Report from the County Chair

Put away your dancing shoes -- for awhile.

Karl Marx once observed that there are decades when mankind makes the equivalent of a few days of progress, but then come days that encompass the progress of decades.

Those alive in 1917 saw this when semi-feudal Czarist Russia was swept away by the Bolshevik Revolution. Our generation saw it with the sudden collapse of the Communist empire that had been spawned by that 1917 revolution. One year they were shooting Germans attempting to flee through the Berlin Wall. The next year East and West Berliners danced on the wall as Communist guards stood idly by.

In reality, the "10 Days That Shook the World" in 1917, as American journalist John Reed famously called it, could not have happened had it not been preceded by decades of work building the communist movement in Russia. So too it took decades of struggle to undermine communism before its then-quick collapse.

Which brings me to the Nov. 6 election returns ....

It's no great leap, actually. It can be argued we are in the slow, building phase of history. We all want to dance on the crumbling wall of Big Government. But to get to that glorious moment we have to do a lot of hard, unglamorous work.

We did it this year with our campaigns in Monmouth County, and as the story on our Home Page shows we gained good results. Not only did our vote totals increase, more voters saw a strong Libertarian Party ticket. The media paid us far more attention and we gained Column Three on the ballot, graphically demonstrating the LP is the third party -- the real alternative -- in Monmouth County.

Once the State bureaucracy finally puts in place the procedures which will allow voters to exercise their newly won right to register as Libertarians, we can begin to identify who are at least some of those thousands of folks who vote Libertarian each year. To be sure we receive a significant percentage of protest votes, but there is a sizeable libertarian base in the electorate.

The main thing is to realize that while now may not be wall-dancing time it is the time to build toward that moment. Personally I'm encouraged by the results. I also believe they'll prove far more encouraging if they're surpassed by next year's results.

My thanks to all our candidates this year, all their supporters and everyone who pulled the Libertarian lever. Work is already beginning on the 2002 campaign. Anyone interesting in helping is encouraged to contact County Election Coordinator Jay Edgar.

Pat Bontempo
County Chair

Past Chair Reports