an edgy and contemplative party member who launched the NOTA 2016 web site on July 1st.
“Some Libertarians see electoral politics as a dead end and want the party to focus on some of the other purposes listed in its bylaws,” said Knapp. “Some Libertarians see the party as a sort of side effort, end up supporting the lesser of two major party evils, and don’t want a ‘spoiler’ in the mix. And many Libertarians are just plain unhappy with the candidate choices the party has made and continues to make.”
Unhappy enough, hopes Knapp, to turn the 2016 election cycle into a cooling-off period after twice nominating failed Republican politicians — former congressman Bob Barr of Georgia in 2008 and former governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico in 2012 — instead of ideological libertarians.
Good for Mr. Knapp. There’s nothing worse or more depressing than a minor party trying to emulate one of the major parties.
One can only hope that the Wall Street-funded Democrats and Republicans, both embracing policies designed to wipe out the American middle-class, will opt for a similar “cooling-off period.” In fact, we ought to put both of them in a freezer.
The Democrats, who haven’t had a decent presidential nominee since 1972, have been pretty much a party in exile since JFK’s death in 1963, while the GOP — catering to God knows what — has come to resemble something one might have encountered from the fever swamp of the far right in the 1950s.
Unable to come up with any new faces or an original agenda for America’s future, the twin parties — totally dominated by the financial oligarchy, those who have suffered so mightily since crashing the U.S. economy six years ago — will probably nominate dynastic tickets headed by Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush, respectively, in 2016. Their nominations will cement what Kevin Phillips once described as the gradual “dynastization” of American politics. We’ll finally have a royal family.
The Libertarians shouldn’t play along in the charade. Given the likely major-party choices, NOTA could be a great President.
NOTA, in fact, would be much better than the last two presidents, one of whom wrote two books — both about himself, of course — and the other, trading on his family name since birth, who hadn’t read quite that many.
Seriously, Knapp’s NOTA could be the bloodless revolution everybody has been waiting for. Many have tried, but maybe it’ll take nobody to finally dislodge the two corrupt governing parties in this country.
“The Libertarian Party has always taken flak as ‘GOP Lite,'” says Knapp, who refers to himself as the campaign’s “Instigator.” “It hasn’t always deserved that flak, but after two presidential elections in a row it’s become apparent that the only way to put an end to it and to keep Republican rejects from coming after our presidential nomination is to stop giving it to them.”
NOTA 2016’s goals include building grassroots state and local NOTA efforts within the Libertarian Party and gaining the support of a majority of delegates to the 2016 Libertarian National Convention in Orlando, Florida. The Libertarian Party, established in 1971, is America’s third largest political party.
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