The Libertarian Party Chairman’s Underwhelming Case for the Party Leadership’s Success

by | Sep 28, 2023

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Last week, I wrote about how the United States Libertarian Party’s new leadership put in place by delegates at the party’s May of 2022 national convention has through the November of 2024 general election to demonstrate its success through election results. It seems that the party’s chairman has a different take.

In April, Libertarian National Committee Chairman Angela McArdle posted at Twitter a tweet that remains pinned to the top of her Twitter page. Though the tweet was written months before I wrote about the party’s leadership, it looks like a response. Maybe McArdle has been hearing from many people concerned that party leadership may be off track. Here is what she wrote in the tweet in entirety:

How is the Libertarian Party doing lately? We’re working hard and doing great. Thanks for asking.

Of course, that statement is just assertion. But, there is promise of backing information for that assertion in the form of a video included below the text.

When you watch the brief video, however, persuasive backing is fully absent. You might expect talk of success in campaigns that were completed since the new leadership took control, as well as about the promise of ongoing campaigns. Campaigns, however, received no mention. Instead, the talk is about (1) how bad the old leadership was, (2) how the new leadership is presenting better ideas to the public and party members than did the old leadership, and (3) how the new leadership has “been working diligently on fixing our internal processes, fine-tuning our project management, and understanding our priorities.”

All three of these things talked about in the video are of little significance in judging the success or failure of leadership of the party. The old leadership is long gone. Complaining about it and blaming it becomes less relevant by the day. Assuming the new leadership is presenting better ideas, that is nice but also a pretty minimal achievement that does not do much to advance election campaigns and can even inhibit them if the leadership becomes obsessed with advancing messages directly at the cost of neglecting advancing campaigns. Fixing how the party works behind the scenes is also nice, but at some point even a well-oiled machine that does not perform the work for which it is intended should be scrapped.

Author

  • Adam Dick

    Adam worked from 2003 through 2013 as a legislative aide for Rep. Ron Paul. Previously, he was a member of the Wisconsin State Board of Elections, a co-manager of Ed Thompson's 2002 Wisconsin governor campaign, and a lawyer in New York and Connecticut.

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