The Numbers Are There
The County Fair is a lot of work for LMC, but it's also very heartening. You finish exhilarated not only by the activity itself, but by the positive response you receive from so many of the visitors.
Are they just being polite? No doubt many are. Give a guy a book and his kid a balloon and the overwhelming odds are that he will not spit at you and run away. But more than a few are sincere in their agreement, and a recent poll indicates just that.
According to the Aug. 24 issue of the Asbury Park Press, a recent USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll shows that 34% of those surveyed favored legalizing marijuana, the strongest level of support since 1969. The Libertarian Party agrees with that 34% but the Republicans and Democrats do not. Yet history says that on Election Day a third of the electorate will not pull down a Libertarian candidate's lever.
There are many reasons why, and often little we can do about it, for example being barred from debates or laboring under the burden of election laws crafted to keep down third parties. But the Fair demonstrated there is at least one area where we can do something.
For a shocking number of visitors, our booth was their first exposure to the Libertarian Party. It's hard to believe considering how many years we've been there or all the other outreach efforts we do. But if they only see us once or twice a year, they'll forget about us. And as hard as we do work, many never see us. Add to this factors such as a lack of candidates or inadequate mention in the media and the picture becomes clear.
It's not simply a matter of the voters having rejected us because of our positions. If that's all there was to it we'd receive far more than 1% of the vote since clearly far more than 1% of the voters agree with our positions as much or more than they do with those of the old parties. There is a libertarian base in the electorate. Perhaps it's as low as 16% overall as one poll indicated; perhaps as high as a third when it comes to a single issue such as relegalizing marijuana. But it's more than 1%.
And it can be ours on Election Day, if .... If the voters know we exist and know what we stand for. We have control over that factor -- individual control. A letter to the editor, a conversation with a coworker or a few dollars to a candidate to help buy lawn signs: things such as this constitute the building blocks of a political party.
It may seem like the public is not listening to us or rejecting us. In reality, most are still waiting to hear from us. And many who finally do will be willing to vote Libertarian. It will take far more than this to win a majority, to be sure. But before we win a majority we have to reach those who already agree.
Pat Bontempo
County Chair