Join fellow Florida liberty advocates at the Capitol to lobby for liberty on March 14th & 15th!

The first meetings will be at 1pm or thereabouts on Monday, March 14th, until about 5 pm. Then we’ll have a dinner or social event with local RLCers and friends at a local watering hole. The next day we’ll have meetings from about 8am to 2pm.

We have arranged special hotel rates for RLCers at the Baymont Inn & Suites (3210 N. Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32303; phone 850.562.4300; online link). The rates are: Single King- $54.00 plus tax; Single Queen- $49.99 plus tax; or Double Bed- $59.00 plus tax.

Please call Richard at the Baymont Inn, Monday through Friday until 2:00pm, and tell him you are with the “Republican Liberty Caucus” to reserve your room and the discounted rate. Rooms are going fast, so please call ASAP.

When: March 14th, 2011 1:00 PM through March 15th, 2011 2:00 PM
Location400 S Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100
Event Contact: 800-735-0795, chair@rlcfl.org
» Register Now!

Laurence Vance, a columnist who posts at LewRockwell.com, has a new piece up in which he provides a not-so-thoughtful analysis regarding his views about the Republican Party in general and the Republican Liberty Caucus in specific. This is his second write-up about the RLC this month. I’m pleased that we’ve caught his attention.

Mr. Vance received a postcard from the Florida chapter of the RLC inviting him to attend the recent Florida RLC Convention in Kissimmee.

Vance’s first criticism is that the RLC postcard he received said that Republicans “won big on libertarian themes”. I am not involved in the Florida RLC chapter and therefore did not pen that language (and I would have chosen alternative language), but winning in politics can take a variety of forms. Perhaps the Florida RLC was talking about candidates running campaigns on libertarian themes — as new RLC-endorsed State Rep. Glen Bradley of North Carolina did.  His campaign theme was “Restore the Constitutional Order” and he featured the RLC logo at his campaign hub. Mr. Bradley was just one of many newly elected RLC-endorsed state legislators.

Or perhaps the author of the postcard was talking about ballot initiatives with libertarian themes, such as the anti-Obamacare measures passed in states like Arizona and Oklahoma and the medical marijuana initiative passed in Arizona. Still, there are other measures of successful libertarian themes in the Republican Party, such as the push for state sovereignty by elected Republican legislators, the anti-TSA resolution championed by Republican legislators in New Jersey, the legislation to decriminalize pot possession sponsored by a Republican legislator in Virginia, and the “Health Care Freedom” bills that many states are pursuing with Republicans taking the lead.

Some of this legislation has been successful, some will be in the future, and other items will fail. The legislation that fails will do so because there aren’t enough liberty-loving Americans serving in public office — which the RLC is working to change through retail politics.

In referencing the “liberty wing of the Republican Party,” which was mentioned in the Florida RLC postcard, Mr. Vance claims that the liberty wing has only one member: his hero, Ron Paul.

Mr. Vance likes one politician, but no others.

I’ve noticed that trend in the Mises economic circles.  All politicians and both political parties are evil, the story goes, with one exception — Ron Paul.

What makes Ron Paul different?

He was elected — that’s what separates him from the rest of the crowd.

To be elected, he had to participate in the political process, something Mr. Vance says he explicitly opposes.

In my e-mail response to Mr. Vance’s original blog entry from January 3, in which he initially made the claim that the “liberty wing of the GOP” was made up of one person, I cited examples of other elected officials who make up the liberty wing of the Republican Party:

—–Original Message—–
From: Laurence M. Vance
To: aaronjbiterma
Sent: Tue, Jan 4, 2011 2:35 pm
Subject: Re: Your post about the Republican Liberty Caucus

who are the current and former elected officials?

Subject: Re: Your post about the Republican Liberty Caucus
Date: 1/4/2011 2:41:17 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
From: aaronjbiterma
To: lmvance

Governor Gary Johnson
Congressman Justin Amash from Michigan
City Councilman from New York City (Dan Halloran)
County Commissioner from Maryland (Cindy Jones)
State Representatives from Maine, Maryland, Ohio, Wisconsin

The elected officials I mentioned in the e-mail to Mr. Vance are just some of the decent liberty-loving folks who will be attending the upcoming RLC National Convention. The list excludes a plethora of legislators who were just elected in November and who have been serving as loyal libertarian Republicans for many years, such as State Senator Sam Slom of Hawai’i and State Senator Bob Hedlund of Massachusetts.

Mr. Vance chose to ignore the information I provided to continue his hero-worship instead.

I admire Congressman Ron Paul just as Mr. Vance does. What freedom-loving American doesn’t?

But there is a point where hero-worship becomes counter-productive, and Mr. Vance illustrates the point quite well:

He opposes participation in electoral politics and instead believes that writing for LewRockwell.com is going to change the direction of our country.

If Congressman Ron Paul is as wonderful as Mr. Vance says he is (and I believe he is), then why aren’t we all working to find more principled people to run for office and win?

Well, some of us are. Others would instead prefer to get paid to write articles.

Laurence Vance needs to work on his persuasion skills.

I’m a longtime libertarian, and his efforts have only dissuaded me from wanting to associate with the purity club that is LewRockwell.com and the Mises Institute.

Mr. Vance expresses that he has treated the RLC fairly. He then falsely claims that the Florida RLC endorsed Ron Paul for President in 2008 (not true) and goes on to say that the Florida RLC website is out of date (also not true). He commends the “hardcore” members of the Florida RLC who have written to him in the past (presumably, these members met his litmus test) and then goes on to criticize their choice of State Senator Mike Haridopolos as a speaker at the recent Florida RLC Convention (who did not meet his litmus test).

Unlike the intellectual elitists (and racists and homophobes) who write for LewRockwell.com — sitting in their comfy computer chairs criticizing the masses who do not agree with every tenet of their ideological platform — the Republican Liberty Caucus is working to change the makeup of the Republican Party. So it’s a friendlier place for liberty advocates. So the policies in our country can change dramatically for the better. And to engage folks who may not agree with every libertarian idea but are open to the prospect of learning more about libertarian principles.

Whoever added Mr. Vance to the mailing list of the Florida RLC chapter would be well advised to remove him. Vance neither understands (nor cares to understand,) nor agrees with the mission of the organization — and the RLC Statement of Principles doesn’t jibe with his rigid purity test.

Readers interested in hearing a substantive response to Vance’s claims about the Republican Party should register to attend the 2011 RLC National Convention on February 12 in Arlington, Virginia.  Professor Randy Barnett will give a speech entitled “Rediscovering the Libertarian Roots of the Republican Party.”  At the same time, we’ll be celebrating 20 years of the Republican Liberty Caucus.

Anyone can run for office, including those of us who have deeply-held libertarian convictions. The idea that the liberty wing of the Republican Party is made up of one elected official — a lie stated and repeated by Laurence Vance — should be expunged from our discourse.

And the politics of hero-worship should be purged from the libertarian movement so that we can recruit, support, and elect libertarian-minded citizen leaders who are in the same mold as Ron Paul.

After all, it was Congressman Paul himself who said, “We must redouble our efforts to educate our fellow citizens, recruit and support liberty candidates, and marshal our resources for the battle ahead.”

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida has traditionally been one of the largest and most active state affiliates of the RLC. The chapter held its biennial Convention over the weekend, which featured State Senate President Mike Haridopolos (pictured below), who also spoke to RLC members at the 2006 National Convention in Orlando. Haridopolos recently announced his intent to run against Senator Bill Nelson for US Senate in 2012.

Some members were skeptical about Haridopolos, who has pledged his efforts to pass a Taxpayer Bill of Rights in Florida in 2011. Ultimately it was an honor to have Senator Haridopolos speak with our members and we appreciate his time and consideration.

The Florida RLC pledged to make passing a TABOR bill its number one priority in the coming two years. The Convention also elected the following Officers to lead the chapter forward:

Matt Nye, Chair
John Stevens, Vice Chair
Chevon Baccus, Secretary
Larry Roberts, Treasurer

Thanks to Philip Blumel and Matt Nye for their efforts in putting the Convention together — and to all those who attended.

Patriots protest! Silence is shameful. Citizens! The country is in crisis and the Congress is culpable. Ramp up the Rhetoric!

The recent shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of District Court Judge John Roll in Arizona likely had nothing to do with political rhetoric. It was, as is so often is the case, the culmination of the long downward descent of a disturbed young man. Why then are so many politicians saying that we need to be careful of what we say?

The reason is because what we are saying is true. When you pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands you might as well be talking about the lost city of Atlantis. Both have long since ceased to exist. The United States stopped operating as a constitutional republic decades ago. The Federal Government believes the States and citizens must bow unconditionally to its will. It would take a major political and economic upheaval to restore America to its former form of government.

The recent reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House of Representatives was nothing more than window dressing as the newly elected liberty minded Republicans will soon discover. They are not a majority and will have to take a back seat to the will of the majority in the Congress still controlled by power brokers and the legislators who are willing to grow rich at the expense of the American People. Most members of Congress, Democrat and Republican are in continual violation of their oath to support and defend the Constitution. Their individual morals go downhill from there. They should be punished for this at the ballot box, and brought to trial by jury.

There is a self-righteous elite in this country and across the globe who think that we are incompetent.

• They believe that we are not responsible enough to own basic weapons for our own defense, because they fear that those arms may someday be used against them.

• They believe that we are not responsible enough to decide how our children should be educated because they are afraid that what we would teach them would contradict their worldview.

• They believe that we are not responsible enough to spend the money that we earn wisely and want to take it from us so that they can spend it on what they think is important. Not only that but they have stolen and mismanaged our money to the point where the country is facing a financial collapse that is just barely being reported in the news, but is nevertheless imminent and very real.

• They believe that we are not responsible enough to vote and have therefore corrupted the political process by ensuring that every major candidate is vetted and selected by them, and anointed by their media outlets, so that ultimately it really doesn’t matter whom we vote for.

• They believe that we are not responsible enough to manage our own affairs and have instituted ream upon ream of standards, regulations, licensing requirements, and of course fees, to ensure that we never have to make an independent decision.

• They believe that we are not responsible enough to know the difference between right and wrong and by the use of propaganda under the guise of tolerance and diversity attempt to impose their own lax moral standards upon us admonishing us to call our enemies our friends, and to call what is good, evil and what is evil, good.

Now they believe that you are not responsible enough to speak your mind. “Be careful of what you say, someone might be offended, someone might feel threatened!” “Tone down the rhetoric, after all, things are not really as bad as you make them out to be.” “Let’s all try to work together.”

This, my friends, it the BIG lie. Things are in fact worse than we make then out to be. The time for cooperation is past. Now is the time for resistance, for state nullification, for political upheaval, for throwing the bums out, for restoring liberty, not to the country, but to our state, and to our own county.

A few days ago, John Boehner, the weak-willed, cry-baby, Republican Speaker of the House was unable to name a single federal program that he thought should be cut. Would it be too much for the audible cry of “IDIOT” to be heard resounding from sea to shining sea? I think not. We must not allow ourselves to be muzzled now, for if we do we will find ourselves in short order, disarmed, disenfranchised, and in chains. Do not be quiet Americans, and do not rest. Shout out all the louder for the civil and economic rights, for smaller government, for lower taxes, and for Liberty.

Louis William Rose is a political philosopher and parliamentarian for the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida. You can email him at louisrose [at] yahoo.com.

On Saturday, January 15 at the Ramada Celebration Resort & Conference Center in Kissimmee, FL, members of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida and other interested parties will gather for the biennial RLCFL Convention. The day will begin with meetings and reports from leadership around the state, culminating in the Annual Meeting and election of new officers. Once all of the work is finished, the Gala will occur at 7pm.

In addition to electing new leadership for the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida, delegates will also hear from Republican State Senate President Mike Haridopolos. Senate President Haridopolos announced in November that he would live up to his promise to push TABOR in the 2011 session. He said he will explain the TABOR idea as he envisions it, discuss his strategy for implementing it in 2011, its prospects in the current political environment and how the RLC can help make it happen.

To register for the convention, click here. To become a candidate for a seat on the RLCFL state board, click here. See you in Orlando!

The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) works from within the Republican Party to return the party to its Jeffersonian roots. The RLC seeks to restore liberty, not restrict it; shrink government, not expand it; reduce taxes, not raise them; abolish programs, not create them; promote the freedom and independence of citizens, not the interference of government in their lives; and observe the limited, enumerated powers of the United States Constitution.

Senator Haridopolos (pictured) first addressed the RLC at our 2006 National Convention in Orlando, Florida.

Several county Republican organizations have either co-sponsored or sent out e-mails promoting appearances in their communities by former New Mexico Governor and Republican Liberty Caucus Advisory Board member Gary E. Johnson. Johnson, a lifelong Republican, recently remarked that the party had always treated him well and he had no reason — if he ran for future political office — to run as something other than a Republican.

Republican Party organizations in Brevard County, Florida and Jefferson County, Alabama are promoting Republican Liberty Caucus-sponsored forums with the courageous former Governor:

At the Brevard County Republican Party website, the county party previews Governor Johnson’s upcoming appearance: “BREC is joining with the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida and the Florida Campaign for Liberty to host a meet and greet for former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson on Friday, November 19, 6:30 – 8 PM, at the Duran Golf Club. RPOF Vice Chair and Party Chairman candidate Debbie Cox-Roush will also be speaking. The event is free of charge, so please join us. There will be a private policy briefing and photo opportunity with the governor following the reception at a cost of $100.”

In Alabama, the Jefferson County Republican Party — home of Birmingham — sent an e-mail blast promoting the upcoming event with the Governor sponsored by the Alabama RLC and the Samford University Republicans. Their message was addressed to “Members, Elected Officials, clubs, friends, and interested individuals.”

This is exactly the purpose of the RLC: to spread the liberty message to local Republican Party clubs. Congratulations to the Alabama and Central East Florida RLC affiliates for their efforts!

In an event co-sponsored by the Samford University Republicans and the Republican Liberty Caucus of Alabama, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson will be speaking at Samford University on Wednesday, November 17. The university is located in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham. Learn more about the event.

Additionally, Governor Johnson will address the Republican Liberty Caucus of Central East Florida (Melbourne/Brevard) at a location to be determined on Friday, November 19 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. You can RSVP to the event on Facebook.

A successful small businessman, triathlete, marathon runner and mountain climber, Governor Johnson is a Tea Party favorite and a likely 2012 Republican presidential candidate. He currently serves as the Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative. He is also an Advisory Board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus.

Please join liberty advocates in Alabama and Florida at these events. Please also consider making a monthly pledge to the Republican Liberty Caucus.

The 2012 election cycle will be one of the most important in our country’s history and the Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida is sure to have a profound impact. Join us at our biennial convention to learn more about our organization and how you can play a role in taking the Republican Party back to it’s core values of individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise.

Save the date! The 2011 Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida Convention will occur on Saturday, January 15, from 1:30pm to 9pm in Orlando. Location and guest speakers are still being confirmed. The day will begin with meetings and reports from leadership around the state, culminating in the Annual Meeting and election of new officers. Once all of the work is finished we will celebrate at the Gala which begins at 7pm.

When: January 15th, 2011; 1:00 – 9:00 pm
Contact: Matt Nye, (321) 626-9791; treasurer@rlcfl.org
REGISTER TODAY!

In addition to attending the Florida RLC Convention, we hope you’ll consider attending the RLC National Convention in Arlington, Virginia on February 12.

There’s a question that’s been on my mind a lot lately.

In the midst of a stirring debate over whether individual members of the Republican Liberty Caucus should support the Republican Party candidate Marco Rubio or the Libertarian Party candidate Alex Snitker, there’s been a lot of tossing about the idea of “principles.”  In particular, the pro-Snitker camp has done a good amount of saying that any vote for Rubio is a vote for “party over principles,” whereas they say that a vote for Snitker is “putting principles first” and “the only principled vote.”  Obviously, this leads to the conclusion that by extension they are saying that anyone supporting Rubio is unprincipled.

Wait a minute.  What do they mean by “principled,” though?  According to a dictionary, principles are “a personal or specific basis of conduct or management.”  Doing something on principle – such as voting “on principle” – would be doing so “according to personal rules for right conduct.”

The use of the term “personal” suggests that it would be up to an individual to determine his own code of conduct or management.  So it’s hard to declare that one broad definition could fit everyone, especially in an organization that values individual rights (and thus an individual’s right to hold to his own set of principles).

For the pro-Snitker camp, they believe that a candidate must hold to a strict set of guidelines – a litmus test of policies that must be adhered to almost to the letter.  It doesn’t matter how many of these issues or policies are considered important by the majority of voters, or even whether voters might reject a candidate for them; or, even, if no particular candidate has those strict values.  The candidate must adhere to them, or they will not support them.  There is no middle ground.  You are for their specific ideals, or you are against them.  If you are for them, you should be supported fully, as the “principled” vote.  If you are against them, then you should not be voted for, and as you do not match their personal basis of conduct or management, you are “not principled.”

For the pro-Rubio camp, there are a variety of reasons to vote for him.  One is that he is a Republican candidate, the man who succeeded in the primaries as the best option.  As members of the Republican Liberty Caucus, which is dedicated to working through the Republican Party, this makes him the more correct choice for them.  Another reason is that he is good enough (or better than good enough) on the issues they feel are most important.  And in some cases, he might not be ideal, but they see him as being a much better option than the other likely winning candidates, and he can be a shift toward their ideals much more than any of the other possibilities would be.

All of these are their own personal basis of conduct or management.  In other words, their principles.  So for these individuals to choose to support Marco Rubio, they are making a principled choice.

Similarly, for other individuals to choose to support Alex Snitker, they are also making a principled choice.

With that said, I would hope that no one continues to make suggestions that any vote that does not match their own is not a vote being made based on principles.  To claim that because someone is not supporting your guy, that it means they are not acting based on principles, is a very offensive comment, and simply isn’t true in the slightest.

The issue of which candidate to support based on matters of caucus procedure, strategy, and such may still be open for debate.  But as long as each individual believes that their support is the right move to get closer to their ideal goal in the liberty movement, there should be no debate that each of them, whether for Rubio or Snitker, is making a principled decision, and will be casting a principled vote.

The Republican Liberty Caucus has a specific mission, which is to restore liberty and Constitutional values in American politics through electing members of the Republican Party who have those values and ideals.  For twenty years this mission has been gaining momentum, and can be seen picking up serious steam in the 2010 elections around the country.

Achieving the mission occurs through a very simple strategy that involves two core concepts:

1. Work within the Republican Party.
2. Make sure that the best candidate gets the party nomination in the primary.

The first step seems to be hard for some people to swallow, as it means narrowing your focus somewhat.  To be most effective, RLC activists are encouraged to join their county’s Republican executive committee (REC).  The REC is where Republican strategy is made and the agenda is set.  It determines who the party will support, what ideas it will back, and generally how the local party is run.  Obviously, this has tremendous strategic value for a caucus that tasks itself with reforming the party from the inside out.

Being a member of your REC isn’t enough by itself, however.  You also have to be willing to work with the local party members and have at the very least a working relationship with them.  To that end, all conflict and strife should be avoided if necessary, as it creates barriers and can lead to negative publicity.  If a situation arises, it’s best for the RLC member(s) to back away from it and make it known that they aren’t interesting in any kind of trouble.

It’s also useful to help with campaigns of candidates (preferably ones you find enjoyable), or to do some other work to help the party on the local level (i.e. making phone calls, knocking on doors, helping organize a voter registration drive, etc.).  There are a number of things you can do to actively help the party without sacrificing your principles.

One of the issues that faces some members is how much they can support candidates outside of the Republican Party.  This becomes a particularly sticky situation when you have a party loyalty oath like that used by the Republican Party of Florida.  Typically, RLC members openly supporting non-Republican candidates against Republicans can cause friction with their relations within the party.  The RPOF loyalty oath actually states that those who sign it are forbidden from openly supporting any candidate running against a Republican in a partisan election, except in a primary.  It’s worth noting that in order to join any of Florida’s RECs, you must sign the loyalty oath.  This is no small matter; signing your name to a document is regarded by most as putting your honor on the line, and to go against an oath you signed your name to can create some serious issues.  If you’re not comfortable with such a restriction, you should probably see about working from outside of your local REC if they have one in place.

In order to prevent RLC members from feeling the urge to vote against the Republican candidate, the RLC needs to win primary elections, getting the liberty candidate into the general election.  Once they are pressed through, the party is typically forced to support them.  Mike Yost is a solid example where a good primary push got a great liberty candidate into the general election, where he has earned the support of many of the Republican Party’s biggest names in his bid to win the Congressional District 3 race in Florida.  Unfortunately, if the primary run fails, the opposing candidate will get the party’s support, and any further actions against them will incur some hard feelings within the party.

It is not the general election where the RLC needs to focus most of its efforts, but rather these primary elections.  In the 10-18 months leading up to a primary election, RLC members need to identify good liberty minded candidates quickly within the Republican Party, and then support them as much as possible, putting all time, effort, and even money into that candidate to get them through the primary.  In many regions this push will give a large boost that could see the candidate win and make it through to the general election.  Once they’re in the general election, the Republican Party will take over, donating far more resources than the RLC could muster for the race.

The RLC has a good strategy, a winning strategy.  Work within the party, and push liberty candidates in the primary elections.  If RLC members can do these things – avoiding strife, breaking oaths, or being sucked into the concept they can “wait” to support a candidate until after the primary – then liberty candidates will win more races in the Republican Party across the nation, bringing the Republican Liberty Caucus’s strategy one step closer to success.

And with that success will come a new age of liberty and Constitutional values in America.