First piece in the series:
The people have asked and I am happy to answer, what is the plan for the Mises Caucus in Ohio?
First, I do need to answer some background questions:
What is the plan of the overall Mises Caucus?
The MC has a three plank plan: Win local elections, build issue coalitions, and grow the party.
Winning local elections: The MC does not put resources into races larger than county unless it is for ballot access, or has some unique shot at publicity. Sure, president and governor are a long shot, but state senators? Not only is it expensive and near unwinnable, but no one even knows who their state senator is, and it doesn’t spread the message. Politics is local, local elections are winnable, and local politicians can do a lot to change things.
Build issue coalitions: This means partnering with groups where they are good. This can be with other organizations, ballot initiatives, or plain old lobbying. There aren’t a ton of libertarian activists, but partnering with other groups lets us multiply our reach. Local lobbying is especially effective since local politicians aren’t that political, and we can provide them with sample legislation to pass things they already believe in but had never taken initiative on, like weed decrim, or gun rights sanctuary cities. (Read more about this here:
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Growing the party: It means exactly what it sounds like: more funding, more volunteers, more votes, etc. The party should be energetic, active, effective, and a group that is fun to be a part of.
Next, I need to explain a bit about how the Mises Caucus works:
The Mises Caucus has a national group, and then state affiliates. Similar to the LP itself, the state affiliates are fairly independent and are sometimes at odds (like the NHMC and TXMC fighting over tweets and messaging weekly, though there are some more extreme examples). We have internal communication channels across the country, and support others when needed through training, advice, tech, and so on. We have an internal contact list built from referrals (largely from podcasters and other liberty influencers) and leverage that to find volunteers and activists.
While our different affiliates have a lot in common, we are also not a monolith, and do not require members to vote a specific way. Just look at the recent Josh Smith vs Eric Raudsef flare up if you want an example. Sometimes disagreements are worked out and resolved, sometimes different states just do things totally differently.
In Ohio, those three planks are the main plan. The biggest one we have been pushing for is growing the party. We have started quite a few of the county affiliates, have been pushing people to sign up for membership, and so on.
One of my biggest projects has been co-hosting socials with various county affiliates with our contact list of mostly people new to the movement, allowing for them to have a good turnout. Nothing is worse than a new person showing up to a social to find it empty and never coming back. We have co-hosted almost 3 socials every month last year in various parts of the state, and plan to increase that. Sometimes people in nearby counties visit, figure out they are from the same county, and have gone on to form their county affiliate.
We have also been trying to fill in holes in the Ohio infrastructure. The few remaining active state level volunteers are each doing far too much, and if you are juggling too many balls, they eventually drop them and burnout is soon to follow. I am not going to go into too much LPO drama, but when we started coming in, people were resigning en masse. Mises Caucus volunteers stepped up to fill in holes and take more minor roles to lift some of the burden.
It doesn’t make sense to have a new person come in and take over a chair position. It does make sense to have a new person be an at large, or a member of a committee so they can take some work off the plate of an overworked chair.
Speaking specifically to ex comm and cent comm, the LPO MC does have some plans going forward:
The biggest cent comm plan is some kind of reform or abolishment of the system (which I personally think is toxic and does far more harm than good). Otherwise, helping fill in vacancies and running people to contest members whose removal will (hopefully) reduce the drama involved.
For ex comm? I have no idea. It is too far in the future, and I don’t have people to fill the roles that need filled. Chris only became the secretary to save our new people from burnout, Dustin always takes on too much work, and now we are trying to reform the field division. I am not planning on removing people or orchestrating a crazy takeover. I am planning on adding enough people where needed so that the great volunteers in Ohio like Helen, Jim, Michelle, Kryssi, Dustin, Kevin (and many more who I haven’t named and will write me angry letters) can go get shit done instead of running around putting out fires. Some of that is ex comm, some of that is divisions, some of that is directors, but all of that is helped by a fresh contact list of hundreds of hot leads who are energized to fight for liberty.
With that said, like any other person, caucus, or group in the party, we will have some preferences in who we think is a better candidate for a given role, and will probably endorse some people. Not sure who or for what, we still need to make a system for that. I am also happy to support the best person for the job, regardless of caucus, though if you pull a Will McVay and break the bylaws to kick us out of the party, we will run someone against you (though I think that is fairly obvious).
For the other planks, they are in progress. I have some sample legislation for Ohio, and am working on training resources for people interested in speaking at their local city council. We were involved in 1 anti-mandate protest in Trumbull county and have supported some more stuff against mask mandates in schools. Obviously, we have also worked with AFP a bit, and if you have a cause and group that needs volunteers, please hit us up!
What about local candidates? We pushed those running last time around to our volunteers, and one of our organizers lost a close city council race where the incumbents pulled a bunch of nonsense to interfere with his campaign.
Messaging is also a big question, but Ohio has generally been really good, and the goal is increasing quantity. This also goes back to the state affiliates being different. I don’t agree with some of the messaging coming out of NH. The caucus nationally has also come down on them for being needlessly inflammatory a few times. However, I do agree with some of the stuff I have seen from Kentucky. Also, I don't actually have a Twitter and don’t see a lot of that side of things. But if you have any questions or suggestions, let me know!
There are some other reforms that I am pushing for as financial director, and other minutiae, but I wouldn’t call that caucus action, so won’t get into that.
What else? We pushed our members to apply for delegate spots for the national convention. Not sure how many applied or how early, but I expect a bigger percentage than in 2020. I am planning on voting for Angela McArdle for chair, but if someone had a good reason not to, I am open to hear it. Still have no idea what I will do for VC, hoping some more people enter the race, but I am debating a NOTA at this point. But that is my personal vote, not a caucus one.
We want the Libertarian party to be actually libertarian. To be big, functional, and well funded. To be effective and change the world. That is the goal for Ohio, to do what we can to move in that direction. I am not saying that the MC is always right or that we’re the only real libertarians. I am saying that we are sincere in wanting to achieve liberty. I think the LP is the best way to do that, and even if I am wrong, I honestly think that the strategy I have and choices I am taking are the right ones to reach that goal.
Also, I don’t always live up to this vision I have of what the Ohio LP should be. I send emails late, or don’t put in as many hours as I could (sorry Phil, the CRM data entry is still in progress). But I will pace myself to avoid burnout, and will do what I can to provide support to and improve this party. And right now? I think the Mises Caucus is exactly that the LP needs.
Third Piece in this Series: