The mission of the Libertarian Party should be to unite voters who want more personal liberty and more economic liberty behind the electoral choices that will most move public policy in a libertarian direction.
We need an LP that is ecumenical towards all the major schools of libertarianism. We need an LP that has enough faith in markets and competition to believe that any step toward increased individual choice and responsibility will only build the empirical case for more such steps. We need an LP that has enough intellectual self-confidence and faith in the marketplace of ideas to believe that libertarianism is not a flickering candle that can be extinguished by a stray breath from the impure, but rather is an intellectual bonfire that will set a blaze in the hearts of anyone who wants more liberty, and will suck the oxygen from anyone who wants less.
In principle, a Party should focus on the exercises of franchise whose effectiveness is magnified when the franchisees act in concert rather than through competing organizations. In practice, a Party should focus on the political activities that other types of organizations are hindered from doing. Together, principle and practice point to a few core activities that Parties are best suited for, like:
- putting candidates on the ballot — even in races that the party can't win
- getting voters to vote for or against a particular candidate — even ones that can't win
- organizing and disciplining elected officials to maximize their effectiveness for the party's cause
Some other political activities are not harmed by possible competition among liberty-promoting organizations, but can't be done by all of them for legal reasons, such as:
- endorsing and supporting candidates (regardless of party) and ballot measures
- lobbying elected officials about particular legislative proposals
- educating the public about particular legislative proposals
- gathering signatures for ballot measures or otherwise supporting them
Still other political activities are positively aided by competition among liberty-promoting organizations, many of which are more optimized for such activities due to their exemption from legal restrictions on parties. Examples:
- educating voters about the general merits of various legislative approaches and political principles
- educating policy-makers about the above
- educating journalists, students, academics, etc.
- advocating that people build alternative institutions to government
- actually building alternative institutions to government
This doesn't mean that a party should never engage in education. Rather, it means that parties should specialize in the kinds of education that are best done by parties, along with the other activities above that are best done by parties.