LPNC Political Director talks NC with Larry

Dee Watson, LPNC's very own Political Director, NC candidate, activist, mom, and Liberty warrior, sat down with Libertarian Renaissance man Larry Sharpe to talk all things North Carolina politics. The discussion covered education; police reform; Pastor Moses, Joshua Rohrer, and Gastonia; NC Liberty developments and what's next; and a lot more. Take a few minutes to listen to this insightful, funny, considerate, and passionate conversation between two of the staunchest mainstays at the vanguard of the Liberty movement.

Watch the full discussion here.

It's time we make election day count

by Rob Yates, November 2022
LPNC Communications Director

Wake up and panic, everyone, if you haven’t voted! Remember that this (like every election before it, and very election after it) is the *most important election in our lifetime*!

It would be comical if it wasn’t so consequential, watching the two parties paint the stakes as successively higher each year, should the horrible event come to pass where the other party wins, that is. Then we rinse, wash, and repeat, and wait for the next election cycle when we are told that, no, forget last time, this is the most important election of our lifetime, and if the other party wins, our democracy will crumble, fascists (or is it communists, I can’t keep track anymore) will take over the country, and everyone who isn’t a disabled trans person of color will be forced to sacrifice their children and then go work in a gulag (or is it the straight, rich, white men who are safe this time? Again, it’s so hard to keep track).

With all the hyperbole around each election, the constant bombardment of crisis pimping from the perpetual news cycle, and the rhetoric increasingly nasty from a populace that is more polarized every minute, it can be hard to find a reason to go vote. In fact, there is an argument to be made that the act of voting is supporting a system that is rigged against anyone not on team red or team blue, and voting is a tacit endorsement of that system. When that system represents a massive, twisted game where the players are politicians and special interests with bottomless pockets, and the rest of us are the collateral damage, it’s easy to understand why one would want to do everything possible to not support that system.

Despite this, I am here to implore you, please, go vote, and vote Libertarian! All we have is our grassroots drive, fighting for each inch, to take back the power from the politicians, and voting is the quickest way to advance this cause.

The game is so rigged it isn’t even cute anymore

Over the last few months I got into a bit of a Twitter back-and-forth with Kyle Parrish, a useful idiot running for NC’s 5th as a house candidate. I’m not one to shy away from some verbal sparring, but I don’t look for it either; I went after Kyle because, unprovoked, he was spouting off really disgusting things about Libertarians in general, and attacking David Coatney, Libertarian NC House candidate, over some manufactured nonsense (not fit to reprint here, this newsletter is far too classy for his drivel).

David is well-equipped to handle himself, to be clear, but this unprovoked nastiness demanded attention, and many members of the LPNC joined in over subsequent weeks. For my part, I tried to be respectful (mostly), and consistently challenged his points, even asking him repeatedly if he would debate me. Eventually, after ignoring, deflecting, hiding, and cowering, he blocked me, and that saga ended (for the moment).

I am writing this to convince you to vote, though, not to repeat some silly story about a Twitter fight. I mention it because Kyle has about as much of a chance of winning his race as I do, and I live in Mecklenburg and am not on the ballot. Nevertheless, he attacks anyone not on Team Democrat, viciously, repeatedly. He spews vile and hate-filled rhetoric, mostly against Republicans, but with a healthy dose of anti-Libertarianism in there, and then occasionally asks why the country isn’t more united, and says "only Democrats" can bring us back together.

Again, none of this should come as a surprise to anyone reading this. The only thing the two sides of the uniparty seem adept at is spitting venom at anyone on the other team. Even within the party, Kamala cackled like a stoned hyena when Colbert asked her about disparaging remarks she made about the man for whom she would eventually work as Vice President. Her excuse, “it was a debate,” is a perfect example of how the political game is designed for the players to go all-in to win, only to win, and to win at all costs. This is not unique to either major party, and it is not going to change as long as the prize is more power to hoard.

Kyle learned that he was a pawn in a game here (right at the 10-minute mark), and it is almost enough to make me feel bad for him. As a worthless candidate with no chance of winning, the party for whom he parrots and champions has done essentially nothing to support him, a fact he laments a bit, not realizing how damning his self-pity is as it speaks to the broken system as a whole.

They would never spend any money or resources on someone who can't win for them. It's about winning, none of the leaders of the other two parties care about principles. This is what we're up against. This is why doing nothing is not an option.

Libertarians can make a difference in a way we never have before

Recently, we received some of the greatest news of 2022 – North Carolina became the second state in the U.S. to pass 50,000 registered Libertarians! Trailing only California and its massive population, we are at the vanguard of the Liberty movement. Our message is the right one, and it is spreading

Of course, this is not something that happened overnight. Rather, it is the diligent work of dedicated LPNC volunteers who have pushed us this far for years. And it is immense progress since 2008, when North Carolinians regained the ability register as Libertarian.

I readily acknowledge that this game is rigged. I understand your hesitation to vote, and your concerns that you are throwing a vote away or even validating this broken system that crushes people in its own relentless power hoarding. But sitting back and doing nothing guarantees the outcome.

Instead, have some hope, and a little faith, that our message, the right message, will win more hearts and minds, and we will grow organically, regaining the power that was taken from us. One way to help do that is to vote Libertarian.

Voting matters. It matters for ballot access, it matters to uniparty candidates who think we are spoiling their elections, it matters for making Liberty issues prominent on voters' minds, and it matters to cement our position as serious participants in this conversation that has been hijacked by partisan self-interest.

So go vote. Then come join us for an election party, or come to a protest against State tyrant over-reach, or just donate $5 a month if that’s what you can do (if every registered Libertarian donated $5 monthly, we would bring in $2.5 million annually, which is still not even a hundredth of uniparty spend in NC in 2020, but we could do a lot with it). Then, keep voting, and keep showing up. Find a place to volunteer. Recruit someone else. And vote again. We will win if we don’t give up.

To quote WakeLP Chair Travis Groo, "…it’s a gold rush. Vote gold!"

Davidson College Hosts U.S. Senate Libertarian and Green Candidates

-Rob Yates, LPNC Communications Director

For those of you who watched Cheri Beasley "debate" Ted Budd, on Friday, October 7, we want you to know, we at the LPNC feel your pain. A series of progressively ridiculous question dodges with empty platitudes and party-line talking points serving as filler, if nothing else this event was standard fare in the farcical world that has become our political discourse. Both sides, of course, claim “victory,” in the most unfortunately accurate reflection of the hollow mess we have made buying into the enmity-driven drivel of our politicians.

Fortunately, there is a rational alternative to team red and team blue, where serious people have principle-based solutions to actual problems on which reasonable people can disagree and remain friends. On September 15, Shannon Bray, Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate, sat down with Matthew Hoh, Green Party candidate, for a debate moderated by WRAL radio host Pete Kaliner. The two met on Pete's Charlotte show to continue the discussion the next day.

The first event was hosted at Davidson College. The room, set in old brick with modern finishings, set the perfect backdrop for a discussion of current problems with people who understand the history and importance of the position they seek, with meaningful answers produced on a foundation of research, understanding, and humanity, as opposed to rubber-stamped and fully vetted gobbledygook that the other two regurgitated last Friday.

Kaliner went through seven topics, ranging from the economy and environment to foreign affairs and education, with a series of questions underlying each. After a short break, there was a Q&A session for audience members to raise questions important to them, the citizens and residents of North Carolina. While Kaliner kept the event moving, the structure was loose and the discussion friendly, with a significant focus on areas of agreement between Bray and Hoh, such as decriminalization of cannabis and non-interventionist military policies.

They ended the evening discussing the polarization in the country, commenting on social media and modern politics and what they are doing to drive us further apart. They both expressed hope and optimism for where the country is going, and they proved it by sitting down next to each other, despite each one espousing apolitical philosophy that, at its core, is diametrically opposed to the other's

On his show the next day, Kaliner took both candidates to task much more aggressively, pushing back on answers about abortion, economics, and the electoral college, and not allowing them to get off the hook with incomplete conclusions or baseless assumptions. Nevertheless, the events were both friendly and positive, and proved conclusively that the narrative “we must hate each other” is an utter and dangerous falsehood.

Constantly faced with voting choices billed as the lesser of two evils, with the common refrain from the average voter, "voting third party is a waste of my vote,"; it can certainly seem like the only option is to dig ourselves more deeply into the hole we have created, more bitterness, anger, and polarization as the engine. Instead, I submit that, if you don’t like the way things are, then stop voting for it. The only wasted vote is one for a party-groomed and donor-approved member of team red or team blue.

First, stay tuned, as we will be providing you so much more through this newsletter and all the exciting things the LPNC has planned, and we are confident we can change your mind. And second, if you can’t vote for Shannon, vote for Matthew. Anything is better than a vote for the uniparty duopoly that we pretend is a representative democracy. And check out the debates; both candidates made the case for themselves, and then heartily endorsed the other as a second option.

Dignity and decency in politics isn’t dead, it’s just suffocating under layers of fallout painted red and blue as the two major parties try to turn us against each other to secure your vote. It’s time we chose better.