I began a series yesterday where I discussed what the libertarian political strategy should look like over the next decade. To see the start of that series you can go here:
In that article I adamantly forwarded the position that our target demographic should be the historic non-voter who is registered to vote. But who are these people? Let’s take a look:
During presidential elections voter turnout far outpaces voter turnout during mid-terms (35%-40% of registered voters) or even local elections (where 15%-20% registered voter turnout is the norm.)
Literally 100% of the voting population has some sort of an opinion about every presidential election so you’d think voter turnout would rock into the high B+ or A- range, right?
But it’s nowhere near that. In 2016 we actually had pretty high vote numbers, even though voter percentage was down a bit. In other words, the Trump media will tell you that more people voted in 2016 than usual (for modern standards) and the Hillary media will tell you that voter percentage was lower than usual. And both of them are correct. That’s the fun part about statistics. (My statistics and Game Theory teacher in college once proclaimed that “9-out-of-10 people enjoy gang rape. So statistics are fucked.”) So clearly, we need to consider the veracity of statistics.
But, that’s not even my argument. Academic papers will be written ad nauseam about the 2 or 3 percentage points that each of the old parties could have squeaked out to win over “voters.” But our strategy, and our opportunity is so much simpler.
I don’t want to go after voters. I want to go after historic non-voters. Consider this macro:
See that big ol’ chunk of “Didn’t Vote” up there? Those are our people. They don’t buy into the old party duopoly. They don’t think they’re being represented. But they’ve all literally taken the time to actually register to vote. They just didn’t do it.
And this isn’t an anomaly; this is what modern elections look like.
How many of you reading this are actually INELIGIBLE to vote for any number of reasons? That 46.9 up there isn’t ineligible. They actually registered. They just didn’t vote.
Those are our people. (You ineligibles are our people, as well. But that’s a different post.)
And in order to excite them, mobilize them, comfort them, and otherwise activate them we have to show them that we are different than the old parties. We have to stop looking like, sounding like, and campaigning like the old parties. We have to give them an actual 3rd option.
Adam Kokesh has been traveling the country for years and talking to ordinary Americans from coast to coast and everywhere in between. The message that we’ve crafted: freedom and Localization, is incredibly popular on Main Street and highlights how we can defeat statism.
But there’s another target demo: Millennials. I’ll talk more about them in the next post. Stay tuned.
😂
poop
What about doing a "dress rehearsal" for the mass book distribution as planned for New Orleans in a smaller target city... say of the 25-50k population... or even a whole county that size?
Places like those are way less effected by MSM "programming", as well. This will give a good indication as to whether or not your theory about the "non-voter" is accurate.
So why wait until June to try this marketing strategy?
The point of the book drop is to win media. Can’t do that in a small city.
I would agree that a different motive would have to be present. That's not hard to conceive. So on that note, I solicit your appraisal of Patrick Smith's effort in Texas to copy Adam's platform in the Gov race. There are 254 counties in Texas... (I lived in Odessa from '01-'10), about 50 of them with less than 5k population. When Smith wins and disbands Austin, the counties will be free to form their own respective "states" within, yes? Now why not begin fertilzing Smith's favorite lot out of this group of lightly populated regions? It would give the two campaigns good excuse to unite and synergize, no? Where's the downside?
I grew up in Odessa!
No one grows up in Odessa! Y'all act like kids until you are 50! LOL
This is like a bunch of atheists devising ways to to convince religious people who stopped going to church that they really need to go back to church so we can tell them how bad it is that they are going to church.
We are talking about a cult of state worship. If you desire to exploit the presidential election in order to reach people who are already in the cult with the message of liberty, that's one thing. Ron Paul did this very effectively.
But the whole Adam Kokesh for not president campaign, and the targeting of apathetic non-voters is not just legitimizing the state with participation in the election process, it's actively recruiting for the cult- sucking people back into the idea that change can come about through just a different form of government.
Nothing legitimizes the state. And ignoring it does not make it go away.