This year’s presidential election demonstrated that the Republican Party has no interest in fighting for liberty. From the very beginning the Republican Party barred Gary Johnson from participating in the Republican Presidential Debates. During the presidential nomination process the Republican Party worked hard to prevent delegates for Ron Paul from making it to the Republican National Convention (RNC). At the RNC the Republican Party actually cheated to ensure Romney received the nomination even though there was no need for such shenanigans since Romney had a majority of delegates.
In what is likely a response to the liberty movement’s hijacking of the Minnesota Republican Party Ben Golnik is looking to reform the state party’s nomination process. His reason? Ron Paul delegates were able to use the current system to their advantage:
With the complicated process, a well-organized minority can defeat a poorly organized majority. At the Republican caucuses in February 2012, Ron Paul received about one-quarter of the votes cast. At the Republican state convention a few months later, Paul supporters represented more than half of the delegates. Bills, a teacher and first-term state representative, was selected by the ardent Paul supporters as the U.S. Senate candidate.
As Republicans look to run serious challengers to Dayton and U.S. Sen. Al Franken in 2014, strong candidates must be recruited — from both inside the existing structure and from outside. Prospective candidates should skip the endorsement process and run in a primary, rather than focusing solely on the endorsement process. Credible candidates must be able to demonstrate an ability to raise money and communicate a message to a broader audience than 2,000 Republican delegates.
The rules put into place by the Republican Party failed to prevent the liberty movement from interfering with the party’s statist agenda. Impromptu rule changes were successful at preventing liberty advocates form gaining too much influence in the nation Republican Party. Now the party bigwigs are looking to change the rules to ensure impromptu rule changes won’t be necessary during the next election. The establishment now recognizes the dangers of the delegate system. It allows a crafty and motivated group of individuals to gain influence. A straight primary system is harder to influence as the candidate with the most money and influence in the Republican Party has a much better chance of winning.
Once again I reiterate that advancing liberty through the political system is hopeless. Third parties are prevented from gaining influence and the two major parties have the exact same agenda: maintain the powerful federal state. Since the two major political parties control everything from federal campaign funds to presidential debates there is no hope for third parties to gain a foothold. Likewise since both major parties have the same agenda there is no hope in achieving liberty through either of them. Using the political system requires that the current establishment play by a consistent set of rules but the current establishment has demonstrated to willingness to change the rules whenever it suits them.